Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

theverge.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 570 posts

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

#211

Post by alephxyz »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #134
lotsofpulp wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People like sitting higher up, or do not like being seated lower, or so much lower, than others. It might also be safer to be in a higher up car in the event of a collision. Pretty much all the families I know with young kids and toddlers has a full size SUV. Every time I ask why they did not get a minivan such as Odyssey or Sienna, every response is they like SUVs and do not want to sit lower in the minivan. Even th…

> People like sitting higher up, or do not like being seated lower, or so much lower, than others. Most of my driving is on country roads in a mountainous area, with some very tight turns. I'm going to rent out an SUV soon and see what it's like taking sharp turns with a high vehicle. I suspect it sucks but who knows.

It sucks and it's more vulnerable to rollovers : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIN8CyhYREM

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

#212

Post by GoOnThenDoTell »

ajross wrote: post #144
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.

Have you driven a Tesla much? The general UX intent is that you're not supposed to need to interact with the screen while driving. Wipers are automatic, lights are automatic (both can be pulsed with the stalks of course). Virtually everything responds to voice commands ("Play Stairway to Heaven", "Navigate to Albertsons", "Set temperature to 72", etc...). All this stuff works really well. I won't engage with "what pe…

Voice control is terrible, I have to use a fake accent to get it to do anything, and even then its often flaky

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

#213

Post by genewitch »

bearcobra wrote: post #99
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 user…

2016 ford escape has both manual clicky buttons and dials for the radio and the HVAC, but also completely navigable by taking your eyes off the road and attempting to tap a touchscreen that isn't calibrated for use by someone off to the f'n side of the display.

it's one of the dozen or so reasons i rarely drive my spouse's car.

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

#214

Post by jbay808 »

jonnybgood wrote: post #194
megablast wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ford is not a tech company. > Most people in Europe don’t want to leave. I believe they're saying if European tech companies want to compete in business with US tech companies they need to pay their engineers more money.

> Ford is not a tech company.

By what standard?

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

#215

Post by rascul »

vel0city wrote: post #108
twblalock wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

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…

> You're not supposed to be adjusting the climate controls while moving, auto climate should just handle it. Why would I want to be distracted by needing to change the climate controls? I shouldn't have to adjust them while the vehicle is in motion.

That auto climate thing does not work well for me. I end up messing with it so much because it can't keep me comfortable. The old style where I set it at some level between hot and cold and some fan level from 1 to 5 or whatever and it just does what I tell it works perfectly. Plus I can adjust it if I have to without looking at it.

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

#216

Post by speed_spread »

jonnybgood wrote: post #194
megablast wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Ford is not a tech company. > Most people in Europe don’t want to leave. I believe they're saying if European tech companies want to compete in business with US tech companies they need to pay their engineers more money.

> Ford is not a tech company.

By their CEO's own admission, Ford sees itself as a "data company":

https://www.autoblog.com/2016/01/06/ceo-mark-fields-ford-dat...

Their software chops are certainly dubious, but there is no questioning their intent when it comes to entering the surveillance economy.

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

#217

Post by LAC-Tech »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #160
LAC-Tech wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can fit a stroller in the back of my subcompact. Granted I'm not able to go grocery shopping at the same time..

You're also not able to visibly broadcast that you're "doing parenting right" to all the other rich parents when you drop your crotch-fruit off at summer camp and that's the key feature that a hell of a lot of people are buying for.

LOL I do not live in an area that's nearly as fancy as what you're describing

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

#218

Post by boc »

sleepydog wrote: post #203
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.

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.

Despite the general online sentiment, it's important to realize that the average American makes an absurd amount of money compared to their global peers. Even adjusting for PPP and other factors, average disposable household income for the US - a nation of 340M people - blows the doors off Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway, etc. [1].

What's more though, median disposable income per capita ALSO places the US at the very top in the world, which is super impressive.

All of this is to say that the US is actually a very wealthy place for the white collar worker demographic, so companies need to pay high salaries to attract employees.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disposable_household_and_per_c...

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

#219

Post by parineum »

filoleg wrote: post #37
master_crab wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“If you want to plot out a route with accurate range estimates and an effective charging strategy, you have to use the built-in nav” 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 b…

> 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. I think you are missing the point of what the actual problem here is. Apple and Google already show EV charging stations on their maps just fine, you can even filter by type of cha…

This is simply growing pains. Nobody who needs gas plans out their stops on a road trip. They simply notice they're low, and pull of at the next station. As much as I'd like to have two way communication with my car and android auto, it's probably unrealistic to expect the auto industry (in tandem with Google) to actually move fast enough to implement something like that before it's no longer useful.

> 0. In case anyone is curious why outside temperature is relevant, EVs take outside temperature into their calculation of estimated range, because lower temperatures reduce range available.

That's actually not important at all. Simply noting the current rate of discharge/speed is enough. I use ABRP with a bluetooth ADB dongle to get live data to my maps for long road trips and it works wonderfully. It doesn't have to be perfect since hardly any EV driver is going to want to be under 20% battery when they arrive at a charger.

> Unless Google and Apple somehow get access to that live data from the vehicle itself in real time

Apple is working on it. Google will likely follow suite. Neither are likely to be implemented in a vehicle I own before it's irrelevant though.

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

#220

Post by speed_spread »

vel0city wrote: post #138
syzar wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Volvo and Ford Edge use touchscreens to adjust AC and there is no steering wheel control for it.

Changing the AC, even with physical controls, is a distraction from driving. I don't get why anyone drives without it being on auto climate as you're inviting more distractions. If its on auto climate why are you making adjustments while you drive?

I have total control over my car's A/C through 3 rotary dials and can adjust all parameters to my liking without taking my eyes off the road a single millisecond. Doing so also requires much less attention than maintaining a non-important conversation with my usual passenger, who likes to talk a lot.
Post reply on HN