Ken Whipple, senior quality assurance engineer at Bsquare, tests the voice-recognition technology in Ford's Sync system. (Credit: Bsquare)

After starting with the personal computer, and expanding to the mobile phone, the Seattle region’s technology industry is making its mark inside another piece of hardware: the car.

The trend is most striking in the new version of Ford’s Sync in-car entertainment and information system, unveiled Jan. 7 at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Sync uses technology from companies including Microsoft, Seattle-based Airbiquity, Kirkland-based Inrix and Bellevue-based Bsquare.

The situation puts these companies in the driver’s seat — or at least within reach of it — at a time when in-car technology is transforming the way people interact with their vehicles. It also expands the potential market for local technology companies and creates ties to an industry not normally associated with the Seattle region.

“There is an emergence of automotive-centric technology companies in the Northwest,” said Carey Butler, vice president of professional engineering services at Bsquare Corp. “It’s really quite amazing when you look at the Ford product specifically.”

In-car “infotainment” systems, as they’re known, let drivers control their phones and other devices using voice commands or buttons on the steering wheels. Advanced features include access to information such as traffic and driving directions.

Ford’s latest Sync system, with an interface dubbed “MyFord Touch,” will add a screen in the dashboard and work with mobile phone applications — for example, by reading aloud the latest posts from the people the driver follows on Twitter.

[Related Post: Demo: Twitter, Pandora in a Ford]

Ford CEO Alan Mulally, the former Boeing Commercial Airplanes chief, has credited the Sync system with boosting demand for his company’s vehicles, particularly among tech-savvy car buyers.

People in the industry say the Seattle region is in a position to capitalize on the trend based on its roots in software and wireless networks, going back to the early days of such companies as Microsoft and McCaw Cellular.

“Seattle is known for creative software people,” said Leo McCloskey, vice president of marketing and product management at Airbiquity Inc., “You take mobile people, and the expertise that they have, and the software people, and you put them together, and some interesting things can happen.” Airbiquity works with automakers — including Ford, General Motors and BMW — and specializes in the infrastructure for delivering data wirelessly to the car, using traditional cellular voice networks. It also works on design and integration of in-car systems.

Microsoft’s automotive business has been a catalyst for other tech companies in the region — introducing Ford to Bsquare, for example. Bsquare and others working on the Sync system say the experience has led to inquiries from other automakers, as well.

Employment levels so far are modest compared with other technology sectors. Bsquare, for example, says it employs 150 people who work on automotive technologies, including hardware, software and systems integration. That’s slightly less than half the company’s worldwide employment base of 310 people.

However, even in the midst of the auto industry’s problems, analysts say demand for the technology is growing rapidly.

The North American market for basic systems that integrate and control mobile devices inside cars is estimated to be $2.8 billion this year, according to the iSuppli research firm of El Segundo, Calif. That doesn’t include aftermarket systems, and it’s up from the firm’s estimate of $1.5 billion for North America two years ago.

The reason is that the systems are becoming more and more common in all sorts of cars, not just high-end vehicles, said Phil Magney, vice president of iSuppli’s automotive practice. It’s the rare vehicle that won’t have such a system available at least as an option, and increasingly they’re becoming standard.

“The total available market for this stuff is nearly as many vehicles as are sold in North America annually,” Magney said.

Kia, for example, last week unveiled a hands-free system called UVO, running on Microsoft’s automotive technology. It’s scheduled to debut this summer in the 2011 Kia Sorento. Among other features, it provides 1 gigabyte of storage to let people import songs from CDs and store them inside their cars.

Apart from hands-free media control, traffic and information are becoming big parts of the in-car experience.

Kirkland-based Inrix, which supplies traffic information to a variety of companies, is expected to benefit from Ford’s decision to make traffic and navigation features standard in the next generation of Sync across all cars. Inrix collects licensing fees from Ford based on the number of vehicles in which its technology is deployed, and previously those features were limited to versions of Sync in higher-end vehicles.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, General Motors’ OnStar division showed a new mobile-phone application that will give drivers remote access to the upcoming Chevy Volt electric car by sending a signal to lock the vehicle even if they aren’t in the vicinity, for example.

Seattle tech companies have made more inroads with Ford than with GM, but in an interview at CES, OnStar President Walt Dorfstatter didn’t rule out the possibility of working with Microsoft and additional technology companies on future OnStar features.