Ford is planning to open its Sync in-car computing platform to third party app developers, the automaker tells FastCompany.com.

The idea is still nascent and there is no hard-and-fast timeline for release, says Prasad Venkatesh, who leads Vehicle Design & Infotainment at Ford. Just how drivers would use in-car apps is still being researched as well. (Below, a present-day Sync system in a Ford Mustang.)

"The way we're developing the toolkit, you could sit in the comfort of your home and plan a roadtrip," he says. Using a smartphone or computer, you'd then add points of interest or other plans. "At the click of a button, the cloud would make all that available to you in the car, and it would broadcast it to your social networking groups." Future Ford vehicles may include mobile broadband, he says; current Sync systems pair with a driver's mobile phone to download updates.

This sounds amazing. Not much info has been released about the system, but we're probably not far from having APIs that hook into all of a car's systems, allowing users to download apps that run all sorts of diagnostics, send reminders, and generally gather data about your car's performance and usage that can be managed in all sorts of ways. Brave new world.