If you go to Ford’s website today and then try to build-and-price a Focus or a Fiesta, you’ll notice that Ford is offering an pretty significant upgrade: an integrated Flux Capacitor system for time travel. Adding a whole other dimension of travel to a car is a hell of an upgrade, but the power requirements are steep and it’s not actually available.
While I applaud Ford for offering time-travel-related equipment in their lower-end cars, I’m not crazy about the execution, which looks rushed. The Flux Capacitor does have its own housing and exposed inspection window, which is nice, but it lacks any sort of padded covering — an issue since this is front and center on the dash — and Ford appears to have just labelled the unit with a cheap label-maker. Ford really should have spent the money to brand this properly and make a more integrated housing.
Also, its location in the center stack does seem to replace the center stack screen, radio/entertainment system, and the HVAC controls. Is ford relocating these controls? I mean, I love time travel, but I also like A/C and music.
The 1.21 gigawatt power requirement concerns me, too. Will there need to be a really heavy battery pack to run the Flux Capacitor? Can you recharge it at a regular electric car recharging port?
So, great idea Ford, but you guys really need to not rush this and think through the integration better. Oh, and also to make it exist.
Contact the author at jason@jalopnik.com.