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Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer

theverge.com

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

#321

Post by rdtwo »

jonathankoren wrote: post #285
speed_spread wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> By their CEO's own admission, Ford sees itself as a "data company" What does this even mean? They don’t sell access to data. Oh! They use data to make business decisions? Well, welcome to 2004.

lol silly why would you think they use data to make business choices. They make the choices then make data to justify said choices. That’s how legacy companies do it

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

#322

Post by bqmjjx0kac »

denkmoon wrote: post #269
vanilla_nut wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

We're protecting jobs you see. People need jobs to survive, so we have to protect the jobs, not the people. By giving companies money.

Won't somebody think of the meta-people?!

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

#323

Post by ninefathom »

I'm struggling to reconcile these two:

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/ford-f150-lightning-elect... -- "the towing range of the electric F-150 is dismal." (~100 miles)

https://www.theverge.com/23307298/ford-f-150-lightning-revie... -- "Happily, the F-150 Lightning is a terrific F-150 — and a terrific truck. If you can find one to buy for a reasonable price and you’ve got a handle on charging for how you’ll use it, it’s clearly a better choice than a gas-powered truck."

So... what exactly does The Verge think that a pickup truck is used for? Spoiler alert: if they think it's for running the kids to soccer practice, occasionally moving some plants or lawn furniture, showing off your bling around town, or coping with thinning hair and loss of libido at midlife, there are far better EV options. And for those who are going to argue that the 100-mile range isn't an issue, even if your time is worth nothing, try getting a truck towing a camper into a typical service station parking lot some time. Once every 5+ hours is plenty, thanks.

I'm all for EVs, and I'm certain they're the future of the automotive industry. I'm also certain that Ford has a long way to go before I'll even consider swapping my 35-year-old diesel F-250 HD for an electric hauling rig(1). Finally, based on the article, I'm fairly certain that the last thing the good editors at The Verge towed was a Radio Flyer.

(Note 1: for those breaking out in a rash, I use the F-250 about once a month and it runs WVO. The daily driver is something with a much smaller carbon footprint.)

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

#324

Post by Schroedingersat »

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.

Saving $100 worth of knobs on a $100k vehicle can't be the motivation.

They're probably far more envious of the ability to put the air conditioner behind a monthly subscription vja remote software update, or render the entire vehicle useless with a 'security' update that makes 10yo cars too unresponsive to use

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

#325

Post by 1-6 »

ninefathom wrote: post #323

I'm struggling to reconcile these two: https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/ford-f150-lightning-elect... -- "the towing range of the electric F-150 is dismal." (~100 miles) https://www.theverge.com/23307298/ford-f-150-lightning-revie... -- "Happily, the F-150 Lightning is a terrific F-150 — and a terrific truck. If you can find one to buy for a reasonable price and you’ve got a handle on charging for how you’ll use it,…

Cut through all the marketing first.

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

#326

Post by thatfrenchguy »

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.

It's not just the pay, it's the attitude of both middle and upper management that is woefully inadequate as well.

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

#327

Post by jfim »

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.

Do they have the margins that allows them to pay equivalent salaries?

From what I recall, Meta and Google have gross revenues on the order of one million in revenue per employee, while SAP AG has revenue per employee around 200k.

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

#328

Post by pronlover723 »

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 honestly think having an underpowered low-spec SoC is a huge problem. Sure, if you have top programmers who have experience writing low-level code and best in practice algorithms and data structures for speed you can get that low-spec SoC to have a good experience. But, I think the odds of you getting/retaining, and finding more of those types of programmers is low. So soon you have some programmers trying to cram python or javascript or lua in the underpowered SoC and using Qt or some other wholly inappropriate high-level API and then you end up with those gas station gas pump computers that take 3-9 seconds to respond to single clicks.

Of course having high-powered SoCs won't guarantee you'll get performant displays either but I think have low-powered ones generally guarantees failure except for maybe some initial small team of experts.

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

#329

Post by tlear »

codazoda wrote: post #18
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…

This happens in every car I own. Chevy. Kia. Ram. I agree the phone should do everything. The equivalent of an old aux cord (maybe via BT) would be enough. My Kia does have CarPlay, which is very nice for maps and audio, but that’s all I really use. It still has all kinds of issues. My wife plugs in her phone (cable) and it takes over, then suddenly mine wins it back, she flicks some stuff on her screen to get it bac…

Interesting in Nissan CarPlay seems to work perfectly. Sometimes driving directions take some time to appear but other than that it works.

It is all I use, the native stuff in the car does something.. I am not sure what :)

AC being controlled through touch screen is just nuts. I will never buy a car that does not physical dial for that

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

#330

Post by rmatt2000 »

nemo44x wrote: post #320
jesuscript wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think even their doctors are paid lower than US counterparts. Someone correct me if I’m wrong. There’s two ways to look at this. The first way is the shallow way, the raw numbers. The other way is that Europeans have a better social ethics and don’t need the gaudy numbers. Americans do. We don’t have a real culture of social welfare. We value capitalism unlike any other country in the world.

Euro doctors are significantly underpaid. Euro knows this and the reason you don’t see doctors coming to the USA is that the medical board would require them to retest. Indian doctors don’t mind so they come over and study again. My hope is the USA changes the law so doctors from Western Europe countries can freely emigrate to the USA and practice for significantly more money. There’s no reason the USA shouldn’t drai…

Licensure of physicians in the U.S. is controlled by medical associations through state licensing agencies. They have an incentive to limit the number of people who receive licenses to practice medicine.
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