How Ford Tests its F150 (& uses Men from Craigslist)

Jul 7 2014

From inside the factory – how Ford tests its F150 pickup truck before putting it into final production.

From the robots to the dynos, actually Ford’s toughest test involves men it hired off Craigslist – the ‘Big Man Test’.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

One of the toughest tests Ford has created doesn’t involve robots, or any tech at all. Instead they used 6’7″ 300 lbs men they hired from Craigslist, and called it the “Big Man Test”.

Fun fact: Ford’s PR team said this is the first time the ‘Big Man Test’ story has ever been published in Canada.

YES to my story finding skills.

***

From when I travelled with Ford to their proving grounds and factory last week.

Torque test.

Seat test for rattles.

That’s Mark, a 165 lb fake-human.

The tests run 24/7 for days.

There are robots everywhere.

This robot tests the fabric wear on the seats.

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

Day 3 of Ford’s Trend Conference #FordTrends

Jun 27 2014

Started off yesterday at Ford’s “Proving Ground”.

Every automaker has one, and I’ve always dreamed to go, just because of the name.

A little track time, but I only cruised around.

Was neither the time nor place to punch it.

More individual posts coming about the robot cars, and some new headers.

But the best part of the day was touring Ford’s factory.

SO rare that media is permitted to take photos. Extremely rare. And since I filmed every robot I could find, that ought to become a good exclusive video.

Nestled into a gorgeous post, just look at this photo example.

As an OCD wackjob, this was right up my ally.

Then it was back to the airport, where next week’s column came from (Ford uses Craigslist to hire men to test its F150).

Passed through this terminal, and folded space and time #NoFilter

Throw in a wing tip photo here, to quickly illustrate I was travelling.

Hoovered up 100 American MBs (since Tuesday afternoon). Thankfully TELUS has good US plans, because I bet many of you didn’t put that much through while here at home.