Emergency assistance upgrade for Focus ST

Ford is offering its ’emergency assistance’ system on the Focus ST, as well as the new Kuga, which recently went on sale.

Importantly, the 704 customers who have already taken delivery of their Focus ST hatch since it went on sale in October 2012 will be able to have ’emergency assistance’ activated on their vehicles – at no cost.

The activation process takes around 30 minutes. Ford is notifying owners via mail to organise with their local dealer for a suitable time to carry out the activation. As part of this action, a replacement SYNC owner’s manual, which includes the emergency assistance operation, will be installed in the vehicle’s owner’s manual.

After the successful launch of emergency assistance in the all-new Ford Kuga, Ford Australia engineers have spent several months testing the system in the Focus ST across the east coast of Australia.

“We’re really excited to announce that we’ve been able to make it available to our Focus ST customers earlier than we anticipated says Brad Brownell, vice president marketing, sales and service.

“This technology is already proven in other markets and it will provide important peace of mind for our customers.”

A vehicle-based, no-cost, non-subscription call-for-help system, emergency assistance is already available in more than five million Ford vehicles globally.

The emergency assistance system is built on the SYNC connectivity platform, Ford’s customer-focused connectivity technology.

If a vehicle equipped with the activated system has been involved in an accident where the airbags have been deployed or the emergency fuel pump shut-off has been activated, the system will use an in-range paired mobile phone to deliver a critical voice message to emergency services operators, indicating that a vehicle has been involved in an accident and will open the line for hands-free communication.

SYNC is Ford’s voice-activated hands-free-in-car communications and entertainment system for mobile phones and digital media players that allows the driver to make and receive calls and play music from digital devices.

Australia was the first country in the Ford Asia Pacific region to announce emergency assistance.

“It is our goal to provide a smart in-car experience for our customers and have Ford take the lead in pursuing this new era of in-car connectivity in Australia,” says Brownell.