Crapblaster
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It's amazing how much data Ford is already getting from the current F150's.
Ford Nixes Rear Proximity Sensors On F-150 SuperCrew Pickups
Ford currently offers a feature called passive lock and entry, which is present on a host of both Ford and Lincoln vehicles, including the Ford F-150. This feature is what allows the vehicle to automatically unlock the doors when the owner grabs the door handle. Originally, the feature allowed owners to unlock the vehicle by grabbing any of the four exterior doors of an F-150 SuperCrew pickup, but moving forward, it will only work on the two front doors.
Ford revealed this change during a recent Goldman Sachs investor call, in which COO Hau Thai-Tang used it as an example of how the automaker is leveraging connected vehicle data. Using that data, it quickly became apparent that very few owners were actually using the feature to enter the vehicle via the two rear doors.
“Now that we have connected data, we can actually monitor how frequently the customers actually enter the vehicle through which door,” Thai-Tang said. “And you can see across our product lineup here with Aviator, Explorer, Nautilus, Edge, Ranger – 80 plus, 90 percent of the time, it’s only being used in the driver’s door, and very and frequently is being used in the other doors, especially in the second row. So as part of our go-to-markets, on the new F-150, we eliminated this feature from the second row of the crew cabs.”
It may sound like a small and insignificant change, but Thai-Tang noted that this move saved Ford a whopping $6.5 million annually in material costs on the 2021 Ford F-150 SuperCrew. Thai-Tang also said that this is why Ford has moved to eliminate paddle shifters and adjustable pedals from a variety of its 2021 models, as very few owners actually use them, connected data has shown.
We’ll have more on all new model changes when they happen, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, and continuous Ford news coverage.
Ford Nixes Rear Proximity Sensors On F-150 SuperCrew Pickups
Ford currently offers a feature called passive lock and entry, which is present on a host of both Ford and Lincoln vehicles, including the Ford F-150. This feature is what allows the vehicle to automatically unlock the doors when the owner grabs the door handle. Originally, the feature allowed owners to unlock the vehicle by grabbing any of the four exterior doors of an F-150 SuperCrew pickup, but moving forward, it will only work on the two front doors.
Ford revealed this change during a recent Goldman Sachs investor call, in which COO Hau Thai-Tang used it as an example of how the automaker is leveraging connected vehicle data. Using that data, it quickly became apparent that very few owners were actually using the feature to enter the vehicle via the two rear doors.
“Now that we have connected data, we can actually monitor how frequently the customers actually enter the vehicle through which door,” Thai-Tang said. “And you can see across our product lineup here with Aviator, Explorer, Nautilus, Edge, Ranger – 80 plus, 90 percent of the time, it’s only being used in the driver’s door, and very and frequently is being used in the other doors, especially in the second row. So as part of our go-to-markets, on the new F-150, we eliminated this feature from the second row of the crew cabs.”
It may sound like a small and insignificant change, but Thai-Tang noted that this move saved Ford a whopping $6.5 million annually in material costs on the 2021 Ford F-150 SuperCrew. Thai-Tang also said that this is why Ford has moved to eliminate paddle shifters and adjustable pedals from a variety of its 2021 models, as very few owners actually use them, connected data has shown.
We’ll have more on all new model changes when they happen, so be sure and subscribe to Ford Authority for the latest Ford F-Series news, Ford F-150 news, and continuous Ford news coverage.
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