Reinforcing the notion of the car as an extension of the living room, Ford Motor Company raised the curtain on its second-generation of digital upgrades, which leans heavily toward voice-control and touch screens.

The new MyFord Touch powered by SYNC system displays information using two 4.2-inch full-color LCD screens and an 8-inch touch-screen LCD.  A five-way switch on each side of the steering wheel crossbar that conforms to what is typically found on most mobile phones and MP3 players to control the information displayed.

Conforming to familiar consumer “touch” patterns is seen as a safety move and also one that underscores a broader consumer electronics trend of standardized user interfaces.

Other features include two USB 2.0 ports, an SD Card slot and RCA A/V input jacks, Wi-Fi hotspot capability (for “park” mode), calendaring and contact database functions and a variety of voice-activated commands.  SYNC is powered by the Microsoft Windows Embedded Auto software platform and provides access to Pandora, Stitcher, Mapquest, Twitter and iTunes tagging.

MyFord Touch will launch on the 2011 Ford Edge followed by global availability on the 2012 Focus.  It will also be available  in MyLincoln and MyMercury configurations.  Ford says that by 2015, about 80 percent of its models will have the feature.