> Ford’s entire suite of driver-assistance tech is called “BlueCruise,” which is deeply confusing because it means that everything from boring old cruise control to full-on hands-free driving is technically “BlueCruise.” This seems far less confusing than the Autopilot and FSD bifurcation that Tesla has. It beeps at you to get your hands on the wheel when you're trying to autosteer in places it's not allowed. Sounds…
Do you think it would be more or less confusing if Autopilot and FSD were both called them same name?
Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
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Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#12It's incredibly frustrating to me that buying a vehicle with a pushbutton, working, reliable interface is becoming increasingly impossible to do. Why is UX so horrifically bad in the vehicle space? Is it poor management decisions or a shortage of good UX engineers? I get that lumping everything into the touchscreen can be a cheaper option to build, but I'd GLADLY pay for a different option. I don't understand it.
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#13They strapped on an Android tablet and called it a day. From my experience (ex-mobile game dev, Medical SaaS), Android tablets are very slow. We encourage our customers to not buy Android tablets because the patient experience is not the greatest.
Current versions of the Ford infotainment platform are based on QNX, actually. The article mentions that Ford is switching to Android, but that hasn't happened yet.
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#14Mazda is apparently taking the right approach here -- increasing the tactile buttons on the dash and console, and ditching touchscreens.
Really, cars should just have a built-in phone mount and connectors, and just let the phone do pretty much everything. If Ford wants to have a map of charging stations, partner with Apple or Google (or Waze) or build their own OSM-based maps app. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are okay-ish, but frankly I find the experience of just having the phone on a mount and using that as the display to be far superior in almost every way.
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#15Does it do CarPlay/Android Auto? If that's the case, I honestly don't really care how fast it is - I have an older EV with Sync3 and it's fine (more than fine, I just use my smartphone for most interactions using CarPlay). The only thing I may dislike is not having physical buttons/dials for climate.
this is addressed in the article. You can just Cmd/Ctrl+F for the word CarPlay for an answer. There’s a quick action button to navigate back home on the map widget, but it just opens the map app full-screen, defeating the purpose of the widget entirely. I’d love to have CarPlay open to handle my phone and messaging alongside the radio, but that’s not possible, even though the display is clearly big enough to show bot…
I saw that phrase in the story and came here to comment and saw this thread.
I think we should be honest with ourselves about recent history: Apple and Google will be quicker to roll out functionality for EV specific navigation (i.e. chargers) in their apps then car manufacturers will be to fix their UI problems.
Edit: I also dont want to spend $xxx a year on map updates from manufacturers when Apple Maps are free (I understand I’m not the customer with Google even if their mapping product is great) and better
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#16It's incredibly frustrating to me that buying a vehicle with a pushbutton, working, reliable interface is becoming increasingly impossible to do. Why is UX so horrifically bad in the vehicle space? Is it poor management decisions or a shortage of good UX engineers? I get that lumping everything into the touchscreen can be a cheaper option to build, but I'd GLADLY pay for a different option. I don't understand it.
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#17Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#18Generally speaking the horrifying quality of Ford's electronics have been enough to keep me away from even considering purchasing one. Absolutely nothing works right and certainly nothing works well. It may or may not be able to connect bluetooth, it may or may not acknowledge a USB device, it may or may not start blaring whatever FM station was last tuned in for no reason on startup, or start playing the first album…
I agree the phone should do everything. The equivalent of an old aux cord (maybe via BT) would be enough.
My Kia does have CarPlay, which is very nice for maps and audio, but that’s all I really use. It still has all kinds of issues. My wife plugs in her phone (cable) and it takes over, then suddenly mine wins it back, she flicks some stuff on her screen to get it back again. Pretty messy in all cars I’ve used.
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Current versions of the Ford infotainment platform are based on QNX, actually. The article mentions that Ford is switching to Android, but that hasn't happened yet.
Why is Ford switching away from a RTOS with a great history in the automotive space to try to force me to have something to do with Google?
Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer
#20Generally speaking the horrifying quality of Ford's electronics have been enough to keep me away from even considering purchasing one. Absolutely nothing works right and certainly nothing works well. It may or may not be able to connect bluetooth, it may or may not acknowledge a USB device, it may or may not start blaring whatever FM station was last tuned in for no reason on startup, or start playing the first album…