New 2021 Ford F-150 Electrical Architecture Will Make It Harder to Tune
2021 Ford F-150 will be tougher to tune, but the automaker is willing to work with third parties to make it a reality.
As Corvette fans are already painfully aware of, automakers are working overtime to make new vehicles harder and harder to hack. This would seem like a good thing on the surface, as the biggest fear most have of new technology is that it makes vehicles more susceptible to hackers. However, high levels of encryption also make vehicles like the new C8 Corvette extremely difficult to tune, and now it appears that the 2021 Ford F-150 will be as well, thanks to its all-new fully-networked vehicle (FNV) electrical architecture.
We know this because Ford vehicle programs director Ali Jamoul admitted as much to Ford Authority in a recent interview. “cybersecurity is a big deal for us with this new electrical architecture, so we’re building into it all the protection needed to prevent attacks and hacking and provide safety and their data and their privacy,” Jamoul said.
The difference between Ford and General Motors, however, is that The Blue Oval is willing to work with third parties to offer performance upgrades, while Corvette fans have essentially been left out in the cold, waiting for someone to crack the C8’s code.
“We’re very open to working with others where it does make a difference to our customer, where we see opportunities to add more features or drive more performance, absolutely,” Jamoul said. “But the electrical system is also open, in that you can work in such a sense that you can work with third parties and collaborate with them on other features, as needed.”
That’s a refreshing approach to this newfound problem, and one that will ensure tuners like Roush and Shelby can continue to offer performance upgrades for the 2021 Ford F-150, as they have successfully done for years now. “We will collaborate a lot,” Jamoul told Ford Authority. “This is a new way of doing business now, the old way doesn’t work anymore. So you’ve gotta collaborate and keep it flexible and open.”
As of right now, Ford is touting over-the-air update capability as FNV’s biggest immediate benefit, though it promises to offer a host of connectivity features in the future. The new electrical architecture makes its debut in the 2021 Ford F-150 and 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E, though different versions will be implemented into forthcoming models as well.
Photos: Ford
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