←back to thread

A $20k American-made electric pickup with no paint, no stereo, no screen

(www.theverge.com)
1457 points kwindla | 2 comments | 25 Apr 25 15:01 UTC | HN request time: 0.642s | source
Show context
taylodl ◴[25 Apr 25 15:27 UTC] No.43794600[source]▶
I LOVE it! THIS is the kind of truck I'd be looking at to replace my 1998 Ford Ranger.

Here is what could be potential deal-breakers:

- Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues.

- Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both!

- Comparable hauling and towing capacity to the 1998 Ford Ranger. Those numbers aren't exactly impressive, but I do use the truck as a truck, and I occasionally need the hauling capacity (weight).

- Bucket seats. I need a bench seat so I can take my wife and dog. Think weekend glamping trips. Picture 8 shows a bucket seat. It doesn't look like that would work.

If anyone from Slate is reading this, this is how I'm looking at this truck. FYI, I'll be comparing this to the Ford Maverick.

replies(33): >>43794692 #>>43794700 #>>43794763 #>>43794811 #>>43794831 #>>43794885 #>>43794914 #>>43794974 #>>43795270 #>>43795643 #>>43795656 #>>43795796 #>>43795943 #>>43796252 #>>43796714 #>>43796752 #>>43797342 #>>43797635 #>>43797641 #>>43797951 #>>43798033 #>>43798145 #>>43798246 #>>43798255 #>>43798738 #>>43799693 #>>43799714 #>>43799836 #>>43800852 #>>43801127 #>>43805436 #>>43808810 #>>43809504 #
ryandrake ◴[25 Apr 25 15:42 UTC] No.43794811[source]▶
> - Lack of a mobile app. Minimalist design is great, but I still want an app to manage charging and be alerted to any vehicle issues.

Noooooooooo! No apps, please! Finally a car not tethered to and dependent on your phone, and we already have our first request to app-ify it!

EDIT: Ughhh, according to the video that another user posted, it looks like there's an app, and yes, "updates" go through it :(

> - Lack of good charge management and battery conditioning. Either that, or a cheap and easy to replace battery pack. I'd really like both!

Yes to a simple battery system!

> - Comparable hauling and towing capacity to the 1998 Ford Ranger. Those numbers aren't exactly impressive, but I do use the truck as a truck, and I occasionally need the hauling capacity (weight).

Yes!

> - Bucket seats. I need a bench seat so I can take my wife and dog. Think weekend glamping trips. Picture 8 shows a bucket seat. It doesn't look like that would work.

Yes, definitely. It being a 2 seater is kind of a deal breaker for families. You really want a bench seat to at least stick a small child between the driver and passenger. Back in the day, we'd stuff 3 kids between two adults, but these days the Safety People would have a heart attack just thinking about that.

The article mentions an SUV upgrade kit that will bolt onto the back of the truck. Ugh, OK I guess. Sad that that's the way it will probably have to go.

1: https://youtu.be/cq1qEjwSYkw

replies(10): >>43794873 #>>43795949 #>>43796259 #>>43796268 #>>43796857 #>>43797069 #>>43797219 #>>43798980 #>>43799459 #>>43802258 #
hylaride ◴[25 Apr 25 16:57 UTC] No.43795949[source]▶
> Yes, definitely. It being a 2 seater is kind of a deal breaker for families.

What you need is not a pickup truck. Catering to families means expensive bells and whistles, like entertainment systems, etc.

> Back in the day, we'd stuff 3 kids between two adults, but these days the Safety People would have a heart attack just thinking about that.

Rightfully so. Back in the day we did so many things we shouldn't have, and survivorship bias makes us default to thinking it was ok. As kids, we used to go barrelling down dirt roads in the back of pickups or played in the backs of station wagons. There's a reason automobile deaths have gone down.

replies(4): >>43796002 #>>43796209 #>>43796374 #>>43796596 #
RandomBacon ◴[25 Apr 25 17:00 UTC] No.43796002[source]▶
> Catering to families means expensive bells and whistles, like entertainment systems, etc.

It absolutely does NOT mean those things.

Cars didn't have entertainment systems for nearly a century and families did just fine.

<Get off my lawn>

My entertainment system was the window. Observe the world, not just whatever AI-generated garbage some algorithm pushes to a small screen 8-10 inches away from your eyes.

</Get off my lawn>

replies(9): >>43796116 #>>43796138 #>>43796139 #>>43796707 #>>43796847 #>>43796890 #>>43798607 #>>43798783 #>>43798974 #
avn2109 ◴[25 Apr 25 18:01 UTC] No.43796707[source]▶
Yes! By far the biggest feature here is "no infotainment" which leads directly to "hard controls for HVAC," that alone is a killer feature! They should double down on that concept and make the truck work perfectly with no apps at all and no OtA updates too.
replies(1): >>43798292 #
palata ◴[25 Apr 25 20:39 UTC] No.43798292[source]▶
No OTA updates would be a killer.

What is the need for OTA updates for an EV, once you remove the autopilot and touch screen? Genuinely interested, I would guess there is none, right?

replies(3): >>43798417 #>>43799157 #>>43800261 #
ryandrake ◴[25 Apr 25 20:54 UTC] No.43798417[source]▶
Patches and OTA updates just scream "We know ahead of time our product is defective." Arguably OK for software (but I'd argue not), but not even remotely OK for cars.
replies(1): >>43799445 #
LeafItAlone ◴[25 Apr 25 23:29 UTC] No.43799445[source]▶
>"We know ahead of time our product is defective."

All products are defective. Full stop.

Cars are necessarily complex and have a lot of software to get the safety, comfortable, and reliability we expect today.

Most vehicles get some sort of recall; usually minor. I just checked the NHTSA recall website and every car I could think of owned by people I know (~30 vehicles) had some had some recall.

Cars should have an easy way to update. I’m generally against always connected cars (which are the norm today), but there must be some way to patch them.

I don’t like the idea of cars having cellular modems in them (my mind goes to nefarious implications), but having a way to securely update it without having to bring to a mechanic would be nice.

replies(1): >>43808345 #
1. dlcarrier ◴[27 Apr 25 00:08 UTC] No.43808345[source]▶
>All products are defective. Full stop.

Nothing can be made to work over an infinite temperature range, or for an infinite period of time, but a product that can meet its specifications, for its design life, is in no way defective. That happens all the time, for example with electronics:

Every component in your computer or phone, down to the smallest resistor and capacitor, has multiple pages of documentation characterizing it's performance, and is individually tested to ensure it meets the stated capabilities. Each trace on the circuit board is tested to make sure it is complete and not shorted to any other trace, and once assembled every component is verified to be correctly installed. This means designs can be proven to always operate within the specifications of every component.

This isn't some fancy military-spec process; it's standard operating procedure for petty much every electronics component or assemblies manufacturer. At the volume manufacturing equipment handles, it's much cheaper and easier to automate qualifying and testing everything, at every step, than dealing with the ramifications of manufacturing a bad batch.

There are occasional bad parts that do get into the mix, but it's usually a pretty big scandal. From botched industrial espionage leading to a plague of defective electrolytic capacitors in the early 2000's to management pressure at Samsung leading to the release of a defective battery design on Note7 phones, there are occasionally products that should be recalled for defective hardware, but with a design consisting of hundreds to thousands of parts, on almost every phone or laptop ever produced, every component has lasted past the useful life of the product and, except for ware items like batteries and displays, would continue working past the useful life of the human using it.

If kept simple, as is doable with an electric drive train, and especially if devoid of non-embedded software (a field which seems to have no interest in error-free designs: https://xkcd.com/2030/) a recall-free and provably capable vehicle is completely doable.

replies(1): >>43826820 #
2. LeafItAlone ◴[28 Apr 25 22:31 UTC] No.43826820[source]▶
I’m not exactly sure what point you are trying to make. The specs to which you refer are also specs which the component are _rated_ at. But that’s still only a (very high) % of components. Issues do arise with individual components. Unless it is wide spread, it is not a scandal. I have worked in the industry as well as do it as a hobby. You have a very rose colored view of it.

Lemon phones make it into the hands of consumers. I had one myself a few years ago where it overheated and shut down. One offs don’t make the news because you bring it in and it’s swapped out.