Ford F-150 Lightning: Fast Truck, Slow Computer • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by Sponge5 » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 12:28 PM UTC

35mm wrote: post #391

Is it just me that wants an EV with just ‘dumb’ switches on the dash? I find car companies overstretch with trying to make fancy touchscreens etc. Plus in car computers go out of date much quicker than motors and batteries. Just give me some robust physical switches for the important stuff, and an empty space to put my phone / tablet. That also has the benefit of being able to keep looking out the windscreen while dr…

Exactly, I've been changing my consumer habits towards products that either don't need maintenance at all (GoRuck) or are optimized for ease of maintenance (Fairphone). Sadly haven't found an EV (or a modern IC engine car) that matches these criteria.

All the systems and components are sitting on a CAN bus anyway, in the base configuration you can just control the CAN master with analog switches like in the old days.. You can make a paid mobile app for the same controls but digital (and allow more fine-tuning). This eliminates the display from the car though, so I guess a parking camera is a no-go.

All you need hardware-wise on the car at that point would be a CAN Master device with bluetooth, which is a stupid ESP32.

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

#482

Post by cmrdporcupine » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 12:46 PM UTC

ivan1783 wrote: post #453

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most EVs do have such a speaker. But it only plays when they're driving at low speeds where they could be a threat to pedestrians, bikes, etc. And also there's no standardization of the noise.

All EVs have a speaker and the noise is standardized. The problem is there is a different standard in each country and the solution is to make one noise which covers all of the standards - thats why it ends up sounding so strange. The combination of the various standards varies from OEM to OEM - thats why it ends up sounding different OEM to OEM.

I mean... maybe in the US? Here in Canada all the EVs seem to make a different noise. The noise my Volt makes is entirely different from my friend's 2nd gen Leaf, for example.

Maybe that's changing with the latest round of vehicles, but I don't recall hearing about any regulation passed.

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

#483

Post by cmrdporcupine » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 12:52 PM UTC

pronlover723 wrote: post #328

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…

It's super easy to blow your budget on a higher-spec'd SoC, too.

We made responsive applications on 1980s era 16-bit and 8-bit computers. We did it by being conscious of what we were doing in each cycle.

There's a huge budget to burn on even an older super cheap SoC.

Often what is making the screen lag is accidental stupid pointless idle states (blocking on I/O etc.) inside tight animation loops.

Lag and jank aren't usually a throughput problem, but a latency problem.

Diagnosing and fixing this requires concern and effort and recognition that it's actually super important to the consumer experience.

You get what you pay for.

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

#484

Post by mattkrause » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:04 PM UTC

TMWNN wrote: post #313

mattkrause wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That “adjustment” is really tricky to do convincingly. I’ve been trying to compare an offer in the US and one in Montreal. The raw number for the US blows Canada out of the water, obviously, but adding in healthcare and childcare really starts to close the gap. That’s at least sort of calculable, especially if you ignore their option values, but it’s harder to price in other intangibles, like living somewhere walkabl…

>I’ve been trying to compare an offer in the US and one in Montreal. The raw number for the US blows Canada out of the water, obviously, but adding in healthcare and childcare really starts to close the gap. The disposable income figure that boc quoted includes things like healthcare.

You need to look at the adjusted disposable income to include “social transfers in kind”. The US still leads there, but not as dramatically.

Even so, I’m not convinced that these numbers are actually that meaningful. They might tell you how many new Macbooks someone can afford, but do you think the median person’s quality of life is actually 50% worse outside the US? That seems implausible to me!

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

#485

Post by bluGill » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:07 PM UTC

ghaff wrote: post #240

bluGill wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The controls should not be visible to the driver. Move that touch screen over to the navigators seat and make it nice and convient for them to use. A little angle to the driver can't see it at all would be good. The driver should have limited controls, all physical, and all ergonomicly designed to be easy to find. Even programming your phone GPS while moving should require the navigator to hit accept. Screens for the…

Realistically, however, there often is no navigator so reverting vehicle controls for a solo driver to the situation 10 years ago is almost certainly a non-starter. And even that long ago, it just meant people were using a smartphone instead on an in-car infotainment system.

Sure, but now it isn't the automakers fault when someone does something dangerious. Hopefully the police can start enforcing no phone use while driving laws. Google/Apple may in fact be liable as well and forced to check GPS before unlocking a phone (this would be bad for passenger experience, but if drivers can't keep their hands off their phones it might be required to do this)

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

#486

Post by bluedino » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:40 PM UTC

jcadam wrote: post #377

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…

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.

My 2015 F150 had a TERRIBLE interface for navigation

https://youtu.be/Py92XdJwgqo?t=62

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

#487

Post by misiti3780 » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:51 PM UTC

srg0 wrote: post #469

misiti3780 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you are so concerned with acceleration.... If you're on a bike, it doesnt matter if you get hit by a truck at 30, 45, or 60. You're most likely dead anyways, adnd if you survive, there is a good chance you wish you were dead.

If you hit a pedestrian: at 40 mph there is a 90 percent chance they will be killed. at 35 mph there is a 50 percent chance they will be killed. at 30 mph there is a 20 percent chance they will be killed. at 20 mph there is a 2.5 percent chance they will be killed. Source: https://www.roadwise.co.uk/using-the-road/speeding/the-chanc...

thanks, that is very interesting data, i wonder how they collected it. i supposed if you are on a bike wearing a helmet these percentages all go down....

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

#488

Post by natch » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 2:06 PM UTC

rootusrootus wrote: post #306

bottlepalm wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 t…

You can do service requests in the app for help with stuff that’s not working. Worth a try. Spotify does pick up my playlists ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

They may give you help over text, or push a software update for you, or if warranted even send out a mobile tech or have you bring the car in to be looked at.

There are some short sellers spreading misinformation about Tesla service being bad, but that hasn’t been my experience at all. I hope it gets better for you.

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

#489

Post by xeromal » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 2:10 PM UTC

hedora wrote: post #409

xeromal wrote: post #352

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.

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...)

It gets 100 miles per charge if you're hauling a trailer is my point. The lightning gets 1/3 range when hauling. I say this as a EV owner. Constantly thinking about chargers is a huge pain in the ass and I promise you, many of these blue collar workers ain't going to want to deal with it.

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

#490

Post by ThePowerOfFuet » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 2:15 PM UTC

spaniard89277 wrote: post #448

ThePowerOfFuet wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck buying a house in Toronto for under €600k. Barcelona is absolutely a steal in comparison (and the food, transport, and weather are better, and the public healthcare is just as good).

Barcelona is a steal for you. The modal income for spaniards is under 20k. So even if you manage to save money sharing a flat or living with your parents, good luck. And plenty of houses for 600k around here by the way.

I have no interest in living in Sant Cugat. ;)