When I was invited by Ford to visit its headquarters in Dearborn, Mich, last week and check out its new in-car operating system, I thought I knew what to expect.
Technology
Ford’s new 48-inch digital dashboard is a lot of Android for one car
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25239997/Lincoln_Digital_Experience_Full_Interior.jpg?ssl=1 "Ford’s new 48-inch digital dashboard is a lot of Android for one car")
It was going to be built on the Android Automotive operating system, so there would be native versions of Maps, Assistant, and other popular Google apps. It would look pretty slick, with graphics powered by Epic’s Unreal engine. And it would still support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, because Ford has said it won’t restrict access to the popular phone-mirroring services like its rival General Motors.
What else could there possibly be? A lot, apparently. Like a massive 48-inch curved display with crisp 4K graphics stretching the full length of the dash. This pillar-to-pillar panoramic display is the most eye-catching new feature to come to Ford’s vehicle lineup in a long time.
What else could there possibly be? A lot, apparently.
And it puts the automaker on the vanguard of a controversial trend in the auto world that I call “screen maximalism,” in which companies like Tesla, Cadillac, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW are cramming larger and larger screens into their cars, despite warnings from safety experts that larger screens can distract drivers and make driving more dangerous.
But for Ford, the screen is just window dressing. The real innovation is the personalization and modularity offered by Google’s native Android OS, as well as 5G wireless connectivity for over-the-air software updates. The car will recognize the driver and adjust the settings accordingly. And the interior displays can be configured to as much — or as little — information as desired. In that way, the company hopes to better compete with Tesla and other tech-forward car rivals.
“I think displays, in many ways, have been like windows into the inside of the car,” Doug Field, the former Apple and Tesla engineer who now runs Ford’s model e division, told me. “That was one of the things Steve [Jobs] taught us: the hardware should gradually become just a window into the world of software.”
It’s been almost three years since Ford announced it would be swapping its Blackberry QNX-powered version of Sync with one that runs on Google’s Android. The move would allow vehicle owners to experience popular Google apps natively on their cars’ infotainment system without mirroring their phones.
But it would also allow it to continue to offer an OS that was unique to Ford. Sync, the company’s factory-installed infotainment system, has been slowly adding functionality over the years and is now on its fourth generation. Still, the company promised that “millions” of Ford and Lincoln vehicles using the new operating system would hit the road by 2023.
That turned out to be an overly optimistic prediction. The switch took longer than expected, with Ford CEO Jim Farley telling us back in 2022 that the integration was running “months” behind schedule. Now, Ford says the system is ready to go, with the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus being the first to feature the new OS and panoramic display. Other models, including the first Ford-branded vehicle, will be announced later.
Ford says the system is ready to go, with the 2024 Lincoln Nautilus being the first to feature the new OS and panoramic display.
The new system won’t be branded as Sync, but Ford has no immediate plans to phase out its in-house operating system. But individual vehicle teams will have discretion about how much screen they want for their models. This suggests that the display layout in a Lincoln Nautilus won’t look the same as that in a Ford Bronco or an F-150 Lightning.
“We’ve really approached infotainment as a platform, and there will be a number of screen configurations that are built into that platform,” Alan Hall, director of technology communications at Ford, told me.
At first glance, the total acreage devoted to screens inside the Nautilus is a little overwhelming. Bringing up a map on the 11.1-inch central display and then casting that same map into the panoramic displays creates the odd effect of seeing two versions of the same map in two different places at the same time. Same for the music player. But Ford said everything will be customizable, with customers being able to choose how much or how little information they want to see inside their vehicle.
Ford organizes the panoramic screen into three sections. Moving from left to right there’s the Critical section, which sits behind the steering wheel and serves as the instrument cluster; Supportive, in the central position; and Glanceable, which sits in front of the passenger seat.
At first glance, the total acreage devoted to screens inside the Nautilus is a little overwhelming.
Critical information includes typical gauge cluster stuff, like speed, gear selection, and driver assist features. The Supportive section features navigation and directions. And the Glanceable section includes the music player, a clock, and a variety of other so-called “widgets” that can be swapped in and out, depending on the driver’s preferences. These include vehicle information, like graphics for tire pressure and fuel economy. The weather graphic includes little animations for clouds and rain.
Importantly, the panoramic display is not a touchscreen — nor is it actually one contiguous screen. It appeared to be at least two different screens fused together under one piece of curved glass.
All functions are controllable through the 11.1-inch center touchscreen. The panoramic display is positioned directly below the windshield, which Ford says will only require a slight downward glance by the driver to minimize distractions from driving.
Of course, minimizing distractions will be a challenge given how much real estate is being given over to screens. Research suggests that the shift toward touchscreen-based infotainment systems has accompanied a huge increase in driver distraction, with a AAA study concluding that drivers using touch screens were visually and mentally distracted for more than 40 seconds when completing tasks like programming navigation or sending a text message. Removing eyes from the road even for just two seconds doubles the risk for a crash.
Field argues that Ford is following a set of internal guidelines about what it will show drivers on each screen in order to prevent distractions, such as how much animation to allow on the panoramic screen. Ultimately the goal is to keep drivers from looking at their phones by giving them enough information and functionality in the infotainment screen.
“Ford is much more structured in how it thinks about safety than some of the newer companies that are really pushing the envelope on user interfaces,” Field said, “sometimes to the point where I have quite some arguments.”
Ford isn’t going as far as some of its rivals in embracing futuristic tech for its vehicles. The company made no mention of “generative AI,” “large-language models,” “augmented reality,” or “software defined vehicles” during its presentation — all of which were major themes to emerge from the 2024 CES consumer electronic show earlier this month.
But it wasn’t totally ignoring some of these trends. Ford said its next-gen Android-powered vehicles will offer a range of video streaming and gaming options. The product team demonstrated some of this during the event, including a racing game called Asphalt Nitro 2. Any Bluetooth-enabled video game controller can be linked to the car for easier play. Video streaming and gaming are features that will only be available when the vehicle is parked.
Web browsing will also be available while parked, initially through the Vivaldi browser and then later through Google Chrome. Video streaming apps like PBS Kids, YouTube, and Amazon Prime are also available for download through the Google Play store. And coming soon, Ford owners will be able to use a variety of video conferencing apps — only while parked, of course.
“Ford is much more structured and how it thinks about safety than some of the newer companies that are really pushing the envelope on user interfaces.”
Ford has said it has no plans to get rid of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. GM caused a stir last year when it said it would ditch the beloved phone-mirroring services for its future lineup of electric vehicles, arguing it curate a better experience for its customers with its own operating system (which also runs on Android).
Not only is Ford not doing the same, it’s leaning into phone-mirroring by making it easier and giving it more prominence. While using CarPlay, customers can project either Apple Maps or Google Maps onto the 48-inch panoramic screen for additional visibility. And Ford’s EVs will be able to link with CarPlay or Android Auto to exchange information like battery life or range estimations for better route planning.
“We’ve actually got like the best CarPlay implementation in our vehicles of anybody in the industry,” Field said. “So why would you try and cut that off from somebody who loves their Apple ecosystem?”
There was nothing official to announce about Apple’s next-generation version of CarPlay that is supposed to take over all the screens in your car. But this looked pretty close to what was promised.
As cars continue on their present trajectory of becoming giant computers on wheels, automakers have struggled with one of the main drivers of the trend: software. Laggy systems, software bugs, and unresponsive screens have become ubiquitous in the automotive world. Connectivity turns everything into a subscription. The transition to the digital age has been rocky at best.
Moreover, people are growing increasingly frustrated with the level of complexity needed to find basic controls. A recent JD Power survey found that overall satisfaction among car owners is down two points from a year ago and three points lower than in 2021. That’s the first time in the 28-year history of the study that the consumer research firm registered a consecutive year-over-year decline in owner satisfaction.
Automakers have struggled with one of the main drivers of the trend: software.
Ford’s product team cited this survey while presenting its new digital interface, arguing its new software will be easier and more user-friendly than other systems. But soon after, I was sitting in the driver’s seat of a Lincoln Nautilus watching a designer demonstrate how to direct climate control by tapping the touchscreen and moving the air current around with the tip of my finger. No physical knobs to adjust the vent, just the screen.
Ford isn’t the only company routing more controls through its screens. Tesla was the first to replace physical controls for functions like climate control and windshield wiper speed with digital interfaces. Other automakers have followed, leading some safety experts to decry what they see as the rapid extinction of physical controls.
Ford’s approach was to combine the teams responsible for physical and digital interfaces to reduce competition between designers, Field said. The company also analyzed anonymized data of how its customers interact with their screens, including how often they change settings to surface certain controls, to get a better sense of which controls they prefer to be physical versus digital.
“I think the way you execute a screen has a lot to do with whether people become really angry that you pulled a button off,” he said. “So it is a hard balance, because the returns you get from moving stuff to the screen aren’t always quite as apparent.”
He added, “Some of it also is a leap of faith that you will be on a journey with the customer. And help them learn over time, that hey, this is actually really cool.”
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A long time ago, in 2004, the Federal Communications Commission laid down a rule designed to prevent a monopoly: No one company could broadcast to more than 39 percent of all the TV households in the United States. But then Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025. Brendan Carr became FCC chairman and immediately kicked off a deregulatory initiative called “Delete, Delete, Delete,” in which Carr vowed to get rid of “every rule, regulation, or guidance document” that placed “unnecessary regulatory burdens” on companies. And within months, Nexstar, which already owned over 200 stations nationwide and had hit its ownership cap, announced that it had entered an agreement to purchase its rival, Tegna, for an estimated $6.2 billion — something that could only happen, however, if Carr agreed to change the FCC’s rules.
If you ask Nexstar why it’s pursuing a merger that would give it control of over 80 percent of the market, it’d point to Big Tech as the culprit. As advertisers take their money to Netflix, YouTube, and other digital streamers, linear television — the local television news, the broadcast affiliates, the basic cable networks — has suffered, forcing them to consolidate and shut down newsrooms. In that sense, Nexstar argued, the merger would help it compete for ad revenue with the streaming services, thereby building more robust local journalism. However, the merger’s opponents believe that this is a basic violation of antitrust laws and principles — not to mention the danger of letting one company have editorial control over the vast majority of America’s local television newsrooms.
But the second Trump administration handles regulatory hurdles a little differently than others, and companies have found that it’s faster to get what they want if they bypass the agencies and talk (read: suck up) to Trump directly. And when Nexstar did so publicly, it confirmed its opponents’ fears about political influence. Last September, in the fraught weeks after the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, Nexstar announced it would no longer broadcast Jimmy Kimmel Live! — a response to Carr’s claim that the FCC could revoke the broadcast licenses of TV stations that aired the comedian’s comments related to Kirk. It briefly led to ABC suspending Kimmel’s show, though ABC and Nexstar soon reversed their decision after a massive nationwide backlash and an ABC boycott.
However, Nexstar’s loyalty to Trump himself was not enough to win over his most powerful MAGA supporters. Newsmax, a cable news network with a deeply pro-Trump bent, and its CEO, longtime Trump donor and outside adviser Chris Ruddy, filed a lawsuit objecting to the merger, claiming that Nexstar’s anticompetitive behavior would force channels like his off the air with steeper carriage fees. He specifically accused Nexstar of jacking up the fees for stations to carry Newsmax, while offering its similar network, NewsNation, for much cheaper.
The Nexstar-Tegna MAGA makeover then took a more subtle turn. NewsNation hired the pro-Trump Fox News commentator Katie Pavlich and gave her her own primetime show. (The network had already hired a slew of former Fox journalists as well.) Around this time, a political group called Keep News Local began airing ads in DC that seemed to directly address Trump, praising him for having “defeated the fake news monopolies before through independent voices and local news” and claiming that the Nexstar-Tegna merger was “crucial for MAGA to survive.” (A little self-contradictory and mildly illogical, but it’s the kind of stuff that Trump likes to hear.) When I last spoke to Ruddy in February, I asked if he’d worried that the dark money going into Keep News Local would sway Trump, and he chose his words carefully: “I think at the end of the day, Trump makes up his own mind. I’m not sure he’s going to be influenced by an ad campaign.”
For months, no one could accurately predict if Trump would override Carr’s wishes and bless the deal, as he’s often done for other companies facing regulatory scrutiny. Trump’s Truth Social posts about the merger have been a good indicator of how precarious the merger has been and who’s been able to influence him at any given moment: Last November, he blasted the deal as an “EXPANSION OF THE FAKE NEWS NETWORKS,” but by February, he posted that the deal would “help knock out the Fake News because there will be more competition.”
Several current and former NewsNation employees told Status at the time that they feared that the parent company was steering NewsNation away from the centrist, “unbiased” reputation they’d long cultivated. “A lot of people within the network believe that the network has gone hard right to appeal to Trump and Brendan Carr,” one former employee told Status. Coincidentally, days before the deal was finalized, NewsNation began ramping up its explicitly pro-Trump content, tweeting a clip of CNN’s Kaitlan Collins being berated by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, along with the comment “Just going to leave this here.”
When Trump greenlit the merger in mid-March, but before the FCC’s three commissioners could vote on whether to waive the ownership cap, Nexstar and Tegna immediately announced a new complication: Tegna and Nexstar had already started merging. Tegna was no more and CEO Mike Steib had already sold $22.6 million of his company stock.
In response, eight state attorneys general and satellite TV operator DirectTV, which had already been planning to file separate federal antitrust suits against the merger, asked US District Judge Troy Nunley in Sacramento for an emergency restraining order that would prevent Nexstar from taking over Tegna’s assets. The order was granted on March 27th and on April 17, Nunley issued a formal injunction, ruling that Tegna must be operated as an independent financial entity, and Nexstar must take steps to ensure it remains separate from Tegna before further legal proceedings.
For now, Nunley has allowed the states and DirecTV to combine their cases, in which both argue that the merger was a clear violation of antitrust laws and would crush news competition.
Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats in Congress are furious at Carr. On March 30th, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) sent the chairman a joint letter admonishing him for allowing his staff to waive the regulations to let the merger pass, instead of having the full commission of political appointees — one from the Biden administration — vote on it. “Under these circumstances,” they wrote, “any subsequent vote risks being largely procedural rather than a genuine exercise of commission responsibility.” They also pointed out that their hasty approval without the commission’s approval would now complicate the merger financially: “In a transaction of this scale, where integration proceeds quickly and unwinding becomes impractical, delay in judicial review can insulate the decision from meaningful challenge.” Notably, though they share similar ideological views on the media and deregulation, Cruz and Carr have frequently clashed over how to achieve their objectives. Cruz previously slammed Carr as a “mafioso,” for instance, for the way he’d used the FCC to silence Kimmel.
But even if it’s legally paused, the journalistic merger’s fallout has started to hit local news. NPR’s David Folkenfirk reported on Tuesday that Tegna journalists had already started receiving orders to stop broadcasting content from major broadcasters like ABC, CBS, and NBC — media outlets being targeted by Carr — and instead begin airing content from Nexstar’s NewsNation.
- Brendan Carr’s views on using the FCC to punish major broadcasters was outlined pretty extensively in the chapter he authored in Project 2025, an initiative led by the conservative Heritage Foundation on how to reform the federal bureaucracy to be more favorable to the American right.
- Exactly how much is local television losing to digital? According to industry publication NewscastStudio, in an investor call defending the purchase, Nexstar chairman Perry Sook cited a market research study from Borrell Associates, which found that “digital advertising in local markets exceeds $100 billion, compared to just $25 billion for local linear television advertising, with nearly two-thirds of digital ad dollars flowing to five major technology companies.”
- If you want to see exactly how much Keep Local News was trying to suck up to Trump, the ads are archived here.
- The Vergecast has a long-running segment called “Brendan Carr is a dummy.”
- The LA Times reported on last week’s preliminary hearings in front of Nunley, and how lawyers for Nexstar, the states, and DirecTV plan to argue their case.
- The Desk has insights from Kirk Varner, a former TV newsroom director, on how the case could go.
- Andrew Liptak covered Nexstar’s previous acquisition sprees for The Verge in 2018.
- Adi Robertson walks through exactly how the Kimmel suspension was an attack on free speech.
- Brendan Carr keeps trying to convince people that he’s not threatening to suspend broadcast licenses for reporting on unfavorable things like the Iran war, reports Lauren Feiner.
- The Vergecast has a long-running segment called “Brendan Carr is a dummy.”
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A Chinese-built humanoid robot beat the human half-marathon world record in Beijing on Sunday, marking a breakthrough moment in a high-stakes global race for technological dominance.
A robot developed by Chinese smartphone maker Honor completed the 21-kilometer (13-mile) race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, beating the human record of about 57 minutes set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo last month.
The performance marked a dramatic improvement from last year’s inaugural event, when the top robot finished in more than 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Dozens of humanoid robots competed alongside about 12,000 human runners, navigating a parallel course to avoid collisions.
CHINA’S COMPACT HUMANOID ROBOT SHOWS OFF BALANCE AND FLIPS
A robot crosses the finish line in the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon held in the outskirts of Beijing on April 19, 2026. (Andy Wong/AP)
Nearly half of the robots ran using autonomous navigation, while others relied on remote control, organizers said.
Despite the breakthrough, the race still saw glitches, with some robots stumbling at the start or veering into barriers.
Engineers said the winning robot was designed to mimic elite athletes, featuring long legs of about 37 inches and advanced cooling systems to sustain performance.
US TARGETS CHINESE ROBOTS OVER SECURITY FEARS
“Looking ahead, some of these technologies might be transferred to other areas,” said Du Xiaodi, an engineer with the Honor team. “For example, structural reliability and liquid-cooling technology could be applied in future industrial scenarios.”
Team members celebrate next to the winning Honor Lightning humanoid robot during a medal ceremony after the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing, China, on April 19, 2026. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
Spectators reacted with a mix of amazement and unease at the machines’ rapid progress.
“It’s the first time robots have surpassed humans, and that’s something I never imagined,” Sun Zhigang, who attended the event with his son, told The Associated Press.
HUMANOID ROBOTS HIT MASS PRODUCTION IN CHINA
“The robots’ speed far exceeds that of humans,” spectator Wang Wen told the outlet. “This may signal the arrival of sort of a new era.”
A robot starts alongside human runners at the Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Half Marathon on the outskirts of Beijing on April 19, 2026. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
Experts say the race highlights China’s accelerating push to dominate robotics and artificial intelligence, even as widespread commercial use of humanoid robots remains limited, according to Reuters. The experts said Chinese robotics firms are still working to develop the AI software needed for humanoids to match the efficiency of human factory workers.
Runners take pictures of a humanoid robot during the second Beijing E-Town Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in Beijing on April 19, 2026. (Haruna Furuhashi/Pool Photo via AP)
“The future will definitely be an AI era,” engineering student Chu Tianqi told Reuters. “If people don’t know how to use AI now … they will definitely become obsolete.”
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The competition underscores a broader technological race between China and the United States, as Beijing invests heavily in advanced robotics as part of its long-term economic strategy.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
According to Nikkei Asia, even as suppliers ramp up DRAM production, manufacturers are only expected to meet 60 percent of demand by the end of 2027. SK Group chairman has even said that shortages could last until 2030.
The world’s largest memory makers — Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron — are all working to add new fabrication capacity, but almost none of it will be online until at least 2027, if not 2028. SK opened a fab in Cheongju in February, but that is the only increase in production among the three for 2026.
Nikkei says that production would need to increase by 12 percent a year in 2026 and 2027 to meet demand. But according to Counterpoint Research, an increase of only 7.5 percent is planned.
The new facilities will primarily focus on producing high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is used in AI data centers. With the companies already prioritizing HBM over general-purpose DRAM used in computers and phones, it’s not clear how much these new fabs will help alleviate the price crunch facing consumer electronics. Everything from phones and laptops, to VR headsets and gaming handhelds have seen price increases due to the RAM shortage.
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