I didn't know where to post this but this is a good a place as any. Did you know there'll always be a FORD in FlORiDa?!  I had a gf named FLO in FLOrida. But she moved so I dated LORI in fLORIda. We broke up so I went out with IDA in florIDA. But then she moved to IDAho. (And no she wasn't!!!) I write songs so I notice word and letter play. But somebody who doesn't play the lottery will win it before any of my songs get recorded by anyone. I sent my TALE OF DALE EARNHARDT tribute song I wrote in 2001 to 20 entities and only former NASCAR race car driver Darrell Waltrip has replied so far.

Consumer interest in the 2022 Ford Maverick has proven to be quite strong since the compact pickup was revealed back in June. A grand total of 36,000 Ford Maverick reservations were secured in the first week they were available, and more than doubled to 80,000 just a few weeks later. Things haven't slowed down since then, and the automaker has now garnered 100,000 Ford Maverick reservations, according to the Detroit Free Press.   https://fordauthority.com/2021/08/2022-ford-maverick-reservations-surpass-100k-as-production-begins/

But people do WANT all those trucks and SUVs and  mustangs contrary to what you and Biker16 think.  Nobody is forcing consumers into those vehicles.   They stopped making cars because their costs were never optimized so they weren't profitable and Ford found better options.  

And that was the last time the prices of cars actually were lowered for the masses....these days, any efficiencies wrung out of new processes will be used to "enhance investor value"....Henry famously bristled at outsider stock ownership of his company and famously went on a buying spree to gather as much "common stock/shares" to regain control of the company that bore his name....business practices you will never see in our lifetimes ever again. 

It's only a loss until demand catches up with supply. Jim Farley eluded to this. I think the industry spent too much time trying to build a completely new type of vehicle with methods that don't suit the technology. How much money did Henry Ford lose between 1895 when he started on the Quadracycle prototype and the time that the assembly line-produced 1908 Model T started making money? It was only after Ford adopted the assembly line to build cars that they became affordable to the masses.  We are at that crossroads now where robotics, AI, giga-casting et al promises to make electric vehicles truly affordable.

I was under the impression that it was recycled/thrown out-I don't see how the economics of that would work. 

https://www.piher.net/news/steer-by-wire-ensuring-redundancy/   https://www.arnoldnextg.com/company/blog/safety-redundancy-why-drive-by-wire-must-be-fail-operational

Given how "good" an average person can drive, the first reaction is going to be to slam on the brakes. I don't think its going to be as big of an issue as it seems. 

But yet Ford isn't losing major parts of its market share short term either by doing this.    I'm guessing they'll be riding out the next 24 months or so till the new products start hitting. 

But look how that has worked out for the past couple vehicles that did that. I'd rather see this grow like the Maverick did vs trying to sell it like the Lightning or Cybertruck.