Have you ever wondered why prototype cars are covered in stickers and other random things? Paul Maric takes a look behind the scenes at why Ford's prototype vehicles look the way they do and how you can identify certain features on the vehicles.
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Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Why do they look like this: 0:44
Inside the cabin: 2:13
Engineer interview: 3:35
Wrap up: 6:37
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#ford #ranger #everest
More Ford content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford/
More Ford Ranger content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/ford/ranger
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Why do they look like this: 0:44
Inside the cabin: 2:13
Engineer interview: 3:35
Wrap up: 6:37
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
Follow us on social media to see what we're up to and to ask any questions!
CarExpert:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CarExpertAus
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/CarExpertAus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carexpert.com.au
Paul Maric:
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Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/PaulMaric
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PaulMaric
#ford #ranger #everest
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul.
00:01 Have you ever wondered why prototype cars
00:04 are full of camouflage and random stickers?
00:07 Well, I hope so, because we've just produced a video
00:09 explaining what it all means.
00:11 And today, I'm gonna take you through
00:12 some of the hidden details behind a pre-production car
00:15 before it is finally ready for the public to see
00:18 and before it is ready to go on sale.
00:20 A little while back, I was able to join Ford
00:22 on a development drive for the new Ranger, Raptor,
00:24 and Everest, and during that time,
00:26 I got a bit of a behind-the-scenes look
00:28 at a new Ranger that is full of
00:30 some interesting pre-production stuff.
00:33 Now, before we get started on the video,
00:34 if you haven't done so already,
00:36 please make sure you subscribe to our channel,
00:38 press the bell icon, 'cause that's gonna tell you
00:40 every single time we publish one of these videos.
00:42 Why do the cars look like this,
00:46 and what are some of the unique features
00:47 you get on a prototype?
00:49 And if we come in a little closer,
00:50 I'll start over here with the headlights.
00:51 You can see, obviously, this is a Velcro-type thing
00:54 across the headlights,
00:55 and that's simply to cover up the headlights
00:57 so you can't see the exact contour of them.
00:59 But then, when this is back on the car,
01:01 the headlights still need to be able to work,
01:03 the indicators and all that kind of stuff.
01:04 So, the guys constantly need to keep an eye on this
01:07 to make sure that they aren't running into any dramas there
01:09 with this flapping around in the wind
01:11 and covering up the headlights,
01:12 because it still has to be a road-legal vehicle.
01:14 And if you come around over to this side,
01:16 you'll see all of these yellow cables.
01:18 These are all thermocouples.
01:19 So, running through the length of the car,
01:22 these are connected to various things, such as your engine.
01:24 You've got some connected to the spare battery.
01:26 It really is just to keep a very close eye
01:28 on what's going on with the car.
01:30 These things are really important
01:31 to the whole engineering process,
01:33 and it gives the guys a really good understanding
01:34 of what's going on beneath the skin
01:36 and exactly how the car's performing.
01:38 Another curious one as well, it's a little hard to see,
01:40 but around the side of the car,
01:41 if you want to come around here,
01:43 around the side of the car,
01:44 the contours here are all kind of fake
01:46 because they're full of padding.
01:47 Beneath there, you can see there's a padding
01:49 that basically prevents you from seeing
01:51 the exact angles here.
01:52 And on something like the Raptor,
01:53 which have big, beefy wheel arches,
01:55 you don't really want people seeing that
01:57 until the car's ready to be revealed.
01:58 So, that's the whole purpose of that.
02:00 The car's then covered in a stack of different stickers
02:02 that help Ford identify this car in their fleet,
02:04 the engine that's fitted to it,
02:05 but they obviously don't mean anything
02:07 to the average consumer.
02:08 Now, let's jump inside
02:09 because there's some really cool things
02:11 in the cabin as well that I want to run you through.
02:13 Right, so we're inside the cabin.
02:15 I guess it's kind of obvious, but I'll explain it anyway.
02:17 All of this is so that you can't see the interior.
02:20 And up until, I guess, we exposed it,
02:23 there was no idea that Ford had a really big screen in here.
02:26 So, these covers stop the public from being able to see this.
02:30 And part of the protocol is to basically make sure
02:32 the interior is covered whenever the car's out in public.
02:35 And if I lift these out of the way,
02:36 you can see why you've got this huge screen
02:38 in the center here, which is kind of a game changer
02:40 for Ford, and they don't want their competitors
02:42 seeing this until the car's ready to go.
02:44 When in addition to that, with these prototypes,
02:46 you can see some of these materials aren't finished.
02:48 And these are just so the car can get to the stage
02:50 where it's ready to be assembled and test-driven,
02:53 but these all come later down the track.
02:55 So, for example, the Everest that we're in at the moment,
02:57 you actually have the open-pore wood
02:58 and some of the finished features there.
03:00 It's slightly more progressed than this vehicle.
03:03 Couple of curious things here as well.
03:05 So, obviously, you've got a transmission tunnel cover
03:07 there as well, but you've got this.
03:08 This is kind of like an ejector seat,
03:10 but what it actually does is,
03:12 if the car has any curious problems or something goes wrong,
03:16 they're able to give that one hit,
03:17 and it'll start logging prior to that event
03:20 so that they can have a look at the logs later,
03:22 see what's happened with the car,
03:23 and get a better understanding of what needs to be fixed.
03:26 There's a couple of other features here as well
03:27 that I'm gonna get one of the engineers
03:29 to run us through now as well,
03:30 which is the emergency stop button,
03:31 plus a feature that allows them to record notes
03:34 in the infotainment system.
03:35 So, I thought to explain exactly how all this stuff works,
03:38 we have Tim Postgate, who's part of the development program
03:42 for this car, but also an off-road expert.
03:44 Tim, do you wanna just run us through what happens
03:46 if someone pushes that, and why you would ever push that?
03:50 - Okay, so this vehicle is obviously a prototype,
03:53 and not production software and safety systems.
03:57 So, we have the emergency stop switch here,
04:00 which disconnects power from the engine control unit,
04:03 and a couple of other modules on the car,
04:05 so that it fails safe.
04:07 So, if anything untoward happened,
04:09 we're all trained, we can hit that.
04:11 You still have steering, brakes, and everything,
04:13 but it cuts the power to the engine, basically.
04:15 - And then it logs data so you know
04:17 what to look for later on, is that right?
04:20 - That's right.
04:21 It collects a snapshot as you shut the vehicle down.
04:25 However, we have a couple of other data logging devices
04:28 on the vehicle.
04:30 The first one is a data logger that we run
04:32 with the car all the time, and we have what looks like
04:35 a nasty thing about them to press.
04:40 So, when we find an issue that we want to make note of,
04:43 we press that, there's a couple of beeps
04:44 from the data logger, and that records 30 seconds before
04:49 and a minute afterwards, it's configurable as well.
04:54 And that gets uploaded to the cloud
04:58 as soon as there's reception.
04:59 - Yeah, awesome.
05:00 - So, it has a large storage device,
05:02 and then it uploads as soon as we get back to reception.
05:04 - So, the other cool feature of the infotainment system,
05:07 and this is something that I understand
05:09 won't make it to production cars,
05:10 but it gives you guys a chance to log things
05:13 using your voice so you can better explain things.
05:15 Do you wanna just demo how that works
05:16 and when you would actually use this?
05:18 - Sure, so on the center stack here with the sync screen,
05:22 we have a button at the top, and all we have to do
05:24 if there's some issue or observation
05:27 that we want to make note of,
05:28 we press and hold the button until it changes
05:31 to this screen, about 10 seconds.
05:33 - Yeah, cool.
05:33 - And then we get the option to record.
05:35 And as soon as we press record,
05:37 we can say, this is Tempo Skate,
05:40 I'm in this vehicle on this day.
05:43 We've observed that there's a pop-up that comes up
05:46 and it stays on too long.
05:47 This is a test, no action please.
05:51 - Yeah, and it's cool.
05:53 - And I've said that because that's logged.
05:54 - Yep.
05:55 - That's got up to the car.
05:56 - Someone's gonna check it.
05:57 - And someone back at base will see it and listen to it.
06:00 - Wow, so it really is,
06:01 when it comes to these development cars,
06:03 it's all about data and getting as much as you can
06:06 so that you can then refine it
06:07 and make changes to the car as required
06:08 sort of down the track.
06:09 - Yeah, that's right.
06:10 It helps us with the development process, tracking issues.
06:13 Obviously, we're looking for efficiency
06:15 and so the more feedback from each test that we do
06:20 that we can get, the feedback from the sync screen
06:23 can go straight to the sync team
06:24 even though nobody from the sync team is on this trip.
06:28 - Yep.
06:29 - And likewise, the powertrain guys,
06:31 they can get some actual recorded data
06:34 instead of us just trying to describe
06:35 what was happening at the time.
06:37 - Fantastic, awesome.
06:38 So there you go, that was interesting, wasn't it?
06:40 I actually learned a lot of stuff here
06:42 about how they engineer these cars
06:44 and being an engineer myself,
06:45 I thought it was quite fascinating.
06:46 So let me know in the comments section below,
06:48 is there anything else you wanna know?
06:50 I can probably ask some questions of the Ford engineers
06:52 to give you a bit more of a sneak peek into what happens.
06:56 Now, we have shot a stack of other videos
06:58 on next generation Ranger, Raptor and Everest.
07:01 So if you do wanna check those out,
07:02 scroll down to the description
07:04 where you'll find links to the rest of our content.
07:07 If you did enjoy this video today,
07:08 please make sure you like it and share it with your mates.
07:11 And if you haven't done so already,
07:12 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
07:14 But until next time, take it easy.