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.
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