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Surprising Science —

Cars that Read Texts Aloud as you Drive

Ford is installing a feature in its new vehicles—and many of its older ones—that uses its voice-activated technology to read text messages out loud.
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What’s the Latest Development?

Ford is installing a feature in its new vehicles—and many of its older ones—that can read text messages out loud. Aimed at reducing texting while driving, the feature is part of Ford’s voice-activated technology, Sync, and already installed on all model 2012 Ford vehicles except the Ranger. Research shows that texting while driving increases the risk of a truck getting into an accident by more than 23 times.

What’s the Big Idea?

In an age when most car companies have a Bluetooth integration features, why isn’t text-to-voice already a standard option? One factor is that not many phones integrate with text-to-speech features like Ford’s. But the prediction is that soon it will catch on, just like a couple of years ago Bluetooth devices made hands-free cell use possible in cars but few phones supported it, but now it is standard.

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