福特下一代电动汽车内部的计算机，在客户拿到车钥匙之前就已经有了一项任务。在福特“加速”（Accelerate）大会的一场圆桌采访中，首席执行官吉姆·法利（Jim Farley）表示，基于这家汽车制造商即将推出的通用电动汽车平台（Universal Electric Vehicle，简称UEV）所生产的车辆，将利用其车载计算机来验证装配连接情况。
The computer inside Ford's next generation EVs will have a job to do before customers ever get the keys. During a roundtable interview at Ford's Accelerate conference, CEO Jim Farley said vehicles built on the automaker's coming Universal Electric Vehicle platform, or UEV, will use their onboard computers to verify assembly connections.
“车辆会进行自我诊断，”他在采访中说道。此次采访由《商业内幕》（Business Insider）参与报道。“我们大多数工厂都使用视觉系统，从员工身后进行监督，确保他们正确安装部件，对吧？但在UEV上，我们不需要这样做。”福特的一位代表告诉《商业内幕》，福特并未取消工厂摄像头和其他外部质量检查。摄像头仍将是装配流程的一部分。
"The vehicle diagnoses itself," he said during the interview, attended by Business Insider. "Most of our plants, with vision systems looking over people's shoulder to make sure they attach something right? We don't have that in UEV." Ford isn't doing away with factory cameras and other external quality checks, a representative told Business Insider. Cameras will remain part of the assembly process.
新的变化在于车辆内部的验证机制：车辆通电后，即在喷漆工序一结束，其计算机就会告知工人车辆内部的连接是否正确。这种造车方式与传统做法截然不同。过去，包括福特在内的汽车公司一直依赖生产线外的检查和扫描仪来确认连接是否匹配。如今，福特表示，他们正将部分制造确认流程整合到车辆自身的“大脑”中。
What is new is the vehicle's internal verification: Once the vehicle has power, right after the painting process, its computer tells workers if the car's internal connections are correct. That's a wildly different approach to vehicle manufacturing. Historically, car companies, including Ford, have relied on off-the-line inspections and scanners to check if connections are properly paired. Now, Ford says it's bringing part of the manufacturing confirmation into the car's own brain.
“计算机会判断连接是否正确，并立即告知工人，”法利说道。此前，福特曾向《商业内幕》透露，他们正在通过技术提升装配工厂的质量控制能力。自2024年以来，该公司一直在部署自主研发的扫描仪——名为AiTriz和MAIVs，这些扫描仪结合机器学习和视频流技术，能够捕捉极其微小的错位。当工人佩戴手套时，这些系统尤其有用，因为此时他们难以通过触摸判断两个部件是否连接正确。
"The computer determines if the connections are done right, and tells the worker immediately," Farley said. Ford has previously talked to Business Insider about how it's turning to tech for quality control at its assembly plants. Since 2024, the company has been deploying internally-developed scanners — called AiTriz and MAIVs — which match machine learning and video streaming to catch minuscule misalignments. The systems can be especially useful when workers wearing gloves cannot easily feel whether two components are properly connected.
福特告诉《商业内幕》，在UEV平台上，这些外部检查并不会被取消，但内部验证机制将是该平台的新特性。对于福特而言，在车辆交付给客户之前发现更多问题，显然具有巨大的激励意义。
Ford told BI that those external checks are not going away on UEV — but the internal verification will be new for the platform. The company has an obvious incentive to find more problems before vehicles reach customers.
去年，该公司轻松创造了美国汽车行业的纪录，发布了超过150次车辆召回。此前的纪录由通用汽车于2014年创下，当时他们发布了77次召回。根据美国国家公路交通安全管理局（NHTSA）的数据，今年福特已经再次发布了78次召回。该公司表现出一定信心，认为其较新的车型正在扭转这一问题。6月，福特在JD Power的初始质量研究中位居榜首，并表示其大部分改进是在招聘了一批工程师之后实现的，其中包括重新聘用一些经验丰富的技术专家。
Last year, the company easily set a US auto industry record, issuing more than 150 vehicle recalls. The previous record was set by General Motors in 2014 when they issued 77. So far, Ford has posted another 78 this year, per NHTSA data. The company is showing some confidence that its newer vehicles are turning the issue around. In June, the company topped JD Power's initial quality study, and Ford said much of its improvement came after it hired a batch of engineers, including rehiring some experienced technical specialists.
简化设计是另一个重要因素。福特重申，即将推出的Fathom皮卡——首款基于电动汽车平台打造的车型——相比该汽车制造商此前的电动汽车项目，零部件减少了20%，紧固件减少了25%，工作站减少了40%。这款皮卡在路易斯维尔的工厂也将摒弃公司传统的单流装配线。取而代之的是，车辆的主要三大部件将分别制造，最后在一个中央“结合区”进行组装。
Simplification is another important element. Ford has reiterated that the coming Fathom pickup truck, the first vehicle built on the EV platform, has 20% fewer parts, 25% fewer fasteners, and 40% fewer workstations compared to the automaker's previous EV efforts. The truck's Louisville plant will also move away from the company's traditional single-stream assembly line. Instead, three major sections of the truck will be built separately before being brought together in a central "marriage."
福特将这种新方法称为“装配树”。福特尚未公布有关UEV装配工艺的若干细节——预计将于明年1月正式披露这些进展。想在福特工作吗？我们希望听到你的声音。请通过bshimkus@insider.com联系Ben Shimkus，或通过Signal联系bshimkus.41。请使用个人电子邮件地址和非工作设备。
Ford has dubbed the new approach an "assembly tree." Ford has not released several details about UEV's assembly approach — it expects to raise the curtain on those developments in January. Work at Ford? We want to hear from you. Contact Ben Shimkus at bshimkus@insider.com or Signal at bshimkus.41. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device.