The lightning is awesome, except the embarrassingly bad infotainment system.

[detansinn]

This is such a troll thread. I had a friend (long-time Tesla fanboy) riding with me in my F150 Lightning for the weekend. While I have spent extended time with Tesla's as borrowed, loaners, and rentals in the past, it was interesting to hear the things that he was impressed by with the truck/infotainment.

• 360 Surround view. It's big and beautiful and extremely handy parking the truck. Tesla has all of the cameras to do this, but seems incapable of pulling it off.
• CarPlay. Tesla owners love to make excuses for this one, but the reality is that having CarPlay is better and the absence of CarPlay is a severe limitation of Tesla's infotainment system.
• FordPass. You want to blow a Tesla owner's mind? Be able to pay and utilize every major charging network without a separate app and payment setup. Ford doesn't get enough credit for being the only automaker to crack this nut.
• Speed. From all of the Tesla community bashing, he commented on how responsive the display was while we were driving, because you know what, it's totally fine. It's also especially nice to have a dashboard AND infotainment display as separate things.

Not infotainment, per se, but garnered comments

• Blue Cruise. Yes, it's not infotainment per se, but he was blown away that the system was truly hands free and required so little intervention. It was raining and there were no phantom braking or other ill-behaviors.
• Real World Range. Tesla's advertised range numbers and guess-o-meters are total BS. During our drive, my friend witnessed a 90% charge getting us 281-283 miles of real world range as we ran state of charge down into the low 30s.

I've put 30k miles on my 2023. I prefer Ford's navigation over anything in CarPlay. I do my own route planning, but do use the truck navigation between chargers. I don't give a crap about Karaoke. I don't sit in my truck while it charges. I stretch my legs and get back onto the road, because it's not like the stops are that long anyway. I bought the Lightning to use it as a truck. Good infotainment, 1) Just works, 2) Disappears as part of the driving experience.

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[Howard]

This is such a troll thread. I had a friend (long-time Tesla fanboy) riding with me in my F150 Lightning for the weekend. While I have spent extended time with Tesla's as borrowed, loaners, and rentals in the past, it was interesting to hear the things that he was impressed by with the truck/infotainment.

• 360 Surround view. It's big and beautiful and extremely handy parking the truck. Tesla has all of the cameras to do this, but seems incapable of pulling it off.
• CarPlay. Tesla owners love to make excuses for this one, but the reality is that having CarPlay is better and the absence of CarPlay is a severe limitation of Tesla's infotainment system.
• FordPass. You want to blow a Tesla owner's mind? Be able to pay and utilize every major charging network without a separate app and payment setup. Ford doesn't get enough credit for being the only automaker to crack this nut.
• Speed. From all of the Tesla community bashing, he commented on how responsive the display was while we were driving, because you know what, it's totally fine. It's also especially nice to have a dashboard AND infotainment display as separate things.

Not infotainment, per se, but garnered comments

• Blue Cruise. Yes, it's not infotainment per se, but he was blown away that the system was truly hands free and required so little intervention. It was raining and there were no phantom braking or other ill-behaviors.
• Real World Range. Tesla's advertised range numbers and guess-o-meters are total BS. During our drive, my friend witnessed a 90% charge getting us 281-283 miles of real world range as we ran state of charge down into the low 30s.

I've put 30k miles on my 2023. I prefer Ford's navigation over anything in CarPlay. I do my own route planning, but do use the truck navigation between chargers. I don't give a crap about Karaoke. I don't sit in my truck while it charges. I stretch my legs and get back onto the road, because it's not like the stops are that long anyway. I bought the Lightning to use it as a truck. Good infotainment, 1) Just works, 2) Disappears as part of the driving experience.

I have both a Tesla Model3 and F150 Lightening:

360 Surround beats our Tesla Model3. The Tesla backup camera has a wider view though. And the F150 cross traffic detection is a nice addition.

CarPlay if you like that, great. I don't use Android Auto or CarPlay in the F150, I hate the clobbered together feel of it. For me Tesla wins on general UI design even without these.

FordPass doesn't work with the Tesla network for me so that's not so great. On the other hand I have more charging locations available in the F150 vs. the Tesla.
As for UI responsiveness my '23 F150 is ok but the '19 Tesla Model 3's in another league.

BlueCruise I don't have so can't comment. I can say that I'd take Tesla's Autopilot over Ford's lane keeping, it's way better.

RealWorldRange agree the advertised range (I think until recently?) were overly optimistic. On the other hand in cold weather I feel like I loose quite a bit less in the Model3 vs. the F150. I can't help but feel the Model3 is more accurate with range predictions too. And nothing like having a graph to glance at every once in a while to see how your conditions/driving are impacting range compared to the projection.

Regardless of the above the F150 rides way smoother and quieter so it's my first choice.

 

[bmw325_num99]

Yeah, the Lightning software is awful. Anyone who also owns a Tesla will agree.

The navigation shows you where all the gas stations are. Telling, and how embarrassing.

Why can't I send a destination from my phone? Why can't I get a real time location? My kids laugh when I try to add a destination with vioce commands. Options show up in a list but not on the map. Useless.

Why does it take so long to boot up every time? (10 seconds). Why do we have to turn it on and off? Why don't the windows work when it is "off" and someone opens the door? Why does phone as a key work only most of the time? My wife now only carries the monster key fob in fear of getting locked out again. Old ICE mentality.

Navigating to a DC fast charger? Total gamble unless you've been there before. How do you pre-heat the battery for fast charging? It doesn't matter because the fast charging isn't fast.

OTA updates? Kareokee is the biggest one? What a joke.

Tesla is iPhone 16, Ford is like a flip phone.

Oh well, it is a good truck, not a great electric vehicle. I got a good deal on it. I wish the dealer could figure out why the service engine soon light keeps coming on.

As a Tesla and Lightning owner, I generally agree with you. My biggest peeves (but I still LOVE the truck) are:

1) The boot up time is my #1 annoyance
2) The lag when I want to do something like adjust the HVAC or heated seat, etc. You click the button and wait a full second or more for it to react.
3) Finding locations using voice or text search is difficult. It finds illogical results either ones that dont match my request but are close to me or ones that match my request but make no sense as a destination. Finding locations "along the way" are too focused on nearby results and not "Anywhere along my route" in my opinion
4) Voice to text does a bad job of interpreting my requests or hearing me correctly
5) Choosing logical (read "fast") charging locations along the way seems to be a struggle for it. The nav system seems to be OK with just about any charging location regardless of charging speed. Also, I am disappointed that Tesla Supercharging charging locations are still not available in the system, months after the availability.

As a result, after 10 months of ownership, I switched to using Android Auto instead which works much better for me. That being said, it is perfectly usable but just slightly annoying. Still the best vehicle I have ever owned.

 

[bmw325_num99]

My brother bought a Honda Prologue. No frunk, won't get out of its own way, and infotainment from the 90's.

Would be a fun game to play trying to find all the GM references in the "Honda" interface. For example if you disable TC/SC, I heard it displays "Stabiltrak Disabled" or similar.

 

[bmw325_num99]

Not exactly sure what makes MME infotainment system better than Lightning. I do think that the IPC on Lightning is much better and more useful than MME.

Way faster bootup on the Tesla, way faster on-screen reactions based on inputs, better route planning and navigation, way easier to find/view charging locations on Tesla.

I LOVE my Lightning, don't get me wrong. Its the best vehicle I have ever owned. Just pointing out some shortcomings in this one area versus some "competitors". Lightning is better in so many other ways.

 

[ED_C]

Yeah, the Lightning software is awful. Anyone who also owns a Tesla will agree.

The navigation shows you where all the gas stations are. Telling, and how embarrassing.

Why can't I send a destination from my phone? Why can't I get a real time location? My kids laugh when I try to add a destination with vioce commands. Options show up in a list but not on the map. Useless.

Why does it take so long to boot up every time? (10 seconds). Why do we have to turn it on and off? Why don't the windows work when it is "off" and someone opens the door? Why does phone as a key work only most of the time? My wife now only carries the monster key fob in fear of getting locked out again. Old ICE mentality.

Navigating to a DC fast charger? Total gamble unless you've been there before. How do you pre-heat the battery for fast charging? It doesn't matter because the fast charging isn't fast.

OTA updates? Kareokee is the biggest one? What a joke.

Tesla is iPhone 16, Ford is like a flip phone.

Oh well, it is a good truck, not a great electric vehicle. I got a good deal on it. I wish the dealer could figure out why the service engine soon light keeps coming on.

Ford is more like a smoke signal. The truck is quieter than my old Toyota Tundra and has better torque for passing but the technology that drives it all is stone age.

 

[Richie740]

wha what wahhhht? share the goods!

I purchased the CarLinKit 13 on Amazon. Works like a charm to stream your favorite apps on the infotainment center.
https://www.amazon.com/CarlinKit-CarPlay-Supports-Touchscreen-Wireless/dp/B0D1TZDYNC?ref_=ast_sto_dp

 

[scoobybri]

The 12" Sync 4 screen in my 2023 XLT boots up quick and is very responsive. I guess the on screen buttons and the extra CPU cycles needed to run the big screen are the Achilles heel of the 15" screen. Coming from a Model Y for 3 years (and still having a Model 3), I can't tell you how nice it is to have physical buttons and knobs for critical functions again. The 12" screen with physical controls seems to be that sweet spot between tech and old school. YMMV

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