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Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

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Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#91

Post by elzbardico »

genocidicbunny wrote: post #60
PaulWaldman wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Mazda is apparently taking the right approach here -- increasing the tactile buttons on the dash and console, and ditching touchscreens. Huh? After using both Ford's (2022 Explorer) and Mazda's (2022 CX-7) infotainment systems recently for several weeks, I couldn't disagree more. Android Auto and CarPlay interfaces were designed for touchscreen control. Mazda forcing the use of a wheel, like a joystick is a safety h…

> Turing the wheel unpredictably selects objects on the screen, forcing you to keep your eyes off the road while you keep turning the wheel until the item you need is selected. You shouldn't need to do anything requiring the wheel while you're driving though. All the controls that you would want to have accessible while you're driving are physical (climate control, basic media/phone controls.) For everything else you…

Usually me an my wife take turns driving. And we have a tacit agreement that the passenger control this kind of stuff. So, if I am driving, I ask my wife to set a destination on the GPS, play some music, change the temperature, and when she is driving I become the navigator/flight-engineer. Having those controls in the wheel would be incredibly annoying for us.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#92

Post by prepend »

> but also a stopgap as Ford resets its entire software strategy around Android in partnership with Google.

This doesn’t seem like a good idea because there are Android people and iOS people. Alienating a large swath of customers is not a good idea.

That and I don’t want Google monitoring all my car data. One of the big reasons I don’t have a Tesla is their data policy. But I’d rather Tesla have my data than Google because at least it won’t be linked to everything else about me.

Also, I want to drive cars for 10 or 20 years. Google has never maintained Android for that long.

I’d rather just have an embedded os written and maintained by ford (that doesn’t suck).

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#93

Post by twobitshifter »

With the performance of this and other EVs now beating the Raptor pickup, do you think we’ll start to see performance regulated for safety reasons? A massive pickup able to 0-60 in a few seconds is cool, but in the hands of the less responsible it sounds like a huge safety risk. We cap the performance of tiny scooters but multiton trucks are able to go as fast as humanly possible?

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#94

Post by vmarsy »

rmatt2000 wrote: post #46
andrewla wrote: post #14

Generally 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 used to own a Ford Fusion with an early version of Sync. The car itself was great. The Sync software by Microsoft, however, was not. One of the innumerable bugs was in the voice recognition system. No matter what song I requested, about half the time it played "Tiny Dancer" by Elton John. I was demonstrating this bug to a friend who asked "What happens when you request Tiny Dancer?" Sure enough, it played something…

For me, Sync only worked well to make phone calls ("Call Joe")

And during a brief period, I also had a windows phone, where you could say "Call Cortana". Cortana was registered as a fake contact behind the scenes, and all it would do is trigger the Cortana assistant through that phone call. You'd then tell Cortana what you wanted, and it had much better voice recognition and capabilities than Sync, so it did what you wanted 99% of the time. It was pretty cool.

Of course it was annoying and a waste of time as you had to always make that call first, but I'm glad the engineers on Cortana remembered that "all problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection"!

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#95

Post by russb »

foxyv wrote: post #72
tablespoon wrote: post #31

> ...the Mustang Mach-E and the Lightning have a 15.5-inch portrait center screen running Sync 4A, which is the same as Sync 4 with the addition of touchscreen climate controls and widgets that fill out the vertical height of the display. Why??? Climate controls should not be on a touchscreen. Display is fine, but control is not. Just leave space for some knobs and a mode switch.

I don't know about the F150 Lightning, but the Fords I've seen all use a HOTAS style setup where the climate, radio, etc... are all controlled by buttons on the steering wheel. The touchscreen is more for passengers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOTAS

"HOTAS, an acronym of hands on throttle-and-stick"

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#96

Post by akira2501 »

Rooster61 wrote: post #7

It'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.

> Why is UX so horrifically bad in the vehicle space?

It used to be that vehicle radio units were entirely replaceable. There was a relatively healthy aftermarket, and quite a few shops that would actually do the installations for you. There used to be a lot more competition here, but I think with the general increase in quality of speaker systems combined with smart phones and the much higher level of system integration through the head unit effectively killed it.

Hence.. you get what you buy. In a sense, the manufacturer has a monopoly on your dash that they didn't traditionally have.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#97

Post by davidw »

pkulak wrote: post #73
LeoPanthera wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "thin blue line" flag is used almost exclusively by the far-right, and more specifically by white supremacists. The flag on the Lightning isn't that flag, but it does resemble it.

Oh interesting. Just looked it up, and the thin blue line flag is black and white. Don't think I've ever seen a black and white American flag before.

I'm not up on all the details, but those grayed out flags do seem to have some particular associations. Nothing wrong with a regular old flag IMO.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#98

Post by treeman79 »

twblalock wrote: post #86
PaulWaldman wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Mazda is apparently taking the right approach here -- increasing the tactile buttons on the dash and console, and ditching touchscreens. Huh? After using both Ford's (2022 Explorer) and Mazda's (2022 CX-7) infotainment systems recently for several weeks, I couldn't disagree more. Android Auto and CarPlay interfaces were designed for touchscreen control. Mazda forcing the use of a wheel, like a joystick is a safety h…

> What good is tactile feedback when you have no idea what you're adjusting without staring at the screen? This is what people don't understand about touchscreen vs dial-based UIs. One is not safer than the other if they both require you to take your eyes off the road and look at a screen! If car makers want to have a button control a feature, then they should simply make a button that controls that feature. Cars wor…

I can operate basically anything by touch in the car other than the touchscreen.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#99

Post by bearcobra »

andrewla wrote: post #14

Generally 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 think Ford is on the right track of having a large touch screen with an actual physical dial that just acts as a kind of stylus. The ability for the screen to dynamically adapt to different use cases is huge, but in an automotive context having tactile feedback is also so important. If they could add a couple more of the dials that could be used for climate controls or radio stations and then some buttons that users could set up as shortcuts more people would be happy.

Re: Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

#100

Post by davidw »

twobitshifter wrote: post #93

With the performance of this and other EVs now beating the Raptor pickup, do you think we’ll start to see performance regulated for safety reasons? A massive pickup able to 0-60 in a few seconds is cool, but in the hands of the less responsible it sounds like a huge safety risk. We cap the performance of tiny scooters but multiton trucks are able to go as fast as humanly possible?

Massive, heavy trucks with a blind spot, the ability to accelerate very rapidly, and a fiddly screen that you need to use even for the most basic of things like heating and cooling.

What could possibly go wrong...

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