In-Vehicle Karaoke Rolling Out to F-150 Lightning! (Stingray Karaoke App)

[Max Power]

@Ford Motor Company here is a list of all the entertainment options I would like to see added.
1.

and here is a list of actual, useful things I would like to see.
1. Generator mode
2. Trip planning in the app
3. All available chargers in nav including Tesla
4. Frunk open without turning off climate
5. ProPower control from app
6. Zone lighting from app
7. Manual DC charging precondition
8. Single button charge to 100% in app

Basically, give me back the app functions we used to have and add generator mode and frunk open.

Agree and add:
9. View cameras from app (Sentry mode)
10. Trailer Light Check from app
11. Start climate from key fob

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[invertedspear]

Great points!



I can only estimate their team size, but my guess is that 1% is something like 7-10 people. I haven't seen the app yet so I don't know how great it is, but since karaoke games are simple enough to be university class projects these days (timings files make it a breeze), it seemed a reasonable estimate. Especially since (a) it's Android, and (b) it's a co-dev with another company.

I have never worked for an automaker. But I have worked with other devs that have, so I am extrapolating a bit. A couple things to take in to account, the same software powers both Sync 4 and Sync 4a systems. So any change, even an integration like this must be added to the test suite, and must be tested with every car that uses sync4, and then every combination of trim feature. Based on what I knew of GM it's a surprisingly small dev team that works on the infotainment system. Like 30 developers. I'm going to assume the same at Ford. I'm even going to give Ford the benefit of assuming it's an entirely separate team working on Sync5(a) which will be the first one that's android based.

Sync4(a) is not Android, it's QNX (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Sync), so while I'm sure the code for the Karaoke app was written outside, someone, likely a Ford software engineer, would have had to compile it for QNX and debug it. Then the QA effort would start, testing all the Sync4a vehicles to make sure it works right, testing all the rest of the line up to make sure it didn't introduce a bug somewhere else in the infotainment system. Figure a few more bugs have to be worked out and sent back to the developer.

It seems easy on the surface, it's just an app after all, but on a system that runs your car, it's never as easy as loading an app on your phone.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Rollout has started OTA Software Update 10.1.0 karaoke time

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