What software updates should Ford add to the lightning?

[beatle]

Regarding everything in software...

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[GDN]

Regarding everything in software...

This is truly what I love about Tesla - if it can be done, they will in most cases, even if they need to walk it back later.

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

Dog Mode. ASAP, please!!!!

 

[Labs4Lightning]

Dog Mode. ASAP, please!!!!

agreed. Dog mode owned by tesla, Ford's patent is Pet Mode. dog mode sounds better, unless you own a cat.

 

[Farmford42]

As someone who spent a lot of time fixing machines, I would strongly encourage a Ford engineer and software engineer come out in all of the first 3 waves of the F150 lightning and drive a day with them on the ground. Expensive, but there is a lot to learn on the ground. the test track is not a farm or work site, and will never be. The focus groups are a sounding board that reinforces the same issues. I want to be able to drive the truck through a gate while I hold it open in the driving rain etc etc. (open invite ford, and you can demo the truck on my site) Ill put the 1500 gallon water tank on the trailer I had to haul with my tundra last year at 115 deg to water 300 cows when things got bad. what will the computer do then. @Ford Motor Company we are ready to schedule! You can drive my bronco!

 

[Crilly]

Dog Mode set off timer off

leave vehicle on.

put sign in window

lock vehicle

 

[FirstF150InCasco]

Dog Mode set off timer off

leave vehicle on.

put sign in window

lock vehicle

But why cannot we have a "proper" dog mode?

 

[jazzmanmonty]

Those switches cost money to install, those switches break, those switches complicate the build and require miles of wiring to be added to a vehicle. Those switches require a TON of chips. I believe many of them will disappear in the next gen ground up vehicles from the traditionalists.

I agree but Electronics fail too. Problem with car companies is they use the cheapest processors and inadequate memory that is just enough tp satisfy the engineering/budgeting departments, that many times screens freeze and need to reboot. Many times you have to turn the car off and back on. So until they stay on top of the chip tech game and stop being cheap, you can't rely on a buttonless car especially for very important safety features.

My gripe is that they take so many mechanical parts out of a car-so less parts, wiring, designing, less production steps, less people on the line to complete various installations (probably valued at $1-3k/car) and incorporate the tech into MAYBE a $200 wholesale head unit that just pops in. But instead of car price going down it now goes up because it has "tech."

Same with EV's. There are so many less parts in a typical EV vs. ICE. The cost of an EV should be 60-70% of an ICE vehicle. But no. Lets charge more because it has "tech." A recession is coming very soon at its gonna hit at the same time that many major car companies are gonna be flooding the market with EV's. They better quit messing around and start designing EV's in the $20-40K range stat.

 

[Battalion3419]

Multiple people that attended yesterday's event have indicated that Ford reads these form comments and take them seriously. Hopefully, that is true as you guys have some great ideas here.

 

[tkittlitz]

agreed. Dog mode owned by tesla, Ford's patent is Pet Mode. dog mode sounds better, unless you own a cat.

Heavy Petting Mode Perhaps?

 

[Mr. Flibble]

I agree but Electronics fail too. Problem with car companies is they use the cheapest processors and inadequate memory that is just enough to satisfy the engineering/budgeting departments, that many times screens freeze and need to reboot. Many times you have to turn the car off and back on. So until they stay on top of the chip tech game and stop being cheap, you can't rely on a buttonless car especially for very important safety features.

My gripe is that they take so many mechanical parts out of a car-so less parts, wiring, designing, less production steps, less people on the line to complete various installations (probably valued at $1-3k/car) and incorporate the tech into MAYBE a $200 wholesale head unit that just pops in. But instead of car price going down it now goes up because it has "tech."

Same with EV's. There are so many less parts in a typical EV vs. ICE. The cost of an EV should be 60-70% of an ICE vehicle. But no. Lets charge more because it has "tech." A recession is coming very soon at its gonna hit at the same time that many major car companies are gonna be flooding the market with EV's. They better quit messing around and start designing EV's in the $20-40K range stat.

Ideally, it should be possible to upgrade the CPU/Motherboard in one of these vehicles, but I understand why its difficult. The good news with processors, is that if they run well for the first 24 hours, they will likely last years. If they run flawlessly for 30 days, they are unlikely to fail for the life of the product.

You can still find and use TRS-80s - not sure why you would want to when there are emulators, but you can do it. And that tech is far more at risk of damage from bad voltage than the new stuff. Realistically, the biggest risk is segments of the mother/daughterboards having solder joints or traces break.

Right now EVs cost more because of two things. First is demand, and the second is there is not yet a highly optimized supply chain for them. The ICE supply chain is what, 118 years old now? The EV supply chain is going to need some catching up time.

EVs will drop in price, but much like what apple does, you go after the high end/popular markets first. Because that is where you get the most money. If I held Ford stock, I would tell them as a company to do the same. (And indeed, they are, going after their most popular vehicle, the F-Series).

At the end of the day, companies want to make money. Making cheaper cars in the EV range while there is a shortage of cars is not a good business value. Expect big changes ahead, the current prediction is EV's at parity with ICE in 2030. It might be sooner at this rate.

 

[beatle]

Ideally, it should be possible to upgrade the CPU/Motherboard in one of these vehicles, but I understand why its difficult. The good news with processors, is that if they run well for the first 24 hours, they will likely last years. If they run flawlessly for 30 days, they are unlikely to fail for the life of the product.

Tesla offered a retrofit of the second gen MCU (media control unit) that had an Intel Atom process into the original cars that had Tegra 3 based MCUs. The original cars ran fine for years, but over time they slowed to a crawl. Some of this was storage related, some was related to new features, some was sloppy coding. Replacing hardware is not just about replacing failed hardware, it's sometimes about surviving the software.

That all said, I would be highly surprised if the hardware were replaceable in the truck with newer versions, though just about anything is possible with enough time and money.

 

[Labs4Lightning]

Tesla offered a retrofit of the second gen MCU (media control unit) that had an Intel Atom process into the original cars that had Tegra 3 based MCUs. The original cars ran fine for years, but over time they slowed to a crawl. Some of this was storage related, some was related to new features, some was sloppy coding. Replacing hardware is not just about replacing failed hardware, it's sometimes about surviving the software.

That all said, I would be highly surprised if the hardware were replaceable in the truck with newer versions, though just about anything is possible with enough time and money.

It will be interesting to see how it performs with upgrades over time. Is there a point where it becomes unsupported tech. Think similar to old versions of windows, IOS, obsolescence by design? I kept my 05 f150 for 16 years. Can’t imagine ford supporting the software that far out. How far will charging & battery technology come in 15 years. Assume that true full driverless tech could be a thing - but not sure I’d want a truck that I never had to “drive”.

 

[GoGoGadgetTruck]

Tesla offered a retrofit of the second gen MCU (media control unit) that had an Intel Atom process into the original cars that had Tegra 3 based MCUs. The original cars ran fine for years, but over time they slowed to a crawl. Some of this was storage related, some was related to new features, some was sloppy coding. Replacing hardware is not just about replacing failed hardware, it's sometimes about surviving the software.

That all said, I would be highly surprised if the hardware were replaceable in the truck with newer versions, though just about anything is possible with enough time and money.

In theory, all the stuff in question lives in the APIM - the box that runs Sync - which can be swapped out to get a new OS, if the past is a guide. (There are upgrade kits for MyFord Touch that swap the MFT Windows for Automotive APIM for a QNX Sync 3 APIM.) But without Ford being involved, it would always be in the "unsupported hack" territory.

For a traditional ICE Ford Fusion, such territory is fine - what's the worst that could happen? But for an EV...

 

[Mr. Flibble]

There are so many good suggestions in this thread. I was thinking recently, and thought of another one.

As other posters have mentioned that the access to the API isn't something we have (yet) it would be really good to not only get access to the API - but also local access. That is, you should be able to drive the Lightning into your garage and have it connect to your local wifi, and you should be able to converse with the API locally without having a cloud connection.

This is important because a lot of the benefits of having access to the API evaporate if you lose access to the cloud. In my case, there is poor (near zero) cell signal in our garage, but excellent WiFi coverage.

In the case of a power outage, we often lose internet because both lines are carried on the same infrastructure, and the cause of the outages where I live, is nearly always the result of trees coming down. In that case, we lose both services.

So local access to the API to be able to pivot off of what the truck can do would be a huge help. In my case, my plan is to be able to leverage the Lightning and what it can do for power backup in outages, and automate segments of my home to turn off. Since most of the lights/appliances we have in the house are connected to home automation, I can shut them down in the event of a power outage and only keep the essentials running. This would greatly increase the life of the battery.

EDIT.

I was thinking about this some more.

Ford, if you are reading this, access to the API is really important because we can do things with the truck that you have not imagined yet.

For example, my home is a smart home that is all connected and controlled by "Home Assistant" I can trigger automations with it, like turn off our instant hot water heater when no one is home, or keep the heat off, or turn the heat and hot water back on before someone gets home. I have many linked automations across many different products that have no relationship to each other.

With this in mind, if I had API access; I could add this automation (I already have part of it today, but I don't have the lightning).

I could say: "Hey, Siri I wanna drive"

This would tell Siri to trigger the "I wanna drive" automation. This would open the garage, turn on the garage lights, and set the drivers position and mirrors to my settings. Probably also start conditioning the cab.

I know, I know - you can already do this on approach to the vehicle today. Why bother having a command to do this? I am a lot taller than my wife. I have to wait to be able to get into our cars until after the settings have adjusted when I approach with the Key Fob. I simply cannot get into the cars until the seats and steering wheel have moved. In fact, in my Kia with a manual adjust seat, it is faster for me to just move the seat manually than wait for the other cars auto adjust. I should be able to trigger this in advance.

Things like that can be handled through the API - and I can do it myself. I can develop my own applications and routines without needing to tie up a Ford developers time. This reduces you cost, and improves the perception of your vehicle amongst the mod community. The Mod community is now software based, more than swapping out turbos when it comes to a BEV.

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