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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

#411

Post by izacus »

dillondoyle wrote: post #390
ghostpepper wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mazda provides physical buttons for 90% of the controls you need on a daily basis but there's no realistic way to use apple carplay without looking at a screen. Were you expecting mazda to have a "Search for a song" dedicated button on the steering wheel? In my view Mazda's modern interface is almost as safe as you can get while still having modern features that require a touchscreen. I only wish there was a button t…

When will amazon put an echo branded voice prompt car control in? Or whoever. If it works well it seems like a great solution. Talking on the phone is distracting, but feels less so than trying to find touchscreen areas.

Both Apple Carplay and Android Auto support voice controls via their respective assistants. And most cars come with native voice control these days as well.

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

#412

Post by izacus »

Swizec wrote: post #126
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…

> Buttons, dials, or trackpads that move a cursor or select items on a screen are slower than touch-based UIs, require at least as much driver attention, and are less ergonomic than just putting your finger on the exact item you want Mercedes does this really well. I was surprised. You can use the screen as a touchscreen, or there's a dial thingy on the armrest that lets you scroll around the UI by flicking your fing…

Unfortunately they got rid of all that in new models - e.g. the EQE has no more controller dial and all the buttons are now the cheap horrible capacitive buttons :/

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

#413

Post by denkmoon »

cbozeman wrote: post #378
denkmoon wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I fully agree. Businesses can adapt or die. They shouldn't receive handouts because they're "job creators", and they certainly shouldn't be rewarded for having inefficient labour practices.

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

#414

Post by hedora »

golemiprague wrote: post #343
eneumann wrote: post #48

As a cyclist, I'm super excited about one day being run over by one of these things. The giant vehicle trend is getting a lot of people killed. And why does any vehicle need to accelerate that quickly? It's irresponsible on public roads. I would really love to see acceleration and speed limiters on vehicles.

Why irresponsible? it is better to get to the desired speed quickly, it means less congestion and less distraction for vehicles behind you. Every driver should thrive to drive as fast as they can as long as it is not above the speed limit or road conditions.

Fast acceleration is nice occasionally, but driving aggressively in my EV nearly halves its range vs. carefully avoiding switching rapidly between charging and discharging the battery.

Also, fast acceleration from a stop eats tires. Some EV owners report 10-20k miles per (premium) set.

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

#415

Post by 9935c101ab17a66 »

modeless wrote: post #344
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,…

> what exactly does The Verge think that a pickup truck is used for? I think that The Verge has a better idea of what most F-150s are used for than you do. There are a whole lot of trucks out there that are never going to tow anything.

Why on earth would you think that? The Verge is a link farm at this point, and Nilay (IMO the party most responsible for The Verge’s precipitous slide into irrelevance) is routinely one of the most out-of-touch sanctimonious personalities in tech.

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

#416

Post by assttoasstmgr »

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…

> OEMs are significantly less invested in their developers and the quality of the software they produce than any FAANG.

We must be using different FAANG software because the ones I use on a daily basis are slow and buggy as all hell. The last few versions of macOS/iOS have been atrocious. Every version of CarPlay I've used has bugs. Amazon apps are full of glitches. Compare that to developing engine ECU software which I think is a far more difficult engineering task that the average overpaid UI JavaScript slinger could not handle. You can't just update ECU software every week because you sloppily overlooked something. Unless you're Tesla of course.

I don't deny that there are many outstanding, technically excellent engineers at FAANG that deserve every penny they make. But the sad reality is many of them are just TC-chasing posers who got lucky and have subsequently deluded themselves into believing that whatever narrow expertise they now possess is worth far more than it is on the open market.

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

#417

Post by hedora »

WorldMaker wrote: post #146
prepend wrote: post #92

> but also a stopgap as Ford resets its entire software strategy around Android in partnership with Google. This doesn’t seem like a good idea because there are Android people and iOS people. Alienating a large swath of customers is not a good idea. That and I don’t want Google monitoring all my car data. One of the big reasons I don’t have a Tesla is their data policy. But I’d rather Tesla have my data than Google b…

> This doesn’t seem like a good idea because there are Android people and iOS people Android Automotive (the "base OS" that's not even really "Android" in the way that you think of it from phones; the impression I have gathered is that it is a separate embedded Linux sharing only a few parts and iterating in a different pace) that Ford is moving to still supports Apple CarPlay as well as it supports Android Auto (the…

As long as Google will pay to recall and repair the truck the day they stop security updates, and also guarantee that it makes zero connections to their servers, the arrangement you describe is no worse than the status quo.

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

#418

Post by [deleted] »

colinmhayes wrote: post #363
vanilla_nut wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unmitigated ? Are you not worried about the infrastructure impact of doubling the weight of most classes of vehicle?

I'm not really. The vast majority of infrastructure degradation is because of trucks which weigh 100 times as much as cars. Their weight will be decreasing by a much smaller factor.

[deleted]

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

#419

Post by sizzle »

ghostpepper wrote: post #202
PaulWaldman wrote: post #50

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…

Mazda provides physical buttons for 90% of the controls you need on a daily basis but there's no realistic way to use apple carplay without looking at a screen. Were you expecting mazda to have a "Search for a song" dedicated button on the steering wheel? In my view Mazda's modern interface is almost as safe as you can get while still having modern features that require a touchscreen. I only wish there was a button t…

You can press the speak button on the steering wheel and say “turn screen off” and it will turn off on the Mazda 2 door hatch. Might have changed for latest version, I would google it to find the magic phrase incantation.

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

#420

Post by newaccount74 »

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 just had a Kia Sportage as a rental car, and it wasn't too bad: it had buttons for everything you need (dials for climate control, buttons for seat ventilation), and still a pretty big touch screen for navigation. So there are still cars that don't use the touch screen for everything.
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