When Microsoft and Ford first partnered to bring SYNC technology to new cars, the idea of having an Internet-connected car was still pretty out there. Mobile broadband hadn’t started to take off, smartphones were still largely relegated to early adopters or business users, and the number of Internet-connected gadgets wasn’t anywhere close to what it is now. Now, the only real problem is finding a way to get an Internet connection to all of your different devices.

That’s going to change next year when Ford introduces the second generation of SYNC in-car connectivity systems. The new SYNC systems will let users turn their into car into one big Wi-Fi hot spot. Users can plug their own USB mobile broadband card into SYNC’s USB port and create a wireless network for everyone in the car to use.

Bring Your Own Broadband

The SYNC Wi-Fi system isn’t the first solution we’ve seen this year that promises to make your car mobile in more ways than one; the LTE Connected Car concept that we wrote about in November proposes something similar. However, the big difference with Ford’s SYNC Wi-Fi system is that it doesn’t require an additional subscription or additional hardware.

The capability will be standard on select SYNC-equipped vehicles (so this isn’t a dealer-installed add-on) and you can use it with your existing broadband USB modem. That’s an idea we can get behind, because it doesn’t couple the car to any specific broadband provider. Depending on where you live or who is in the car with you, not being tied to any specific provider is pretty cool.

Check out this video of the system in action:

As for security, Ford says that the default security is set to WPA2. Additionally, the driver has to specifically allow a device to connect the first time it is recognized by the SYNC. That should potentially cut down on any war-driving for SYNC cars tomfoolery.

Personally, I love the idea of being able to turn my car into a hot spot. It would certainly make long trips that much nicer — all Internet-connected appliances could connect without having to either use a laptop or trying to jerry-rig a 3G cell phone.

What do you think? Would the ability to create your own Wi-Fi hot spot be an incentive when purchasing a new car? Let us know!

Tags: cars, ford, ford sync, microsoft sync, sync, wifi

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