For other professions, WFM is less straightforward.
Case in point: automotive engineers, some of who need the auto as well as their computer gear.
This I saw in a recent article on CNN about Aleyna Kapur, who's working on Ford's new Mustang Mach-E, an electric SUV.
A Mustang SUV?
Sounds a bit like heresy.
When I was in high school, the Mustang was pretty much the "it" car.
One of the girls in my high school had one. When she pulled into the parking lot, those of us slogging to school on Worcester buses were left slack-jawed.
My Mustang-driving classmate was one of the wealthier girls in my class. Like several others who ranked among the school's top econonmic echelon, her father owned a funeral parlor. (I went to an all-girls Catholic school that catered to Worcester's Irish Catholic elite: doctors, lawyers, funeral parlor owners... I was there on scholarship.)
I never got a ride in MB's Mustang - we were friendly enough, but didn't run in the same circles. It was an object of wonder from afar.
None of my friends had cars, other than when we got the use of the family's Ford, Chevy or Dodge. The father of one of my friend's was the County of Worcester's mental health officer, charged with transporting patients to the state hospital. His "company car" was a blue and white Checker. (The only other Checkers I've ever seen in my life were cabs.) Anyway, K occasionally had her father's car and we'd pile into it for some mild adventure, and if K was feeling especially frisky, she'd blast the car's siren.
The other interesting car that occasionally made its way into our school's parking lot was that of another K friend. Her father was in the Air Force, and before finding themselves in Worcester, the family had been stationed in England. They came back to The States with a wrong-side-driving Austin Mini. Although you could pack fewer people into it than you could into the Checker, you could fit more than a few high school girls (and an occasional nun) in there for a trip to a basketball game.
But MB's Mustang? Her very own Mustang? Wow!
Somehow, there's now going to be a Mustang SUV, which somehow does not compute with my idea of a Mustang. But if a Porsche can be an SUV, I suppose I have to give it a 'why not.' In any case, Aleyna Kapur is working on it. From home.
When Aleyna Kapur started working from home due to the coronavirus pandemic, she had to take a few things from the office: her laptop, some cables and a Ford Mustang Mach-E electric SUV...
Kapur is a calibrator. Her job is to make sure all the computer software controlling the Mach-E's electric motors responds as it's supposed to, under every conceivable circumstance. If done incorrectly, the vehicle might not start and stop smoothly, struggle over different types of terrain, or some parts might overheat or malfunction in extreme weather. (Source: CNN)Kapur isn't the only Ford engineer that got to bring home a pre-production version of the car when they packed up their desks so they could work from home. There are another dozen or so tootling around their neighborhoods when they need to check things out.
At some point, they'll need to get those Mach-E's into a real test environment, the kind that invovles crash test dummies. But until then, they're working from home. Just not stuck staring at the same four walls all day.
The Mustang Mach-E was supposed to be available this coming fall. It's not clear yet how coronavirus will impact that date. But it's good to know that, despite the pandemic, it's in the works. Even if I'm not sure I'm down with the idea of a Mustang SUV.
Meanwhile, Mustang Aleyna is working from home. Ride, Aleyna, Ride!
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