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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

#301

Post by cavisne »

vanilla_nut wrote: post #233
denkmoon wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Companies like this will be in real trouble if remote work continues to be a thing. They better hope it doesn't. Would be much healthier for humanity overall if these poorly managed companies, you know, just died from their poor management.

If recent US policy is any indication, it's far more likely that we'll give them billions of dollars of direct subsidy in a misguided attempt "protect American interests."

Maybe not. A lot of the lobbying from Ford/GM around electric car subsidies is based around the companies actually selling electric cars.

The board & management may have that plan but until they can sell electric cars that a) exist and b) dont spontaneously combust they wont get significant subsidies.

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

#302

Post by Kon-Peki »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #278
cmrdporcupine wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well here's a North American company clearly not willing to pay competitive software engineering rates even within the continent, and trying to take advantage of sub-regional low rates. Like, they're not in Toronto, but just west of it, and companies there are paying less, so, hey, they should pay less, too, right? You get what you pay for. This is what happens when HR drones are allowed to do naive "compensation ran…

Many of these traditional manufacturing OEMs have software outfits in the bay that clutter up my LinkedIn inbox. They're usually offering 130-170k with limited to no additional compensation in the same cities where FAANG is paying 100k+ over their rates in base alone. It's not just that they're doing silly regional surveys, they have fundamental misunderstandings of market rates.

My brother-in-law is pretty high up at a traditional manufacturing OEM. To be clear, they don't manufacture anything that has electronics or software in it (but there is a pretty decent chance your car has something they made). They have a Bay Area software office that does general tech stuff - manufacturing software, business software, etc. Internal things plus some B2C stuff for people buying/installing replacement equipment.

I asked how they liked the software and how the office was working out. The response: "Oh, we don't do it for the software. We can hire 100 people out of Ohio State or Michigan and pay them midwest wages and get the same quality. The SV office is for the connections and investors we get."

It's entirely possible that they know exactly what they are doing ;)

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

#303

Post by Spooky23 »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #182
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.

Well here's a North American company clearly not willing to pay competitive software engineering rates even within the continent, and trying to take advantage of sub-regional low rates. Like, they're not in Toronto, but just west of it, and companies there are paying less, so, hey, they should pay less, too, right? You get what you pay for. This is what happens when HR drones are allowed to do naive "compensation ran…

Canadian companies always lowball Canadians.

20 years ago I worked in the US branch of a Canadian company - we weren’t paid richly but they were paid much less. As a new grad I made 20% more than a 5 year SWE as a Unix SA.

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

#304

Post by bpye »

dabeeeenster wrote: post #180
sojournerc wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not just that, but at the specific expense of pedestrians and cyclists.

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

#305

Post by chrisseaton »

jonathankoren wrote: post #284
jbay808 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ford is not a tech company. By what standard?

Software is not their primary business.

If you mean ‘software company’ then say that - software isn’t the only form of technology - drive trains are also technology.

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

#306

Post by rootusrootus »

bottlepalm wrote: post #294
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.

CarPlay made my previous car's infotainment barely usable. In a Tesla it's unnecessary.

Hard disagree.

I couldn't get Spotify on my tesla to even see my playlists, much less connect to my Apple Music account (which I would have preferred). The text message handling was abysmal, and the audio reading failed after two weeks and no amount of rebooting or resetting would get my Tesla to talk to my phone again.

My phone supports multiple map apps, podcasts, etc. Lots more choices than Tesla. About the only thing the Tesla has different is Supercharger integration and remaining range integration with the nav. Except the range estimate dropped on the freeway about 1.2 miles for every 1 mile driven, so it was pretty useless for that.

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

#307

Post by nucleardog »

vel0city wrote: post #290
nucleardog wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kinds of cars you driving that are making the process that distracting. I have three giant knobs inches away from my gear lever to control the climate. Climate control status is on a screen just below line of sight to the road. I'm moving my hand a few inches and generally not even needing to look at anything to get feedback (I can set the fan speed by ear...), and if I do I can do it without taking my eyes off…

Anything you do outside of driving your car is then technically distracting you from driving even if only minorly. Sure, it's not massively distracting to reach over and turn some knobs. But is is more distracting than never having to make an adjustment at all.

Sure!

So we should probably focus on making things people need to do in their car as quick and intuitive as possible to limit the distraction.

We put radio controls on the steering wheel to make it easier and safer to do things like adjust the volume. We don't just tell people "set your volume before you get moving and let the speed dependent volume control take over from there".

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

#308

Post by rootusrootus »

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…

LOL. I couldn't get Spotify to work correctly on my Tesla, so there is no plus there. I have Netflix, Youtube, Hulu, etc, on my phone. Arcade games are cute for the kids, but hard on the tires and right along with fart noises pretty useless and not interesting after the first day or so.

Apple always pushes service upgrades? I can't remember the last time it pushed any advertising like that at me. If it does happen, it's an offer as part of a major OS upgrade that includes the new feature.

> I suspect CarPlay and Android Auto come with strings attached from Apple

Doubtful. Adoption by manufacturers is what Apple and Google want, so you'll stay in their respective ecosystems. They're not doing any more walled garden or tracking than they do when you use your phone normally, so I don't see the problem. Tesla tracks you with their system, too, but as a corporation they have a much sketchier history with their customer relationship. There's no way 99% of cars would come with support for CarPlay and AA if there were strings attached.

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

#309

Post by __david__ »

2muchcoffeeman wrote: post #237
CharlesW wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can understand the large screen, but really, it should just be a normal external screen your phone can output to. CarPlay is so good (and far safer) because it doesn't just mirror your phone's landscape view, but presents a driving-specific experience. Not-mirroring has another advantage in that your phone can still be used (by a passenger, of course) to do whatever while CarPlay continues to do its thing.

Can’t you just add a “driving mode” that changes the view or displays a different view to the phone? If you externalise the smarts, all you need is external input and output support which all exists. Then any car can have better GPS. This way, I need a car that specifically has this extra cruft and probably can’t get upgrades easily. It’s the car equivalent to a smart TV.

That's effectively what carplay is though. There are no smarts in the car, just some protocol to display video output and communicate back touch inputs. All the presentation, etc. is on the phone so that when you upgrade your phone you get the latest car interface as well. The protocol is stable, so your car can be stagnant but the experience still continues to improve as your phone does.

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

#310

Post by cmrdporcupine »

d1lanka wrote: post #299

I want to know if it's even remotely possible for a EV truck company like Rivian to unseat the F-150 as America's best selling truck within the next 5 years?

No. They simply do not have the manufacturing capacity/ability.

Also Rivian only seems interested in manufacturing luxury vehicles.

FWIW I own some Rivian stock.

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