With all the glitz of the Ford Territory’s launch now past us now, it’s time to get to work. With no potential commercial interest that could cloud our verdict (after all, we treat car reviews as sacred), we’ll have our honest and semi-brutal review real soon. Before that though, we’d like to share one Easter Egg we found buried in the Territory’s infotainment system.
To be clear, the Territory doesn’t use the proprietary Ford SYNC system. Instead, the 10.25-inch touch-based infotainment system initially used iFlytek before switching to Tencent Auto Intelligent (TAI). The quadrant-based layout is snappy, filled with high-res graphics, and thankfully absent of any Chinglish. It also comes with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto—an added bonus because most Chinese market offerings swap the banned-by-the-firewall Android Auto for Baidu Carlife. Having said that, using it is a pain in the ass, but more on that in our upcoming review.
Going back to the topic at hand, the Easter Egg we found buried in the “Tools” menu is Ford Pass.
For the uninitiated, Ford Pass gives a connected car experience allowing owners to control their vehicle using their smartphone. Among the things it can do include remote lock/unlock, remote start, heck it can even give vehicle status updates.
Now, the presence of Ford Pass could simply be a product of developing one single user interface for the global version of the Territory; after all, Brazil, another market for the Territory, already offers Ford Pass. Of course, that didn’t stop us from asking Ford Philippines regarding Ford Pass.
Their reply?
“We are looking at an opportunity to bring Ford Pass to the Philippines in the future.”
Right now, it’s still too early to determine what sort of timeframe Ford Philippines has in mind to roll out Ford Pass, regardless it’s good to know that when they do, the Territory’s infotainment is somewhat future-proof in that regard despite it not coming with the SYNC infotainment system. It is worth mentioning that Mitsubishi already uses a similar app for its Montero Sport 4x4 GT.
Source: Car Guides PH
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