It's big news when a legacy auto manufacturer like Ford debuts an all-electric pickup. They’ve announced the Ford F-150 Lightning. You can order one now, but they won't be coming out for about a year.
It has some interesting features so it’s going to be an interesting competitor for Tesla. For one thing, the price for the entry-level utility pickup is around $40,000. And buyers of Ford electric vehicles are still eligible for the $7,500 federal tax credit. The truck has a full club cab that seats five adults and a five-and-a-half-foot bed. It also has a large frunk. The range is either 230 or 300 miles depending on the battery size selected. All the trim levels come with two motor all-wheel drive. That compares with the Cybertruck’s single motor rear-wheel drive for the $40,000 base model and no federal tax credit. The Ford comes with 11 power outlets spread around the truck
On the software side, the Ford comes with over-the-air software updates, like the Cybertruck, but they didn’t mention in the video whether the software updates would be included in the price as Tesla does or whether they’d charge for the software updates. They don’t pretend to have full self-driving on city streets, but they do claim to have hands-free driving on highways.
Another thing they claim the LIghtning will have is the ability to power your house from the truck battery in the event of a blackout. Tesla doesn’t do that. They say that they can power your house for three days from the truck battery, although I suspect the three-day estimate has hidden parameters such as no need for whole-house A/C (mild weather) and the larger battery size in the truck.
Because Ford is a legacy automaker, they don’t need to build factories from the ground up. They just need to re-tool. And they can make other electric vehicles, too. Toward the end of their video, they brought out prototypes of a new, higher-performance Mustang Mach-E SUV and a new electric transit van.
Elon Musk has always said that he expects to have competition in the electric vehicle market and that his goal is to accelerate the world toward electric propulsion. He’s getting what he expected to get. Let’s face it, without Tesla, none of the legacy auto manufacturers would be interested in manufacturing electric vehicles. We have Elon to thank for the new rush to the electrification of personal transportation.
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Tesla has begun to reach out to customers in the United States and is offering demo drives of the Cybertruck on an invite-only basis. @brandonhd on X shared the first invite image, and it looks like it's going out quite quickly to multiple locations that have Cybertrucks on display.
Up until now, display vehicles have been for just that – looking, but no touching. Some Tesla delivery centers and showrooms have also allowed viewers to take a seat inside and open it up, but most are still locked away behind the velvet rope.
It’s exciting to see that Tesla has begun to demo them – and it can only be so long until demo drives open up to everyone.
Advisor-led Demo
This Demo Drive is led by a Tesla Advisor – while you’re driving, the advisor will be in the passenger seat, walking you through the experience. They’ll explain steer-by-wire, off-road controls, and will introduce new-to-Tesla buyers to all the features that are currently available.
The list of locations so far for demo drives appears to be fairly limited, but we will hopefully see demo drives roll out throughout the United States, and eventually Canada too. Here is the current list of city/state locations that have seen demo drive invites.
Actually Smart Summon, the successor to Tesla’s Smart Summon feature, has been confirmed to be coming as soon as next month as per Elon Musk. Colloquially known as “ASS”, Actually Smart Summon is supposed to improve on the regular Smart Summon capabilities, which have historically used ultrasonic sensors (USS) to navigate parking lots.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon, and we’re quite excited about what other features will be unlocked once it finally shows up at our doorstep.
Vision-based Improvements
ASS is supposed to bring Smart Summon to vehicles that don’t have USS – using Tesla Vision. Most recently, Tesla has brought Autopark to vehicles without USS, and Vision-based Autopark has been a huge success. It is faster, more reliable, and smoother than the older USS-based solution. It can also park and maneuver in tighter locations.
Today, Smart Summon is sometimes useful at best, usually a party trick, or downright dangerous at worst. It’s excellent and best used in straight lines, where you have a clear line of sight of the vehicle, and can stop it if doesn’t see an obstacle.
I used Smart Summon today, just before writing this article – my 2022 Model Y (with USS) – did manage to show up just fine – in a straight-line location from where I was parked, after exiting the parking spot fairly cleanly. However, I’ve previously used Smart Summon and have had the vehicle turn towards obstacles, such as cart returns or curbs. Overall, it’s a sometimes-useful feature that has a lot of drawbacks right now.
Smart Summon is also restricted to a certain distance – and it's pretty small. The max distance is shorter than most parking lots, being only about 215 ft (65m). If you’re lucky enough to park close, it's very useful to bring your car right to you.
Actually Smart Summon
ASS will bring FSD V12-like capabilities to Smart Summon – the vehicle will primarily use Vision to drive toward you (or the location you’ve indicated). ASS has been supposed to be coming since about September 2022 and has seen many delays – we’re almost at the 2-year point today.
We’re looking forward to Actually Smart Summon being able to bring the vehicle – safely – right to you. ASS is also one of the key steps towards bringing some other cool features that Elon Musk has previously mentioned – Park Seek and Banish Autopark.
We’re also hopeful that Actually Smart Summon will increase the maximum range a vehicle can be summoned, because the current range is fairly small. Alongside Park Seek and Banish Autopark, we’re closing in on a Robotaxi-based future.
Park Seek and Banish Autopark
When the FSD v12.4 showed up, Elon also mentioned that going forward, vehicles would automatically park themselves when arriving in a parking lot – Park Seek – and that if you got out of the car at the entrance to a business, you could get it to automatically park itself in the parking lot – Banish Autopark. These are two features that are needed for Robotaxi to work – which itself is delayed to October 10th of this year. We’re looking quite forward to them – as in combination with Actually Smart Summon, Tesla has reached the cusp of vehicle autonomy.
A vehicle that arrives, driverless, at the location you’re at, then drives somewhere, parks itself there, and waits for you – is the definition of a Robotaxi.
While we’re likely to have to wait for Banish Autopark and Park Seek just a bit longer, Actually Smart Summon being around the corner is exciting! Gone will be the days of having to run out to your car when you forgot your umbrella – your car will just come right to you instead.
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