Not a troll even though this is my first post, also couldn’t really find a sub forum to put this in as its generic. I have owned a Tesla for over 8 years and over 180K miles on it and overall am quite happy with that car. I have also driven many other makes which have overall been quite solid. This truck however is a completely different story, as a TLDR this thing has no where near the range claimed, the software is absolute trash, blue cruise will very likely kill some folks, build quality for a platinum is bad, strange design decisions everywhere, and the dealer / ford removing options on a loaded truck.
The range this has been brutal, I am getting 1.4 – 1.6 miles per kWh which is giving me 180 miles on a full charge. (Currently have 990 miles on the truck) I am almost exclusively interstate, and above the speed limit which I understand can hurt range but shouldn’t be on the order of + 40% loss. It seems that a lot of folks like to say the ‘guess-o-meter’ isn’t accurate however if that is not the case Ford should fix it instead of having owners tell each other to ignore it. Additionally, the trip meter, planning software is lightyears behind competitor vehicles you cannot make a good prediction on range short of using the map, and seeing the ‘zone’ which you can drive in. On the driving side of things its ok it floats like everyone knows already, and the traction control system is garbage compared to other EV manufactures. When you punch it the tires shouldn’t slip when traction control is on, a huge part of why evs are great is the traction management is unmatched which is missing in the lightning.
The software, omg this might turn into a book sorry for the long read. Let’s start with the ICU or driver display panel whatever its called. In all modes other than calm it is very busy and in the ‘main’ view with the regen / consumption bar it flashes all the time. This is hard to describe but when you let off the accelerator pedal the gauge to the left of the screen becomes like 10% larger, then shrinks then does it again and again. It catches your eye and generally I find it annoying. The display doesn’t show the battery %, indication or the trip efficiency but thank God it has battery and motor temp which everyone needs /s. The truck icon doesn’t match the color of the actual vehicle your driving, the illustration for lane keeping has 3 positions it appears, and it jumps to those positions contributing more to catch your eye for no reason. The positions appear to be Over the line to the left, over the line to the right, and center. Most modern cars this is a smooth transition and shows more context for the road characteristics.
More random thoughts on the ICU, WTF does ‘READY’ in green even mean, no shit the truck is ready its driving. The music information scrolls on the bottom of the display for 2 seconds before disappearing forever. The speedometer with the ‘gear’ look is childish and changes when in cruise control or blue cruise to something that at least looks modern. Also why have a bar that shows 120 MPH when the truck will only do 105? Drop the bar, just put the speed front in center. In blue cruise there is no road context at all for what is happening around the truck, however the entire screen is taken up by what looks like a pointless radar. Also, there is so much blue on the screen its crazy, isn’t blue light bad for your eyes?
The calm screen is equally shitty at conveying anything useful except an abyss of empty space which seems to illustrate ford’s creative ability to a T. Honestly imo ford should just ‘steal’ Tesla’s looks and feel and name the dashboard ‘modern’ see how many folks use it and abandon the shit they have put together to this point. Due to the button lay out on the steering wheel however I think they would have a hard time cloning widgets and such and those buttons can be an entire other discussion. The dashboard should be separated out in 3rds with each side being customizable while driving or parked.
On to the 15” screen with the Knob.. Going to try to do do this a bit different as that wall of text looked brutal. Ford took a screen threw it into a truck, then decided to puke out software that is functionally lacking, has the UI / UX of a 1st year college project, while locking you out of majority of the controls while driving. IMO Ford just like the ICU should create a ‘modern’ software view with a completely different design and functionality approach, and a legacy view with the current trash of a product. Then see which wins out.. Now on to individual things..
The HVAC Controls WTF – Why is there auto 1, 2, and 3 for the love of God just assume when I set a temperature make it that temp. Why is the entire bottom 20% of the screen dedicated to climate, have someone consolidate the controls perhaps? Why is there a permanent AC toggle button that is huge? Why isn’t there an “off” option from the temperature adjustment control that pops up into a huge UI element? Make more efficient use of the space so you can do better shit with the screen. I am sure from all the customer feedback you got to this hacked up design for climate control, but start with a clean sheet of paper and make this not suck.
Heated Seat Controls – In reverse they work as expected, tap the button and it increases to 3, tap again it does to 2, then tap again goes to 1, tap one more time and its off. Now explain this, when driving you get a dumb ass pop up similar to the temperature control pop up. STOP POPPING UP MENU’s EVERYWHERE FFS FORD. The seat controls should work from a tap, not from an adjustment slider. As for cooled seats the controls should work as they work in reverse.. You have the code to make them work in the correct way now implement it everywhere.
Radio / Audio – Ford should have apps such as spotify, pandora, and other streaming services available in the car in conjunction with FM/AM/XM. After having to use android auto, and car play in this truck it is a huge let down to not have something baked into the software stack on the car. So instead of my $100k truck being able to stream shit I now need my Pixel 7 Pro and trust Google not to murder android auto in 4 years when they do their next round of budget cuts.
Ford Needs to provide first party infotainment experiences end of story , I shouldn’t need a phone to drive all the ‘smarts’ of the truck.
Feedback on the radio -- Overall make the eq easier to find it’s a huge pai, drop the little dancing icon that shows music is playing as the eq doesn’t match the actual song or audio which is dumb. The grid with all the stations should be collapsed into something that doesn’t look like a wall of littered icons. Also provide a way to remove the XM icon from the display it looks like a huge ad, and I am not going to listen to that shit anyway. One other note on the platinum the speakers in the headrest do not seem to work even when in ‘surround’ mode which is just a cherry on top for how well put together this truck is from a software and options perspective.
Android Auto / Car Play – I have a pixel 7 pro and it never connects correctly; I get the message android auto failed to connect. Its also slow to connect when it does ill be half a mile down the road listening to music and BAM! Now your listening to Spotify or whatever the phone decided I wanted to listen to which is beyond annoying. We noticed this same janky behavior with a friend Iphone 13. Ford should provide an experience within the truck that makes me not want to connect android auto / car play. I know this might be a hot take but these solutions suck and are a band aid to an industry that failed to make good software to date.
Overall Slowness – Say you want to open the camera app that’s going to take at least 20 seconds. Want to do anything within this UI it going to ignore your touches and then pop up whenever it damn well pleases.
Overall Menu System – Everything is buried behind multiple menu’s once again look at tesla to see how this should be done its really not that hard.
EV Controls – I should be able to set my charge limit withing 2 button presses, not 5.
Ford Pass – I don’t even want to go on about this, but you cannot change the charge level monitor the charging speed via this garbage app. To unlock , lock or start you have to press and hold buttons for 5 seconds why? No ability to set temperature, turn on heated seats vend windows, open sun roof open frunk, tailgate. The pro power zone lights or whatever dumb name they have take a power on press and hold, then a loading screen then another press and hold for each zone then a loading screen. Overall complete trash like most of this trucks software
Bug Reporting – You can report bugs which is super great, however if you choose other wtf does it report? It doesn’t ask for any more information, so I am sure the devs know exactly what to address /s.
Subscription Services – Apparently, I had a subscription service expire on the truck, and I couldn’t even tell you what the subscription provided (not talking about XM). As there is no first party music apps built into the car so why would I pay ford anything for providing literally nothing?
Nagging –
Want to change the seat memory while driving, press the button and get a pop up ‘seat recall not permitted while driving’ , denied..
Get into the truck and want to drive – Pop up ‘want to renter sport mode press ok’ If you don’t drops you into normal. WHY WHY WHY! Don’t fucking change the settings I set leave them alone
Need to type an address while on the interstate or driving – Nope locked out no keyboard.. denied , for all the ‘drive safe’ folks out here get the lost all this makes me do is type on my phone as the voice controls are crap
Want to view the payload while driving pop up unable to perform that action
Keep eyes on road, keep hand on steering wheel after seconds of looking at the ICU for information Pop up after pop up
Blue cruise disengage randomly– no warning lets you promptly leave the lane all without a single beep, or pop up beautiful design ford well done.
Its like I am rolling with HAL 9000, and a team of ford lawyers right next to me every drive. I fucking hate it, everything about the nagging software system in this thing.
End of the day no way the team of engineers that made this software is proud of the work they have done. I hope they come to their senses and change this trash.
Build Quality and Issues – Not going to lie started off on the wrong foot with this truck when Ford removed the max recline seats and gave me a $300 credit on a $10,000 platinum option. Then the dealer told me to get fucked that was a nice touch as well.
The shifting stalk feels like a toy, and frankly should have been on the column or a dial instead of this fold down piece of work that it is. Honestly this is one of those things that if you had a product design meeting and showed management at another company you would be laughed out of a room.
The seat leather in the rear seats is crinkled and looks badly installed dealer said it might fix itself in the future. The sheer amount of plastic is sad for the price. The piano black interior finish has a chip on it when I receive the truck still trying to get that addressed. The driver door makes noise as if it isn’t shut all the way when driving it. The frunk beeping and how damn slow it is frankly is comical. Additionally, when it unlatches makes a hell of a noise.
Overall, I waited 2 years for this truck and what a disappointment it has been. Ford if you read this feel free to reach out to me VIN : G13160
Ahh just thought of another thing.. the damn push to start button axe it with software just make the truck always on.. add pet modes, dashcam software and other things like that. You have a huge battery use the damn thing.
The range this has been brutal, I am getting 1.4 – 1.6 miles per kWh which is giving me 180 miles on a full charge. (Currently have 990 miles on the truck) I am almost exclusively interstate, and above the speed limit which I understand can hurt range but shouldn’t be on the order of + 40% loss. It seems that a lot of folks like to say the ‘guess-o-meter’ isn’t accurate however if that is not the case Ford should fix it instead of having owners tell each other to ignore it. Additionally, the trip meter, planning software is lightyears behind competitor vehicles you cannot make a good prediction on range short of using the map, and seeing the ‘zone’ which you can drive in. On the driving side of things its ok it floats like everyone knows already, and the traction control system is garbage compared to other EV manufactures. When you punch it the tires shouldn’t slip when traction control is on, a huge part of why evs are great is the traction management is unmatched which is missing in the lightning.
The software, omg this might turn into a book sorry for the long read. Let’s start with the ICU or driver display panel whatever its called. In all modes other than calm it is very busy and in the ‘main’ view with the regen / consumption bar it flashes all the time. This is hard to describe but when you let off the accelerator pedal the gauge to the left of the screen becomes like 10% larger, then shrinks then does it again and again. It catches your eye and generally I find it annoying. The display doesn’t show the battery %, indication or the trip efficiency but thank God it has battery and motor temp which everyone needs /s. The truck icon doesn’t match the color of the actual vehicle your driving, the illustration for lane keeping has 3 positions it appears, and it jumps to those positions contributing more to catch your eye for no reason. The positions appear to be Over the line to the left, over the line to the right, and center. Most modern cars this is a smooth transition and shows more context for the road characteristics.
More random thoughts on the ICU, WTF does ‘READY’ in green even mean, no shit the truck is ready its driving. The music information scrolls on the bottom of the display for 2 seconds before disappearing forever. The speedometer with the ‘gear’ look is childish and changes when in cruise control or blue cruise to something that at least looks modern. Also why have a bar that shows 120 MPH when the truck will only do 105? Drop the bar, just put the speed front in center. In blue cruise there is no road context at all for what is happening around the truck, however the entire screen is taken up by what looks like a pointless radar. Also, there is so much blue on the screen its crazy, isn’t blue light bad for your eyes?
The calm screen is equally shitty at conveying anything useful except an abyss of empty space which seems to illustrate ford’s creative ability to a T. Honestly imo ford should just ‘steal’ Tesla’s looks and feel and name the dashboard ‘modern’ see how many folks use it and abandon the shit they have put together to this point. Due to the button lay out on the steering wheel however I think they would have a hard time cloning widgets and such and those buttons can be an entire other discussion. The dashboard should be separated out in 3rds with each side being customizable while driving or parked.
On to the 15” screen with the Knob.. Going to try to do do this a bit different as that wall of text looked brutal. Ford took a screen threw it into a truck, then decided to puke out software that is functionally lacking, has the UI / UX of a 1st year college project, while locking you out of majority of the controls while driving. IMO Ford just like the ICU should create a ‘modern’ software view with a completely different design and functionality approach, and a legacy view with the current trash of a product. Then see which wins out.. Now on to individual things..
The HVAC Controls WTF – Why is there auto 1, 2, and 3 for the love of God just assume when I set a temperature make it that temp. Why is the entire bottom 20% of the screen dedicated to climate, have someone consolidate the controls perhaps? Why is there a permanent AC toggle button that is huge? Why isn’t there an “off” option from the temperature adjustment control that pops up into a huge UI element? Make more efficient use of the space so you can do better shit with the screen. I am sure from all the customer feedback you got to this hacked up design for climate control, but start with a clean sheet of paper and make this not suck.
Heated Seat Controls – In reverse they work as expected, tap the button and it increases to 3, tap again it does to 2, then tap again goes to 1, tap one more time and its off. Now explain this, when driving you get a dumb ass pop up similar to the temperature control pop up. STOP POPPING UP MENU’s EVERYWHERE FFS FORD. The seat controls should work from a tap, not from an adjustment slider. As for cooled seats the controls should work as they work in reverse.. You have the code to make them work in the correct way now implement it everywhere.
Radio / Audio – Ford should have apps such as spotify, pandora, and other streaming services available in the car in conjunction with FM/AM/XM. After having to use android auto, and car play in this truck it is a huge let down to not have something baked into the software stack on the car. So instead of my $100k truck being able to stream shit I now need my Pixel 7 Pro and trust Google not to murder android auto in 4 years when they do their next round of budget cuts.
Ford Needs to provide first party infotainment experiences end of story , I shouldn’t need a phone to drive all the ‘smarts’ of the truck.
Feedback on the radio -- Overall make the eq easier to find it’s a huge pai, drop the little dancing icon that shows music is playing as the eq doesn’t match the actual song or audio which is dumb. The grid with all the stations should be collapsed into something that doesn’t look like a wall of littered icons. Also provide a way to remove the XM icon from the display it looks like a huge ad, and I am not going to listen to that shit anyway. One other note on the platinum the speakers in the headrest do not seem to work even when in ‘surround’ mode which is just a cherry on top for how well put together this truck is from a software and options perspective.
Android Auto / Car Play – I have a pixel 7 pro and it never connects correctly; I get the message android auto failed to connect. Its also slow to connect when it does ill be half a mile down the road listening to music and BAM! Now your listening to Spotify or whatever the phone decided I wanted to listen to which is beyond annoying. We noticed this same janky behavior with a friend Iphone 13. Ford should provide an experience within the truck that makes me not want to connect android auto / car play. I know this might be a hot take but these solutions suck and are a band aid to an industry that failed to make good software to date.
Overall Slowness – Say you want to open the camera app that’s going to take at least 20 seconds. Want to do anything within this UI it going to ignore your touches and then pop up whenever it damn well pleases.
Overall Menu System – Everything is buried behind multiple menu’s once again look at tesla to see how this should be done its really not that hard.
EV Controls – I should be able to set my charge limit withing 2 button presses, not 5.
Ford Pass – I don’t even want to go on about this, but you cannot change the charge level monitor the charging speed via this garbage app. To unlock , lock or start you have to press and hold buttons for 5 seconds why? No ability to set temperature, turn on heated seats vend windows, open sun roof open frunk, tailgate. The pro power zone lights or whatever dumb name they have take a power on press and hold, then a loading screen then another press and hold for each zone then a loading screen. Overall complete trash like most of this trucks software
Bug Reporting – You can report bugs which is super great, however if you choose other wtf does it report? It doesn’t ask for any more information, so I am sure the devs know exactly what to address /s.
Subscription Services – Apparently, I had a subscription service expire on the truck, and I couldn’t even tell you what the subscription provided (not talking about XM). As there is no first party music apps built into the car so why would I pay ford anything for providing literally nothing?
Nagging –
Want to change the seat memory while driving, press the button and get a pop up ‘seat recall not permitted while driving’ , denied..
Get into the truck and want to drive – Pop up ‘want to renter sport mode press ok’ If you don’t drops you into normal. WHY WHY WHY! Don’t fucking change the settings I set leave them alone
Need to type an address while on the interstate or driving – Nope locked out no keyboard.. denied , for all the ‘drive safe’ folks out here get the lost all this makes me do is type on my phone as the voice controls are crap
Want to view the payload while driving pop up unable to perform that action
Keep eyes on road, keep hand on steering wheel after seconds of looking at the ICU for information Pop up after pop up
Blue cruise disengage randomly– no warning lets you promptly leave the lane all without a single beep, or pop up beautiful design ford well done.
Its like I am rolling with HAL 9000, and a team of ford lawyers right next to me every drive. I fucking hate it, everything about the nagging software system in this thing.
End of the day no way the team of engineers that made this software is proud of the work they have done. I hope they come to their senses and change this trash.
Build Quality and Issues – Not going to lie started off on the wrong foot with this truck when Ford removed the max recline seats and gave me a $300 credit on a $10,000 platinum option. Then the dealer told me to get fucked that was a nice touch as well.
The shifting stalk feels like a toy, and frankly should have been on the column or a dial instead of this fold down piece of work that it is. Honestly this is one of those things that if you had a product design meeting and showed management at another company you would be laughed out of a room.
The seat leather in the rear seats is crinkled and looks badly installed dealer said it might fix itself in the future. The sheer amount of plastic is sad for the price. The piano black interior finish has a chip on it when I receive the truck still trying to get that addressed. The driver door makes noise as if it isn’t shut all the way when driving it. The frunk beeping and how damn slow it is frankly is comical. Additionally, when it unlatches makes a hell of a noise.
Overall, I waited 2 years for this truck and what a disappointment it has been. Ford if you read this feel free to reach out to me VIN : G13160
Ahh just thought of another thing.. the damn push to start button axe it with software just make the truck always on.. add pet modes, dashcam software and other things like that. You have a huge battery use the damn thing.
