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If you're any kind of a car person, you owe it to yourself to check out the rest of The Autopian - it's an independent car site founded, owned, and operated by

If you're any kind of a car person, you owe it to yourself to check out the rest of The Autopian - it's an independent car site founded, owned, and operated by deeply weird car people, and it's absolutely amazing. Here's their writeup on the electric F-150 - keep scrolling on that page, and look at the kind of depth and detail they get into: https://www.theautopian.com/the-2022-ford-lightning-is-just-a-standard-f-150-with-an-electric-powertrain-and-thats-why-its-going-to-change-the-world/ https://www.theautopian.com/the-2022-ford-lightning-is-just-... The site is a gem.

1letterunixname 4y ago
Scotty Kilmer from Houston enters the chat to talk about how new cars are plastic garbage and how their low profile tires look "cool" but are woefully fragile.
- prottog 4y ago
  He actually moved to Tennessee!
- jackmott 4y ago
  Well the fragility of low profile wheel/tire packages is true at least
- dzonga 4y ago
  n that the only car worth buying is '91 Toyota Celica
  - kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
    The Celica All-Trac is fantastic
    - mlambie 4y ago
    - rainbowzootsuit 4y ago
      Celica GT-Four drivetrain in a Austin Mini https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSOZAHg1yQHU1tc_3Y5MTQg1qjtxA_nq https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSOZAHg1yQHU1tc_3Y5M...
  - mmmpop 4y ago
    bro but rotary engines, you need an RX7 or I hear GT3000s are fast and shit but your bank probably won't give you a loan for a used Mitsubishi. maybe your mom will let you hold on rent for a bit??
- msla 4y ago
  New cars are so fragile, they deform into scrap instead of transmitting the force to the occupants!
  - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
    Crumple zones perform a very specific function in the sequence of airbag deployment (letting the sensors crash and bags deploy before the cabin starts decelerating). The speed window at which they will appreciably reduce the deceleration in the cabin is well below the speeds at which a seat-belted occupant of an airbag equipped vehicle has to worry about serious injury. Crumple zones are undeserving of the worship they get. If you want to worship something worship side curtain airbags. They save a lot more life and injury than crumple zones. Pre-tensioners are also another feature that I'd rather have than a crumple zone. As a general rule, features that directly keep the occupants from hitting things are far more beneficial to outcomes than stuff that acts upon the whole vehicle. Secondly, it is perfectly possible to design cars that do not need tons of invasive repairs from minor fender benders. Revise bumper and front/rear cosmetic design to allow for effective bumpers (see also: the 1980s) and tune crumple zones to need higher forces to deform them so you don't have to potentially replace a whole car over a 10-15mph collision. The tradeoff here is that the speed range at which crumple zones do much would move up which is good for real world performance bad for scoring that perfect five stars in a low speed lab test that actually helps sell cars.
    - tempestn 4y ago
      If you're going to make blanket assertions that safety tests are invalid and/or that the engineers designing cars don't know what they're doing, some references are probably called for.
      - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
        > If you're going to make blanket assertions that safety tests are invalid and/or that the engineers designing cars don't know what they're doing, some references are probably called for. Can you please cite where I stated, or hell, I'll settle for strongly implied, "the safety tests are invalid" or that "the engineers designing cars don't know what they're doing". The person I am replying to made a trite low effort comment. I, without calling them out like they deserved, explained that the situation is more nuanced and their opinion is slightly off mark. You then replied with another trite low effort comment straw-manning me. FFS this is ridiculous.
EdwardDiego 4y ago
That was a great article that makes me very happy about how Ford are approaching EV utes, I've often noted the tendency to make EVs weirder than their ICE equivalents. Well done Ford.
6stringmerc 4y ago
Thanks for sharing, I have a weirdo car loving fun friend into RC stuff and maybe he can help them with some sidebar content. This is super!
boringg 4y ago
Just took a quick scan - funny, intelligent, in-depth technical content in here but very approachable. This has definitely hackernews community quality to it. Thought this was interesting: https://www.theautopian.com/this-junky-postal-jeep-with-a-chevy-v8-engine-is-a-reminder-that-america-is-the-wild-west-of-car-culture/ https://www.theautopian.com/this-junky-postal-jeep-with-a-ch...
dangus 4y ago
Very cool site indeed. Looking at photos of the F-150 Lightning chassis, it seems like a pickup truck's body-on-frame design has a nice unintended benefit of being easy to convert to electric. The "frame" doesn't look so different from the "skateboard" EV design that's common. A lot of converted gas to EV cars like the Genesis Electrified GV80 rob interior space for shoehorned batteries, but the F-150 is all gains with that massive front trunk.

1letterunixname 4y ago

Scotty Kilmer from Houston enters the chat to talk about how new cars are plastic garbage and how their low profile tires look "cool" but are woefully fragile.

prottog 4y ago
He actually moved to Tennessee!
jackmott 4y ago
Well the fragility of low profile wheel/tire packages is true at least
dzonga 4y ago
n that the only car worth buying is '91 Toyota Celica
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 4y ago
  The Celica All-Trac is fantastic
  - mlambie 4y ago
  - rainbowzootsuit 4y ago
    Celica GT-Four drivetrain in a Austin Mini https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSOZAHg1yQHU1tc_3Y5MTQg1qjtxA_nq https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGSOZAHg1yQHU1tc_3Y5M...
- mmmpop 4y ago
  bro but rotary engines, you need an RX7 or I hear GT3000s are fast and shit but your bank probably won't give you a loan for a used Mitsubishi. maybe your mom will let you hold on rent for a bit??
msla 4y ago
New cars are so fragile, they deform into scrap instead of transmitting the force to the occupants!
- throwaway0a5e 4y ago
  Crumple zones perform a very specific function in the sequence of airbag deployment (letting the sensors crash and bags deploy before the cabin starts decelerating). The speed window at which they will appreciably reduce the deceleration in the cabin is well below the speeds at which a seat-belted occupant of an airbag equipped vehicle has to worry about serious injury. Crumple zones are undeserving of the worship they get. If you want to worship something worship side curtain airbags. They save a lot more life and injury than crumple zones. Pre-tensioners are also another feature that I'd rather have than a crumple zone. As a general rule, features that directly keep the occupants from hitting things are far more beneficial to outcomes than stuff that acts upon the whole vehicle. Secondly, it is perfectly possible to design cars that do not need tons of invasive repairs from minor fender benders. Revise bumper and front/rear cosmetic design to allow for effective bumpers (see also: the 1980s) and tune crumple zones to need higher forces to deform them so you don't have to potentially replace a whole car over a 10-15mph collision. The tradeoff here is that the speed range at which crumple zones do much would move up which is good for real world performance bad for scoring that perfect five stars in a low speed lab test that actually helps sell cars.
  - tempestn 4y ago
    If you're going to make blanket assertions that safety tests are invalid and/or that the engineers designing cars don't know what they're doing, some references are probably called for.
    - throwaway0a5e 4y ago
      > If you're going to make blanket assertions that safety tests are invalid and/or that the engineers designing cars don't know what they're doing, some references are probably called for. Can you please cite where I stated, or hell, I'll settle for strongly implied, "the safety tests are invalid" or that "the engineers designing cars don't know what they're doing". The person I am replying to made a trite low effort comment. I, without calling them out like they deserved, explained that the situation is more nuanced and their opinion is slightly off mark. You then replied with another trite low effort comment straw-manning me. FFS this is ridiculous.

EdwardDiego 4y ago

That was a great article that makes me very happy about how Ford are approaching EV utes, I've often noted the tendency to make EVs weirder than their ICE equivalents. Well done Ford.

6stringmerc 4y ago

Thanks for sharing, I have a weirdo car loving fun friend into RC stuff and maybe he can help them with some sidebar content. This is super!

boringg 4y ago

Just took a quick scan - funny, intelligent, in-depth technical content in here but very approachable. This has definitely hackernews community quality to it. Thought this was interesting: https://www.theautopian.com/this-junky-postal-jeep-with-a-chevy-v8-engine-is-a-reminder-that-america-is-the-wild-west-of-car-culture/ https://www.theautopian.com/this-junky-postal-jeep-with-a-ch...

dangus 4y ago

Very cool site indeed. Looking at photos of the F-150 Lightning chassis, it seems like a pickup truck's body-on-frame design has a nice unintended benefit of being easy to convert to electric. The "frame" doesn't look so different from the "skateboard" EV design that's common. A lot of converted gas to EV cars like the Genesis Electrified GV80 rob interior space for shoehorned batteries, but the F-150 is all gains with that massive front trunk.