Ford's premieres Sync Connect, an app that lets you remotely start your car

Smartphones are ubiquitous, vehicles are ubiquitous. It only makes sense that the two should live in harmony!

Ford has unveiled a new app called Sync Connect that will allow users to pair their smartphones to their vehicles. Using your phone, you can unlock the doors or start the engine, but it does a lot more than that. Modern vehicles have a lot more digital features going on than their analog predecessors. That means that important information such as your oil condition or fuel and battery levels are tracked via your vehicle’s computer.

With Sync Connect, this information is in the palm of your hand, giving you up to the second data on exactly how your vehicle is fairing. GPS integration means you never have to hunt for your ride in a crowded parking lot again – although Google Now has made that less of a problem than ever before.

Ford is showcasing this ability with the Ford Escape, which is their second-highest selling vehicle model behind the Ford F-150. Ford is something of an icon of mass production, so you know that when Ford adopts a feature, it’s probably going to be mainstream sometime in the near future.

For a while now, we’ve been able to unlock our vehicles with proximity sensitive dongles and other keyless functions, but what if all that technology were integrated with our smartphones? If Ford is any indication, this could be the reality we can look forward to.