Ford’s new Digital Experience brings Android and Apple into balance

I'm seeing double as I cruise down the highway in a 2024 Lincoln Nautilus, a hybrid-powered SUV under Ford's luxury brand. I have Apple Maps running on the center touchscreen, projecting from my iPhone via Apple CarPlay. I'm also seeing the same map mirrored right above, taking up about a quarter of a massive display that spans the length of the dashboard.

That screen is the 48-inch Panoramic Display, which runs on Android Automotive OS, Google's native vehicle platform (not to be confused with the phone projecting Android Auto). It merges what's actually two pieces of curved glass in a mesmerizing and cinematic fashion, combining the instrument cluster with infotainment and some widgets. In the Nautilus, the whole system is called the "Lincoln Digital Experience."

But like most modern cars, former physical controls are being sucked into the digital world of the screen. To adjust airflow, I have to do the thing that many drivers dread doing: switching out of CarPlay navigation to the car's native interface. But to my delight, as the Lincoln's onscreen draggable digital airflow adjustment controls take over the 11.1-inch central display, Apple Maps continues to run on the Panoramic Display above.

I start to get it. Most cars take an either-or approach with native-vs-projected operating systems. A few vehicles, like the Polestar 2, can also project Apple Maps to its instrument cluster screen. But the Lincoln's larger, uncrowded pano display elevates the experience to the next level.

Some automakers today are in a tug of war with Apple and Google because drivers are in love with their phones and prefer to use their mobile device's interface over the car's factory offering. Some manufacturers have made the controversial decision to either discontinue phone projection (GM) or never add it in the first place (Rivian and Tesla). But Ford is staking out a different position: it thinks it can do both.

And to the company's credit, I think it works. Ford is embracing customer choice, and the new Nautilus provides what I think is the best balance of phone mirroring and built-in software that we've seen yet.

Three years in the making