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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

#171

Post by sojournerc »

7952 wrote: post #45
bowsamic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire auto industry is driven by hype and trends rather than functionality

Yes. Just look at the appalling forward blind spot on a lot of trucks and SUVs. Or the way cars have become taller at the expense of aerodynamics.

That blind spot houses a curtain airbag that has significantly increased safety in crashes. Engineering is managing tradeoffs. Safety is now a mandatory standard. We can have small a-pillars at the expense of safety.

As with any blind spot, one just has to move their head...

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

#172

Post by Aloha »

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've rented a bunch of cars, pretty much everything with a jog-dial type setup, sucks - just plain sucks, too much visual interaction is required for me to operate while driving.

Ford and older GM products both has severe issues with lag, the Audi I rented seemed okay, but was maximally unintuitive, the Volvo I rented took me 15 min to figure out how to turn the radio off, the Mazda was pretty good, but again, jog-dial-bad.

The only one I found that I actually liked was the Chrysler/Mopar UConnect, it was intuitive, easy to use, and performed about as well as one would expect any infotainment system to - its the only one I found easy to use too. It was one of the driving factors when I bought a new car, I bought a Chrysler 300S with it for that reason.

I even like the inbuilt nav, even if I only use it on long trips for city to city driving because frankly, entering address data is hard.

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

#173

Post by obmelvin »

twblalock wrote: post #124
vel0city wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The idea with the touchscreen controls is that the driver shouldn't really be using the touchscreen at all while driving except as a quick reference to the map. You're not supposed to be using the screen to adjust your media while driving, there's steering wheel and voice controls. You're not supposed to be adjusting the climate controls while moving, auto climate should just handle it. Why would I want to be distrac…

I doubt that was actually the intention, and even if it was, we all know that's not how people actually use their cars.

At least with Mazda, yes, the intention was to make driving safer. And just because some people make poor choices, doesn't mean manufactures should encourage poor choices.

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

#174

Post by cmrdporcupine »

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?

My Volt does 0-60 in about 7 seconds or so in sport mode but even better @ 0-30 and it feels so ridiculously torquey and instant to me and I can't even imagine needing anything beyond that ever. All the jockeying about 0-60 in 3 seconds or whatever on various Tesla machines just makes me shake my head. I really fear what that means in a large massive vehicle.

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

#175

Post by throwaway0a5e »

sojournerc wrote: post #171
7952 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Just look at the appalling forward blind spot on a lot of trucks and SUVs. Or the way cars have become taller at the expense of aerodynamics.

That blind spot houses a curtain airbag that has significantly increased safety in crashes. Engineering is managing tradeoffs. Safety is now a mandatory standard. We can have small a-pillars at the expense of safety. As with any blind spot, one just has to move their head...

Side curtain airbags are probably a bigger plus to the safety of reasonable people who are wearing seat-belts and not crashing into shit head on at high speed than frontal airbags since the latter is just the last stage of a bunch of tech whereas side curtain is doing most of the heavy lifting in its direction.

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

#176

Post by colatkinson »

namecheapTA wrote: post #107
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?

Atleast when a Dodge Charger is charging up from behind, I can hear the thing. Pedestrians can hear the thing. When the demographic that currently commits most reckless driving eventually adopts electric cars, it's going to be a blood bath.

Way back when EVs/hybrids were first hitting the market, I remember some chatter about basically adding an external speaker to play fake engine noises. Not perfect, but it might help a bit.

I've personally encountered a decent number of Tesla/e-bike drivers who have... nonstandard views on what a stop sign means, and the fact that the vehicles are silent is always a bit disconcerting.

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

#177

Post by Dig1t »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #170

FWIW Ford was hiring around this area (southern Ontario) for software engineers to work on their in-car systems like this. Not sure if this specific one. From what I've heard they were woefully underpaying. A friend of mine talked to them -- very qualified; like me he worked on similar touchscreen, interactive display type systems at Google/Nest, and had a general background on similar systems, and on QNX, etc. They…

I completely agree with your conclusion, this is why I feel that European tech companies can't compete with US ones at all. They just refuse to pay enough to attract the best engineers.

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

#178

Post by cmrdporcupine »

natch wrote: post #162
rootusrootus wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And doesn't support basic functionality like CarPlay or Android Auto, which is supported by almost every other manufacturer even on their base model cheap cars.

And other cars don't support Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Twitch, and arcade games while in Park, which are great when waiting for something, as well as Spotify, TuneIn, etc., so I guess we're even? I'd rather have a bunch of competing services rather than just a generic UI from one vendor that's always pushing service upgrade packages like Apple One. I suspect CarPlay and Android Auto come with strings attached from Appl…

Nonsense. Android Auto (and likely CarPlay as well) is just a video player. They just take H.265 frames and feed it to the head unit, and feed user feedback back to the phone. Audio stack is I believe somehow piggybacked off Bluetooth, but I could be wrong. As far as I know no software from Google runs on the head unit itself.

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

#179

Post by vel0city »

bombela wrote: post #163
kortilla wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every car I've owned for over 20 years has been able to keep its climate consistent and comfortable without the need for me to make adjustments for months on end This doesn’t work when sometimes the sun is shining and sometimes it isn’t.

I think this is a very valid point. The car cannot detect that you are receiving sun rays through the windows. Making you feel much hotter than the ambiant air. Sometimes you need to adjust the vent to blow in your face more directly, or set the climate control to cool the air further to offset the inconvenience.

> The car cannot detect that you are receiving sun rays through the windows.

I wouldn't get a car that doesn't have some kind of low emissivity tinting on it. Also, all my cars with screens could detect how intense the sun is overall. It can easily adjust.

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

#180

Post by dabeeeenster »

sojournerc wrote: post #171
7952 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Just look at the appalling forward blind spot on a lot of trucks and SUVs. Or the way cars have become taller at the expense of aerodynamics.

That blind spot houses a curtain airbag that has significantly increased safety in crashes. Engineering is managing tradeoffs. Safety is now a mandatory standard. We can have small a-pillars at the expense of safety. As with any blind spot, one just has to move their head...

Safety for drivers but not for pedestrians or cyclists.
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