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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

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternately, I don't care about he speed of change. That blazing sun shining on you via radiation directly feels different than if the sky is overcast. I want to easily tweak the temp to account for my personal comfort . I don't care about the temp of the air except as an input to helping me be comfortable. I don't want to have to start and then sit in my car idling to wait until it gets to temp only to find out I wa…

I don't experience much difference. Low emissivity tinting does wonders to make you more comfortable. I even have glass roofs on my cars and it really doesn't make that much of a difference in comfort in my car. On top of that, my cars also know how intense the sun is. It wouldn't surprise me if that's also an input to the climate control.

I have a 10+ year old car. I don't expect to update it until 2030 at least. I guess I'll get to try out this tech then.

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

#372
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The lightning is for mall crawling. It's not really a serious truck if you do legit truck stuff that involves travel aka blue collar workers that often travel to jobs.

Is it? I'm not in the demographic that would buy one, but it seems that for a contractor that doesn't tow tons of stuff or drive long distances it would work well, especially with the outlets. Maybe I'm missing something but say a landscaper or a carpenter, wouldn't it work for them? What kind of scenarios would involve towing heavy loads?

I have a few specific examples in mind, but my brother does tile and he's often carrying a load of tile, a saw, etc 50-60 miles in traffic to jobs. Sometimes he hauls a trailer with even more gear for bigger jobs and with that trailer, you're looking at 1/3 the range of the battery which gives it about 100 miles which isn't really conducive to those long trips. Even if those jobs are only 2-3x a year, that truck is pretty DOA.

I'd say you'd probably get the same range for those guys who haul a lot of mowers, weedeaters, gas, etc. They have shorter ranges though so they may be fine.

Union jobs that go distances to factories carrying welders would struggle too. No one wants to think about range in the winter while you've got a crew of 5 people and a trailer.

I'm sure there are plenty of jobs that'll be fine, but I think the line is drawn if you have a crew + a trailer. It's just too risky.

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

#373
Reading this article and the comments is frustrating given everything about these infotainment systems has been the same for 10+ years with very little improvements. Its embarrassing an iPad from 2012 can out perform these multi-thousand dollar car systems in both UX and speed. I was hoping the tesla experience would light a fire in traditional car companies making it more a priority but here we are basically just using the system as a screen to project our phones “car mode”. If it were possible I would rather buy a car with a floating usb-c mount for a tablet than pay 5k for an expensive system that I “basically” only use the display to mirror my phone.

My PoR: I use ford sync 3.x daily and recently used several popular models of Subaru, Hyundai, Dodge, and Porsche.

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

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And yet, I can't afford a house. I guess I'll go buy another Tesla.

As much as you can't afford a home in the US, you wouldn't be able to afford to buy a home in Europe even harder.

A flat in a nice part of Barcelona can be had for €300k.

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

#375
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This "arms race" is piling up stacks and stacks of bodies.

I've been slowly writing a near-future science fiction story where everyone drives around 15 feet above the ground and has to enter their car on a ladder, because over 50 years vehicles slowly crept up in height and nobody wanted to be the "low car" on the road. It started out as a joke back in 2010, partially inspired by "A Nice Morning Drive" ( http://www.2112.net/powerwindows/transcripts/19731100roadand... ) from…

Have you heard of jean yanne’s l'apocalypse est pour demain? It is a story about a society where people live in their cars 24/7. It is very interesting but I’m not sure if there’s an English translation

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

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone driving a Tesla, I disagree. Going from 0-60 in 3.1 seconds is useful if you do a lot of highway driving and need to merge quickly. Also, it's fun to accelerate like that.

how did cars manage to merge before being able to do 0-60 in 3.1 seconds?

Nobody's saying it was impossible, obviously. It was just harder and more dangerous before.

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

#377

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…

The software in my 2021 F-150 ecoboost is... flakey. It seems like every OTA update fixes one bug and introduces another....

At least I can now get my iPhone to connect semi-reliably without restarting the truck :/

If I don't keep the various sensors clean (I live on a dirt road in Alaska) the collision mitigation system can get a bit... touchy.

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

#378

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.

Too bad, so sad. They can adapt or die.

Reminds me of a back and forth I had with an NYT staff writer who claimed it was "inhumane" to expect people to totally relearn a set of skills every ten years.

People seem to forget that how they "feeeeeeeel" doesn't matter. The job market dictates what you do and don't have to do, and we live in a time when you must consistently learn new skills to be competitive.

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

#379

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…

Wow, that sounds intensely bad! I haven't actually driven a Mazda, I just heard that they were getting rid of touchscreens and it honestly didn't occur to me that they'd try to shoehorn full Android Auto or CarPlay into that. I just assumed that they would have a minimal interface and let your phone do the work, and then have "next track" and "previous track" buttons and a volume knob, plus climate control and stuff,…

I have a Mazda and I love it. Also have no idea what OP is talking about.

Steering wheel has next-prev track buttons also the volume wheel can be gently slid left/right to do the same thing.

I love the button approach Mazda takes. Stuff like AC etc is all button controlled. It's a 90s car approach with a bolted on screen your phone can connect to. Stupid simple, tactile, nearly perfect.

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

#380
post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it? I'm not in the demographic that would buy one, but it seems that for a contractor that doesn't tow tons of stuff or drive long distances it would work well, especially with the outlets. Maybe I'm missing something but say a landscaper or a carpenter, wouldn't it work for them? What kind of scenarios would involve towing heavy loads?

I have a few specific examples in mind, but my brother does tile and he's often carrying a load of tile, a saw, etc 50-60 miles in traffic to jobs. Sometimes he hauls a trailer with even more gear for bigger jobs and with that trailer, you're looking at 1/3 the range of the battery which gives it about 100 miles which isn't really conducive to those long trips. Even if those jobs are only 2-3x a year, that truck is p…

Gotcha, makes sense. Thanks for sharing, it's good to see things from outside the SV bubble.
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