The weakest part of Ford’s Mustang Mach-E reveal was the software
0Reported today on The Verge
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Reported today in The Verge.
The weakest part of Ford's Mustang Mach-E reveal was the software
Ford's newly revealed electric Mustang SUV, the Mach-E, is quickly becoming one of the more buzzed-about car reveals of the last few years. But while the new EV looked competent at its LA Auto Show debut, the company pretty much whiffed on one really important part of the Mustang Mach-E: the software.
The performance and practicality of the Mustang Mach-E will be big determinants of its success, but the new Sync 4 software that will power the giant 15.5-inch touchscreen at the center of the dashboard will have a major impact on day-to-day life inside this car. That's why it was disappointing that Ford didn't offer much of a chance to interact with the software, and in some cases was actively discouraging people from trying to use it.
That's right: the software running on the three display cars that Ford unveiled at the Hawthorne Municipal Airport on Sunday night was so buggy that the handlers hovering around the car kept stopping people from tapping the screen. The only place people could try to interact with Sync 4 was at a single standalone kiosk in the next hangar over, which - along with the rest of the event - closed a little more than one hour after the onstage action wrapped up.
It's possible that Ford will have that same kiosk on the LA Auto Show floor this week, and I hope they do. There's also a full year to go until the Mustang Mach-E hits dealerships in late 2020.
But working software felt like the biggest thing missing from Sunday night's reveal, especially after Ford CEO Jim Hackett spent about seven minutes in the lead-up to the unveiling talking about Sync 4 and the main touchscreen. He touted the "architectural type graphics" that the company's software te