Push a Button, Hitch Your Trailer – Ford's New AI Feature for Pickups

Ogre

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It’s a good feature.

A huge percentage of truck buyers only tow 2-3 times a year. Not often enough to develop the skills to do it quickly. The reversing camera and 4WS will be a huge help, but I personally would love an autopilot for this.

Though if you don’t tow often, is it worth $1000+ for it? Likely I’d pass for that. It is something I’d like to see on the Cybertruck, but not something I’m dropping hard cash on.
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Ogre

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‘Yeah… it’s a weird subset of people who tow frequently enough for it to be worth that much, but don’t have the skills to do it themselves.
 

Crissa

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I think it’s the reverse.

People are calling more and more things “AI” that are simple compute problems.
But that's always been what AI was. One half learning to teach a computer to teach itself, one half learning how to simplify the problem so it doesn't have to.

-Crissa
 

tidmutt

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‘Yeah… it’s a weird subset of people who tow frequently enough for it to be worth that much, but don’t have the skills to do it themselves.
I may tow something with the CT. The older I get the more I feel the urge to buy things that need to be towed. I seem to understand my father more and more. 😜 I have ZERO interest in a boat, but a couple of waverunners maybe or a smallish trailer/caravan is appealing. I know these things are likely a piece of cake to those experienced towers but I've only ever towed twice, once I was about 17 and I briefly pulled an 11 ft boat 10 miles or so. Another time I pulled errr... think it was a large offroad trailer, I was just sharing the driving with the person who owned it. Any way, I don't know what I'm doing, so for me, that AI backup facility might actually be helpful, although what I'd really like is assistance in maneuvering, particularly when reversing a trailer into a tight spot (which I would try to avoid). I have vivid memories of my dad doing that with much larger trailers and wondering how the hell he did it.

TLDR - I might like the AI tow hitch hook up feature, although I wouldn't be using it heaps, when I did, I might really appreciate it.
 


Jhodgesatmb

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Yep, an inability to back your vehicle up to the ball does indicate a level of incompetence that excludes the capacity towing anything. Although that same argument has been levelled at Autopilot for years… could be useful but it does take us down a weird path to widespread incompetence.
 
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hridge2020

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Here's a better demo video in action.

 

electricAK

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Great feature. I tow trailers often, and year round, and I'd love to not have to perform the hitchup myself. Would be great to hit a button and have it done perfectly every time.

A couple of thoughts:

1) Wasn't this already detailed in the cybertruck UI patent a few years ago? Pretty sure there's a screenshot showing a mockup of auto trailer hitch system. Surely they are working on this as a feature for the CT.

2) But that makes me wonder, how many rear cameras does the CT have, and where? If it's just a single center-mounted bumper cam, it's going to be hard to figure out distance to the hitch coupler. Seems like you would need a pretty high viewing angle or side angle to accurately judge that distance to such a small target.
 


charliemagpie

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It took me years to start using some functions in my car.. and to this day I haven't fully worked out the nuances because I hardly use the total functionality. i.e. cruise control.

if I had to hitch up for the first time in 20 years..the natural thing to do is just use the mirror and yell at the wife. lol
 

Bill906

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I have always expected this on the Cybertruck. It is no more difficult than summon and probably less so. I do think it could be optimized with ML though not necessary.
When I first heard of summon mode, I was hoping there'd be a mode where you could control the vehicle manually from the app. I pictured standing near the trailer and controlling the steering and movement of the CT via the app like a remote control.
 

Ogre

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When I first heard of summon mode, I was hoping there'd be a mode where you could control the vehicle manually from the app. I pictured standing near the trailer and controlling the steering and movement of the CT via the app like a remote control.
Ideally truck trailer attach feature would work like summon mode. You wouldn’t control the truck, but you would stand next to the hitch, hold down the button on the screen as it reverses under the trailer ball. Actually controlling the truck would be cool too, but unlikely IMO.

I’m really curious how 4WS works when reversing. Eliminating the game you play where the steering end follows the dead end will be nice.
 

Cboy7

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It is defiantly Ai, how is it not, it is sensor fusion between ultrasonics and Computer vision using Deep learning & object classification & distance monitoring via ultrasonics. I have ordered a CT, this feature is not a buying argument, but it is useful for sure
If it would have seen a human back up and hitch a trailer and then figure out what he did, it would be Ai. But its simply programmed to look for a hitch and align it and drive towards it.
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