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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

#11

> Ford’s entire suite of driver-assistance tech is called “BlueCruise,” which is deeply confusing because it means that everything from boring old cruise control to full-on hands-free driving is technically “BlueCruise.” This seems far less confusing than the Autopilot and FSD bifurcation that Tesla has. It beeps at you to get your hands on the wheel when you're trying to autosteer in places it's not allowed. Sounds…

Do you think it would be more or less confusing if Autopilot and FSD were both called them same name?

[deleted]

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

#12

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.

The entire auto industry is driven by hype and trends rather than functionality

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

#13
post #4

They strapped on an Android tablet and called it a day. From my experience (ex-mobile game dev, Medical SaaS), Android tablets are very slow. We encourage our customers to not buy Android tablets because the patient experience is not the greatest.

Current versions of the Ford infotainment platform are based on QNX, actually. The article mentions that Ford is switching to Android, but that hasn't happened yet.

Why is Ford switching away from a RTOS with a great history in the automotive space to try to force me to have something to do with Google?

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

#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 on your phone. Phone audio will sometimes play as media, and sometimes show up as phone calls. And of course, cripplingly slow, which for a touchscreen is deadly -- you have no idea whether or not the system even realized that you pressed it, and when you mash the button more than once you may find that you've clicked a button on a not-yet-visible-screen. Absolute garbage.

Mazda is apparently taking the right approach here -- increasing the tactile buttons on the dash and console, and ditching touchscreens.

Really, cars should just have a built-in phone mount and connectors, and just let the phone do pretty much everything. If Ford wants to have a map of charging stations, partner with Apple or Google (or Waze) or build their own OSM-based maps app. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are okay-ish, but frankly I find the experience of just having the phone on a mount and using that as the display to be far superior in almost every way.

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

#15
post #5

Does it do CarPlay/Android Auto? If that's the case, I honestly don't really care how fast it is - I have an older EV with Sync3 and it's fine (more than fine, I just use my smartphone for most interactions using CarPlay). The only thing I may dislike is not having physical buttons/dials for climate.

this is addressed in the article. You can just Cmd/Ctrl+F for the word CarPlay for an answer. There’s a quick action button to navigate back home on the map widget, but it just opens the map app full-screen, defeating the purpose of the widget entirely. I’d love to have CarPlay open to handle my phone and messaging alongside the radio, but that’s not possible, even though the display is clearly big enough to show bot…

“If you want to plot out a route with accurate range estimates and an effective charging strategy, you have to use the built-in nav”

I saw that phrase in the story and came here to comment and saw this thread.

I think we should be honest with ourselves about recent history: Apple and Google will be quicker to roll out functionality for EV specific navigation (i.e. chargers) in their apps then car manufacturers will be to fix their UI problems.

Edit: I also dont want to spend $xxx a year on map updates from manufacturers when Apple Maps are free (I understand I’m not the customer with Google even if their mapping product is great) and better

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

#16

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 think it is because A)Good UX is hard and there is a shortage of people who have experience a mixed hardware/software UX. B) Car companies are rather old fashioned in setting their priorities. They haven’t caught on yet at management level that the modern car is a different beast and needs different priorities when designing and engineering. C) A car company is big. It takes a long time to change, and a lot of people are really sceptical and don’t believe the future needs to be different.

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

#18

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 back again. Pretty messy in all cars I’ve used.

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

#19
post #13
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Current versions of the Ford infotainment platform are based on QNX, actually. The article mentions that Ford is switching to Android, but that hasn't happened yet.

Why is Ford switching away from a RTOS with a great history in the automotive space to try to force me to have something to do with Google?

Because there's a vibrant ecosystem around Android with wonderful third party support, with a rich platform & ecosystem already well known & loved by many developers & consumers alike. Where-as QNX is a toolkit for building one-off custom appliances that no third party will ever see or improve or enrich. One is a dead end stuck in a niche, the other realized it had to create more value than it captured. And generally the Google open ecosystem one is pretty ok.

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

#20

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…

Honestly I've been pretty impressed with the software overall. I bought a used 2012 F-150 last year. There was something weird with the Bluetooth. I was able to update it to run the latest version of Sync which resolved the issue (it was a bit annoying to find/format a USB drive that worked). What makes this even more impressive is the newer software is designed to run on a completely different UI with a fancy screen, but they still support my older system just fine.
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