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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

#201

Post by jonnybgood »

bonestamp2 wrote: post #26
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.

A lot of automakers are chasing Tesla's one screen design -- they're so envious of the cost savings there. Except the Germans, they're still putting in lots of buttons and knobs -- my next car will likely be German because they seem to understand what people actually want.

Have you not seen the interior of a Porsche Taycan? German makes are definitely moving in the same direction because it actually is what people want. They just move slower.

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

#202

Post by ghostpepper »

PaulWaldman wrote: post #50
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…

>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…

Mazda provides physical buttons for 90% of the controls you need on a daily basis but there's no realistic way to use apple carplay without looking at a screen. Were you expecting mazda to have a "Search for a song" dedicated button on the steering wheel?

In my view Mazda's modern interface is almost as safe as you can get while still having modern features that require a touchscreen. I only wish there was a button to physically turn the entire screen off when driving at night (you can do this but it's buried in a menu).

In my 2020 CX5, the screen is actually a touchscreen as well, but it only works at low speeds which may be safer but is not very convenient when a passenger wants to control it at speed.

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

#203

Post by sleepydog »

Dig1t wrote: post #177
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.

Are there any professions in European countries that are paid as well as US tech workers, for similar levels of skill and/or education?

Moreover, if EU tech companies are not willing to pay the best software/hardware engineers what they're worth, where do they all go? Not everyone wants to live in the US or work remotely.

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

#204

Post by zip1234 »

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.

The Mach E climate controls on the touchscreen are fine. With modern cars, mostly just set it to the temp you like and leave it. It isn't like old cars where constant fiddling with fan and temp to get everything correct is needed.

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

#205

Post by ghostpepper »

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…

Mazda still provides a lot of those buttons that other manufacturers don't - for things like HVAC/Music - let alone basic features like windshield wipers and gear shift which should never have gone behind a touchscreen IMHO (cough Tesla cough)

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

#206

Post by jakewins »

megablast wrote: post #186
Dig1t wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What a strange comment. Ford is a us tech company. Most people in Europe don’t want to leave.

I’ve spent the last decade working with very good EU engineers. If I wrote a list of the top 50 people I’ve come across in EU, I would estimate 45 of them now work remote for US companies or have moved to the US.

Anecdotal, but at least that’s my experience.

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

#207

Post by aaronmdjones »

ggm wrote: post #109

What is the balance of experience between touch, aural/tactile/visua push response on screens, and actual physical buttons which go "click" and light up? I think the place we know most about this, is the Aircraft space. I am interested because I used to live in 'press it go click' world and now live half-blessed by a car with some controls which are real and a lot of controls which are soft, and I have to say I don't…

Older aircraft have the Flight Engineer position, which is the 3rd or 4th person in the Flight Deck. Modern aircraft do not need flight engineers because of the improvements we've been able to make to aircraft reliability, longevity, and ease of use; but at the time, they were worth their weight in gold and absolutely essential for any flight.

Current-generation Boeing aircraft have what's called a "moonlit" configuration, which are switches with lights in them. When the lights are white, everything is okay. When they're yellow or red, something is wrong. When the lights are off, that system is off. Very easy UX.

EDIT: Photo of the 787 Dreamliner overhead panel showing almost everything in yellow. https://media.wired.com/photos/5b33588d9a7504731f8815f5/mast...

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

#208

Post by GoOnThenDoTell »

qbrass wrote: post #59
bonestamp2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of automakers are chasing Tesla's one screen design -- they're so envious of the cost savings there. Except the Germans, they're still putting in lots of buttons and knobs -- my next car will likely be German because they seem to understand what people actually want.

Hope it's not a new Golf. VW did more damage to their reputation with that interior than from Dieselgate.

What happened to thr interior?

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

#209

Post by genewitch »

NobodyNada wrote: post #85
rmatt2000 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I bought a Focus with Sync 1 last year, and it was infuriating. The most infuriating part was that every time the car starts it defaulted to aux in mode, and there’s no button on the panel to switch to Bluetooth — if I wanted to listen to music from my phone, it took about 8 or 9 button presses to navigate through three levels of nested menus to get to the “media source” option. Every time I got in the car. I finally…

what year was Sync 1? My 2013 f-150 has sync, i think, no touchscreen or anything, and for bluetooth i do have to push the "talk to car" button on the steering wheel and wait 3 seconds for it to talk to me, then say "bluetooth audio". But i use siriusXM or USB 99% of the time anyhow.

There is a bug in my version though, sometimes it resets to Aux, which is funny, because if you have a USB stick in it, you cannot switch to aux without unplugging it - yet if it bugs out to aux, you can just switch back to usb by saying "USB".

I'm just glad i don't have a touchscreen. I'm not looking forward to a future car purchase where i don't have a choice.

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

#210

Post by parineum »

SiempreViernes wrote: post #82
johnklos wrote: post #17

Android? So now our cars will stop working and/or will become hopelessly insecure when Google and Ford decide to stop updating them?

Wait, there exists mass market cars with secure software?

There isn't and that's because it didn't used to be a big deal. But now, everything has a modem in it. Cars are now part of the IoT with all the security that implies.
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