I’d never seen anything like it before. In the 2025 Ford F-150 Lightning Supercrew, there’s a mode where you can play karaoke with friends and family, and it’s a blast.
Activities like this pop up in trucks and other vehicles because they add to the overall experience. Yes, there’s plenty of safety tech in modern vehicles. The Lightning is highly capable, providing about 250 miles of range or even longer in the extended range version. Yet, once you pull one out of the lot, any extra amenities just make it more fun.
Stingray Karaoke is easy to use and works in two different modes. When you’re parked, you can quickly select a song from about 80,000 and see the words on the screen. There’s a mode where you can hear the words or mute them.
A second mode is for the passengers and works when you are driving. No, Ford does not want the driver looking at the main display. Instead, passengers can scan a QR code and use the app to see the lyrics while the song plays on the Lightning speakers.
I tested the karaoke with a few family members on a long drive to a major metro area. We started in the parked mode in my driveway just to see how it all works.
I pulled up a Springsteen song I know well and a few of us were familiar with. A sad discovery during my testing was that not everyone knew his main hit songs. No matter, a few of us sang along. The words appear just right on the main center display and the 15.5 portrait screen was big enough for people to see in the second row just fine.
The other mode is arguably more fun because you can use it while driving. Passengers all downloaded the app and were able to sing using the words on their small screens. I caved and played some more modern songs. Ford has a line on their website that’s actually pretty funny: “It might not improve bad singing, but it’s sure to make wait-time and drive-time a little more entertaining.” I hear you on that one, content creators at Ford.com.
We all felt like the karaoke was a big departure from the other apps and services on modern cars, those that are fun but possibly a little boring. I’ve used geocaching apps on vehicles and even played games on the second row screens before, but this one built a stronger sense of community as we could all participate and enjoy the time driving more.
I have a few suggestions on how to improve it, though.
It would be fun to control the app using a voicebot of some kind and even engage with the bot like it was the host of a game show. The bot could handle all of the heavy lifting like looking up songs and even asking each player for a name. This “host” would then call on someone to do the singing. Whether they oblige is another matter, but I could see it working even better.
Overall, everyone in the truck loved the app and we played multiple rounds. It’s easy to see how an app like this makes you want to hang out on a drive even more.