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

401–410 of 570 posts

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

#401

Post by hef19898 »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #394
assttoasstmgr wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. The OP wrote: > They tried to lowball him badly. Like 1/2 the rate he asked for (contract) and probably 1/3rd or 1/4 what we made at Google FAANG arrogance never ceases to amaze me. It's like these guys live in a different universe blissfully unaware of the world around them. Did it ever occur to him maybe Ford is paying normal average human salaries and not grossly inflated Google wages? Remember Ford (and thi…

So for context, I'm in automotive on the FAANG side and work closely with people at traditional companies. There's some misunderstandings here. For one thing, there are obviously skilled people working at every salary level. What you're missing is that this is largely irrelevant. Relative compensation (in software) is a shockingly good proxy for all the associated support and people investments to support them. Emplo…

>> They don't consider software to be a core competence

Because it isn't for OEMs, theirbequipment is their core competency and aoftware, especially the entertainment side of things for automotive OEMs, is just part of that.

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

#402

Post by hef19898 »

WatchDog wrote: post #381
assttoasstmgr wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. The OP wrote: > They tried to lowball him badly. Like 1/2 the rate he asked for (contract) and probably 1/3rd or 1/4 what we made at Google FAANG arrogance never ceases to amaze me. It's like these guys live in a different universe blissfully unaware of the world around them. Did it ever occur to him maybe Ford is paying normal average human salaries and not grossly inflated Google wages? Remember Ford (and thi…

I agree mostly with your points, other than when you get into how much the cars cost. The unit price of the cars isn't really relevant to the cost of developing it's software. A low cost model that moves sells a lot of units, can likely afford to spend more on software compared to a high cost model that moves only a few units.

That's not how unit costs and margins are calculated.

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

#403

Post by devwastaken »

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…

University types infect the private market. They think they can turn programmers into standard office workers to lower their pay. And, unfortunately, they're right. Consumers will buy, so no need to produce quality. They can slave away graduates that have to pay back loans and have 0 guidance on the market or how to negotiate.

All apart of the plan.

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

#404

Post by hef19898 »

colinmhayes wrote: post #357
rkagerer wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ford sees itself as a "data company" What a disaster. I wish they would focus on simply making good cars.

Margins for car companies are shit. Why would anyone invest in a race to the bottom high marginal cost company when differentiated zero marginal cost companies exist? And what if we just told everyone we were the latter?

Worked for Tesla so far.

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

#405

Post by alex_suzuki »

nine_k wrote: post #104
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.

I wonder if third-party infotainment with buttons and otherwise ergonomic, reliable UI is legally possible. If so, it could be a viable business?

Interesting idea. I just don’t see carmakers giving up previous real-estate for a third-party solution.

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

#406

Post by hedora »

ajross wrote: post #256
GoOnThenDoTell wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Post a video and get famous. Meh. I'm sure stuff doesn't work somewhere for someone. But... come on. Voice recognition is a long solved problem. Tesla's works as wells as Amazon's or Apple's or whoever's, which is to say sure, it makes an occasional mistake, but it basically isn't a problem except in arguments like this one on the internet. Mine works great. I love it and use it every day. I'm sorry yours doesn't, bu…

It doesn't matter how well it works. I want a button. That way, I can adjust things without talking over passengers, and the kids cannot adjust things by talking to it.

If I have to pish a button to activate it, then it is strictly more work than pushing a button. If it filters out all but the driver using stereo location, then the passenger can't futz with it for the driver on long trips.

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

#407

Post by sjfidsfkds »

weq wrote: post #397
boc wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 of the developed world in infant mortality and school shootings too! Us outside the US, who had the option to come and joining a FAANG; call it danger money.

School shootings kill dozens of people per year in the US, it’s a similar magnitude risk as lightning strikes or train crashes.

Infant mortality in the US is more common and indicative of problems that affect a lot of people. Namely, inequality in access to high-quality prenatal health care, and obesity. If you’re coming to work as a software engineer in the US, you are going to get good health insurance for yourself in your family. Obesity is potentially more relevant - lots of wealthy professionals in the US are obese. Not sure how much this tends to affect people who immigrate from healthier countries.

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

#408

Post by hef19898 »

Schroedingersat wrote: post #324
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.

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

It is, because even saving 1 buck on a 100k car that is sold less-then-what-peiple-think margins hundred of thousands of times is a good thing. Heck, even at higher margins it is worth doing. Welcome to the world of mass production of physical goods.

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

#409

Post by hedora »

xeromal wrote: post #352
ninefathom wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with those statements, I think Ford is seriously sugarcoating the issue. It seems that the F-150 Lighting is basically a vanity vehicle at this point. To be fair, that (vanity vehicle) is probably at least half of the F-150 market today anyway. I don't have a problem with Ford putting on a show to make money. But if The Verge is going to work in a Ford showroom, they should at least be up front about it.

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.

If it really gets 300+ miles per charge and gets back up to 80% in 41 minutes, then it should be fine for workers that are travelling less than 5 hours a day (or 10 hours if there is a charger near the job site...)
Post reply on HN