The Lightning cancellation could have been much worse

[MountainAlive]

This is a fascinating story and one that has me feeling relieved our truck was built by a huge, established company like Ford.

Fisker went bankrupt and owners built open source car company from the ashes
“
When Fisker Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024, it left roughly 11,000 Ocean SUV owners holding the keys to vehicles that cost them anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000 — and that were rapidly losing the software brains that made them work. No more over-the-air updates. No more connected services. No more warranty. The manufacturer was dead.

What happened next is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the electric vehicle industry… “

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[kf59]

This is a fascinating story and one that has me feeling relieved our truck was built by a huge, established company like Ford.

Fisker went bankrupt and owners built open source car company from the ashes
“
When Fisker Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2024, it left roughly 11,000 Ocean SUV owners holding the keys to vehicles that cost them anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000 — and that were rapidly losing the software brains that made them work. No more over-the-air updates. No more connected services. No more warranty. The manufacturer was dead.

What happened next is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of the electric vehicle industry… “

I love my Lightning and don’t completely distrust Ford … yet. But I’m a fan of open source too. In the end, it doesn’t sound so bad for Fisker owners and with the rapid advance of AI, it will only get easier to do this stuff. Some of you clever people out there should get busy reverse engineering the Lightning’s source code and offering tailored upgrades.

 

[WilliamRobert]

I’ve already had people walk up to me and ask if I wanted to sell my Lightning. Every time I haul my SxS to the ATV park, people want to see it and ask questions.
As for Ford, the local dealership is going to do some recall updates in my driveway today!
I didn’t like seeing the cancellation , but I don’t think it will hurt the current owners, it could turn out to be a plus.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I think the terminology that many use, such as 'cancellation', is misleading wording... my LIGHTNING has NOT been 'cancelled', for whatever that even means, anyway... my LIGHTNING continues to be an Amazing Machine imagined by a great leader, with foresight and imagination, wonderful engineers to make the design work, and hard-working smart employees to actually bring it to fruition, not to mention those lowly 'software engineers' and 'programmers' who take the brunt of many technical annoyances.... my truck CONTINUES to work, it CONTINUES to amaze me, and others who see it, and still, it gets those who laud some negativity that it has somehow been 'cancelled'.... crazy.
No, they may no longer currently build 'this' edition of the LIGHTNING, but that doesn't diminish the value of this great machine - they also don't make my old '64 1/2 Mustang convertible, either, and yet, it is loved by many, and is now 'THE' amazing machine that another great leader, with foresight and imagination, saw as the 'future' for Ford... : )
I will also consider one of the 'newer' Mustangs, if someone wanted to gift me one : )

 

[JayF]

Some of you clever people out there should get busy reverse engineering the Lightning’s source code and offering tailored upgrades.

I have Open Source Developer in my bio, so I could pretend this is the sorta thing I'm good at -- but it's not. In any event, it's extremely unlikely to borderline impossible that you'll get this happening in the F-150 Lightning on any reasonable timeframe. (The only reason I equivocate here is that stuff does eventually enter the public domain after ~120 years, so if anyone is reading this in 2118...)

The Fisker issue, they actually purchased the rights to the code from the bankruptcy court so they could hack it. For a Ford, you'd be committing violations of the DMCA to even attempt to reverse engineer it (assuming they did ANYTHING AT ALL to secure it). It's not fair, or good that it works this way -- but it does. The only world where you'll get custom software on your lightning (without it being illegal) is if someone reverse engineers it from first principles in the hardware (likely an insurmountable task, tbh) or Ford specifically allowed it. I don't think either is going to happen.

I don't like it, but it's true. A truly open source EV with high build quality would be amazing... but it's unlikely to ever happen.

 

[JayF]

BTW; this is part of why the CAN bus is encrypted in newer ICE F-150s: even attempting to access the CAN on your own vehicle would be a DMCA violation ... which convieniently makes 3rd party complex accessories, like the Comma, impossible to create without cutting in Ford on the deal.

Anytime someone at a company tells you they are doing something to make it more "secure", they usually mean "securing their cash flow" or "securing their ability to collect rent" rather than "securing against hackers".

 

[K6CCC]

My opinion here. Ford will and should fight any attempt to hack the software. It's simple liability for Ford. A vehicle crashes because something on the truck failed and Ford is on the hook. They may be able to prove in court that the failure was due to bad 3rd party code, but even if that's the case courts go after the deep pockets. Ford had much deeper pockets to extract a liability payout than a group of a few people who hacked the code. Also Ford would still have to spend $$$ to defend themselves.

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