2013 Ford F-Series Super Duty Gets MyFord Touch With Physical Controls
Ford’s revised F-Series Super Duty was announced today, and aside from the giant chrome grille, the big news here is a revamped MyFord Touch system – now available with knobs and buttons in addition to the touch screen.
Gone are the haptic controls used on Ford passenger cars with MyFord Touch, replaced by the stack of buttons mounted just below the LCD screen. Ford says that truck owners often wear their work gloves while using the car’s stereo or HVAC controls, and the physical pieces were a necessity. Anyone with a touchscreen smartphone knows that texting with gloves on is generally a non-starter, and the same goes for MyFord Touch. Automotive News reports that only the Super Duty will get physical controls. No other Ford vehicle, not even the F-150, will be available with both MyFord Touch and non-haptic controls.
We’re pretty positive that Ford owners and potential customers who don’t wear work gloves would really like to do away with the current iteration of MyFord Touch and adopt the one used in the Super Duty. Ford has endured a number of complaints from both customers and outlets like Consumer Reports and J.D. Power, who measure vehicle quality and reliability. If anything, the sheer annoyance of using the system would be enough to deter me from getting a higher trim level Ford – and it would be hard to imagine truck buyers getting to enthusiastic about a complicated touch interface when the current setup works just fine.
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What? Resistive touchscreens weren't good enough?
i can already see the municipal / state / federal fleets lining up for these monstrosities.
Speaking of fleet vehicles, when my Dad bought them back in the 70's and 80's, the older ones from the 70's, especially the US Gov't GSA fleet cars were very basic, like no options other than heat/vent and that was it. The compacts were all fuel efficient inline 6's with automatics. By the late 70's, the interiors were upgraded to carpeting and some had at least an AM radio and a rear window defroster of some sort, but not much else (the '78 Ford Fairmont my Dad bought from the GSA fleet in 1982 had them both and carpeting but was still the base model). By the 1980's, Some cars even had AM/FM radios in some, the rest with AM radios and most had AC too but were still pretty basic. All had the base automatic with the exception of some Citations which actually were 4Cyl manuals and I think those had AC too, but not sure though (this being a whole fleet of 83 Citations that came to auction in '87). My Dad bought a 1983 Citation with the 2800 V6, automatic, AM radio and AC and nothing else. By the late 80's, the GSA cars were not as good a value as they once were as a result (then edging up in price) and his last GSA purchase was a base '87 Plymouth Reliant 4 door sedan with radio but no AC though. It may have had the 2.2L 4 but had the automatic though.
"Automotive News reports that only the Super Duty will get physical controls. No other Ford vehicle, not even the F-150, will be available with both MyFord Touch and non-haptic controls." Automotive News must have forgotten about the Focus and the Escape...