Analysis of Vehicle GPS and Derived Speed Data from Ford SYNC Generation 3, Version 2 Systems Acquired with Berla iVe

Data acquired from vehicle infotainment systems has continued its growth as key evidence in vehicle-related investigations. The accident reconstruction community continues to actively pursue digital data from vehicles to be used alongside traditional forms of physical and electronic evidence. Some of the vehicle infotainment systems that have provided valuable evidence for several years are now being updated by their manufacturers. One such system is the Ford SYNC Generation 3 (SG3) system. In 2019, Ford began installing an updated version of this system that included changes to the SYNC module. The new system, referred to as SYNC Generation 3, version 2 (SG3v2) is outwardly identical to the original SG3 system until the module is physically removed from the vehicle. Ford has released the new module globally and it has been observed in North America, Australia, the United Kingdom, and several European countries. Testing of instrumented Ford vehicles manufactured with the SG3v2 system was conducted in and around the Bruntingthorpe Proving Grounds in the United Kingdom. The test vehicles were instrumented with a Racelogic Video VBOX Pro. Data from the instrumentation were compared to the data acquired from the vehicle systems using the iVe Ecosystem from Berla Corporation. The accuracy of the derived speed values reported in iVe and Global Positioning System (GPS) locations recorded by the vehicles were analyzed on drives through several environments and in inclement weather.