Skip to main content

Ford partners with What3words to offer precise navigation

Ford has joined forces with geocoding start-up What3words to offer its drivers in North America and Europe with more precise navigation. What3words, a global addressing system, divides the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigns each a three-word address made up dictionary words. Ford says its drivers will be able to enter destinations by voice or text for any location, including destinations without an address. Ford drivers will be able to connect the company’s SYNC 3 infotainment plat
February 27, 2019 Read time: 2 mins
278 Ford has joined forces with geocoding start-up What3words to offer its drivers in North America and Europe with more precise navigation.


What3words, a global addressing system, divides the world into a grid of 3m x 3m squares and assigns each a three-word address made up dictionary words.

Ford says its drivers will be able to enter destinations by voice or text for any location, including destinations without an address.  

Ford drivers will be able to connect the company’s SYNC 3 infotainment platform with the Whats3words app, available on iOS and Android devices. They can then input a three word address to navigate to a precise 3m x 3m square.

Don Butler, executive director, connected vehicle platform and product, at Ford, says the solution can be used by commercial vehicle drivers working from a mobile office and those driving for leisure.

What3words is available for Ford drivers in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Spain, the US and Mexico. More locations are expected to follow later this year.

Related Content

  • January 25, 2012
    Mixed results for public-private traffic management partnerships
    David Crawford looks at the somewhat patchy success to date of trying to involve the private sector in operating traffic management centres
  • January 19, 2012
    ITS industry needs more effort to get to the future
    Eric Sampson, visiting professor at Newcastle University and City University London and ambassador for ITS-UK, provides a retrospective on the last couple of decades and takes a look at what the ITS industry still needs to do to get to where it needs to be
  • June 7, 2017
    Kapsch offers EETS–compliant Tolling Services
    Kapsch’s Bernd Eberstaller explains how the company’s new Tolling Services will help expand the number and capabilities of EETS services providers. By 2017, the European Electronic Tolling Service (EETS) should have been in operation for several years but it still remains some way away and with several significant hurdles still to be addressed. The concept behind EETS is simple enough: road users should be able to drive across Europe using only a single transponder to pay for all tolls, with the account-han
  • March 14, 2012
    Pilot scheme tests automatic emergency call system
    Development of the European eCall system is now at a stage of national systems testing. Ertico’s project manager for the HeERO pilot scheme Andy Rooke has given ITS International the lowdown on progress towards pan-European eCall services. Live testing is now under way in the nine countries participating in the European Commission’s HeERO project – a three year pilot scheme preparing the way for full deployment of Europe’s eCall automatic emergency call system.