3.29.0 Fordpass update just released

[fallguy]

New phone, updated app, PaaK still doesn't work. Not surprised though.

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[Old Guy]

My Mach-E works just fine as does many others.

Sure some of the new fancy features (like PAAK) aren't quite there but you don't have to use them--I don't use PAAK I use the FOB and it has worked every time. I also rarely use the Ford Pass app other than to check on the charge status of the car and maybe remote start it once in a while. Works great for that.

Your Explorer doesn't have remote access via the Ford Pass app so sure it works but the Mach-E would work exactly the same (e.g. don't use the Ford Pass app and use the FOB).

Let’s see: I don’t have to open the back door to open the front door. To get the front door to work I don’t have to unhook the 12 volt, a battery which many folks report dying on them for no discernible reason. I don’t have to take 16 steps to reinstall the program that allows me to open the door. Many people report problems with the charging at home. My 2011 Explorer doesn’t drain my phone. I don’t get random messages telling me to take my car into the shop because it no longer works and where it stays for days or weeks because no one knows how to fix it. It took me four weeks from the day that I ordered to get the car. It was the first year of the new redo of the Explorer. The only systemic problem was with the Sync and that was corrected pretty quickly. I’ve never had a blank video screen. In the years I’ve had the car only one major problem. The air-conditioning died after 10 years. Only one fob is provided even though Ford knew or should have know, and clearly knows now, that PAAK is a disaster.

And then there are the dealers: some have no idea how to repair the car. Others add outrageous fees. Some have sold cars out from underneath the person ordering it. Many dealerships have/had no idea how Ford Options works. Shall we talk about the whole disaster of finding out where your car is? And how responsive has Ford been? This forum is replete with complaints about their unresponsiveness.

Jamie: you’re right. It’s because my Explorer doesn’t have all the electronics. But, that’s the point. Ford released a car that is full of faults because of the electronics. This car needed to spend more time in development. Ford should recognize they are not a software company. The Mach e may work fine for many, but I do not want to be one of the people whose car dies on the interstate.

Maybe I’ll consider a Mach e, which I really want, in 2023.

 

[kltye]

 

[Old Guy]

That’s a $50,000 to $60,000 cloud. it will be interesting to hear if the GT has the same or new problems or if they are fixed.

 

[kevC]

Imagine being such a boomer that you think an Internet forum where you GO TO COMPLAIN ABOUT ISSUES is representative of what happens to every model of that vehicle. I’ve literally not had any issues with mine besides occasional FordPass quirks on features that didn’t even exist in my previous cars. Good god.

 

[Al-E]

That’s prob the most disingenuous post I’ve read on here and that’s really saying something. Like, come on.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Let’s see: I don’t have to open the back door to open the front door. To get the front door to work I don’t have to unhook the 12 volt, a battery which many folks report dying on them for no discernible reason. I don’t have to take 16 steps to reinstall the program that allows me to open the door. Many people report problems with the charging at home. My 2011 Explorer doesn’t drain my phone. I don’t get random messages telling me to take my car into the shop because it no longer works and where it stays for days or weeks because no one knows how to fix it. It took me four weeks from the day that I ordered to get the car. It was the first year of the new redo of the Explorer. The only systemic problem was with the Sync and that was corrected pretty quickly. I’ve never had a blank video screen. In the years I’ve had the car only one major problem. The air-conditioning died after 10 years. Only one fob is provided even though Ford knew or should have know, and clearly knows now, that PAAK is a disaster.

The thing about forums is very few people are here to complain about how perfect their cars are. This place can be an echo chamber and it amplifies the problems well beyond proportion. That's not to say there aren't problems with PAAK, or Ford Pass, or <insert complaint du jour here>. There are. But they may not be quite as prevalent as us denizens of the mach-e Forum think.

For the record, I've had exactly 2 times where PAAK didn't work and only one of those was a disaster. The rest of the time it's worked exactly as advertised or so close it's not an issue. And I've had none of the other problems.

 

[Kabish]

"Its a first generation vehicle, its bound to have issues"

That statement grinds me in every way possible. Answer this, do you think the consumer, who paid their hard working money, on a car came up with that saying? Or do you think the corporations came up with that saying? "So sir I have some news about your new house. See, this is our first model and we kind of forgot to put wiring to all your switches. What can you do, its a first gen floorplan!?!" Little extreme but you get the point, absurd right??? It has been said for centuries and the public has came to except it because that is the reason they get shoved down their throats for the companies incompetence.

The software gaming industry is the exact same way. 20yrs ago consumers had this weird thing called betas where the public could test software and the companies would unbelievably take that information and make corrections. The end result were basically flawless games. Hell, they even put CD copies of betas in magazines so they could reach more people. Now..... Ya, they do "betas" to see if their servers will crap out and test load balance of their internal network. Games come out now in APPULING condition, yet record pre order sales still hit the charts when people KNOW its going to be months before the game is playable, and maybe a year before the game is where it should had been at release. Look at the Indie games market, you know the people with 1% of the budget these AAA companies have. They release some AMAZING stuff.

Companies need to stop letting their stock holders set their schedules regardless if the product is ready. Consumers need to start raising hell over products that are sold at full price that are not ready for market. Not directing this just to Ford, directing this to all big business, its absurd and they just smile at us as they take money hand over fist...

 

[bp99]

I have apps that run in the background and trigger when I get within range of my house (geofenced). Those apps use about 1-2% all day. They could use a similar approach with PaaK. The app knows where the car is and where the phone is via GPS. If the phone is more than X feet from the car the app should stop trying to connect. Once the accelerometer picks up movement on the phone, check the location of the phone. Until the phone is remotely close the car it shouldn't be making futile attempts to connect to the car. They aren't reinventing the wheel here, there are many apps that have very similar functionality don't have these issues.

There are a lot of places where a car might be parked or a phone might be all day where GPS is unreliable. Running GPS in the background on the phone is also something that uses a lot of battery. Also with the speed that you would walk up to the car and the latency expected by users, setting a longer polling time to reduce battery use would not suffice. If the app is running in a loop checking for a Bluetooth connection to the car, they're doing it wrong. It needs to be setting up a Service Listener and using callbacks. The app should be idle, using no cpu, waiting for the callback to wake it up when the Bluetooth connection state changes.

 

[Eraser]

There are a lot of places where a car might be parked or a phone might be all day where GPS is unreliable. Running GPS in the background on the phone is also something that uses a lot of battery. Also with the speed that you would walk up to the car and the latency expected by users, setting a longer polling time to reduce battery use would not suffice. If the app is running in a loop checking for a Bluetooth connection to the car, they're doing it wrong. It needs to be setting up a Service Listener and using callbacks. The app should be idle, using no cpu, waiting for the callback to wake it up when the Bluetooth connection state changes.

Agreed there are many ways to skin that cat. Regardless we're both in agreement, they are doing it wrong.

 

[jojomontag]

"Its a first generation vehicle, its bound to have issues"

That statement grinds me in every way possible. Answer this, do you think the consumer, who paid their hard working money, on a car came up with that saying? Or do you think the corporations came up with that saying? "So sir I have some news about your new house. See, this is our first model and we kind of forgot to put wiring to all your switches. What can you do, its a first gen floorplan!?!" Little extreme but you get the point, absurd right??? It has been said for centuries and the public has came to except it because that is the reason they get shoved down their throats for the companies incompetence.

The software gaming industry is the exact same way. 20yrs ago consumers had this weird thing called betas where the public could test software and the companies would unbelievably take that information and make corrections. The end result were basically flawless games. Hell, they even put CD copies of betas in magazines so they could reach more people. Now..... Ya, they do "betas" to see if their servers will crap out and test load balance of their internal network. Games come out now in APPULING condition, yet record pre order sales still hit the charts when people KNOW its going to be months before the game is playable, and maybe a year before the game is where it should had been at release. Look at the Indie games market, you know the people with 1% of the budget these AAA companies have. They release some AMAZING stuff.

Companies need to stop letting their stock holders set their schedules regardless if the product is ready. Consumers need to start raising hell over products that are sold at full price that are not ready for market. Not directing this just to Ford, directing this to all big business, its absurd and they just smile at us as they take money hand over fist...

Of course, in many cases, like video games, the beta costs nothing, especially in the last 10 years. I downloaded betas from the Playstation Network for free over and over again without paying a dime. But using a car that costs 40-60K as a beta is not ok.

Granted, there are Mach E owners who have had few issues. There are also Mach E owners who won't go on forums. How many of them have or haven't had issues? The forum is only a sample size of both the good and the bad, and we have no idea how accurate its representation of all owners is.

I said before that I love my Mach E. I just hate that Ford didn't make sure that owners like me don't have to sit around for weeks to have it repaired. I was told yesterday that the problem was isolated and the parts ordered (and supposedly shipped). The car was dropped off on August 13th! And I think that I may have been waiting even longer (without a loaner/rental) if I hadn't emailed the corporate office and CCd the top dogs at the dealership. Ever since then I have been provided a rental at a higher daily rate than the warranty provides, and the service manager has been keeping me updated daily (sometimes more than once in the day). He even made sure to take pics of the Ford engineer diagnosing the car.

By the way, my Mach E is silver. Not sure whose black Mach E is in the background. I pointed it out to the service manager. He said he didn't even notice it ?

 

[JamieGeek]

Let’s see: I don’t have to open the back door to open the front door. To get the front door to work I don’t have to unhook the 12 volt, a battery which many folks report dying on them for no discernible reason. I don’t have to take 16 steps to reinstall the program that allows me to open the door. Many people report problems with the charging at home. My 2011 Explorer doesn’t drain my phone. I don’t get random messages telling me to take my car into the shop because it no longer works and where it stays for days or weeks because no one knows how to fix it. It took me four weeks from the day that I ordered to get the car. It was the first year of the new redo of the Explorer. The only systemic problem was with the Sync and that was corrected pretty quickly. I’ve never had a blank video screen. In the years I’ve had the car only one major problem. The air-conditioning died after 10 years. Only one fob is provided even though Ford knew or should have know, and clearly knows now, that PAAK is a disaster.

And then there are the dealers: some have no idea how to repair the car. Others add outrageous fees. Some have sold cars out from underneath the person ordering it. Many dealerships have/had no idea how Ford Options works. Shall we talk about the whole disaster of finding out where your car is? And how responsive has Ford been? This forum is replete with complaints about their unresponsiveness.

Jamie: you’re right. It’s because my Explorer doesn’t have all the electronics. But, that’s the point. Ford released a car that is full of faults because of the electronics. This car needed to spend more time in development. Ford should recognize they are not a software company. The Mach e may work fine for many, but I do not want to be one of the people whose car dies on the interstate.

Maybe I’ll consider a Mach e, which I really want, in 2023.

My car has none of those issues and if you read the "happy about their Mach-E's" thread you'll see that there are a great many people that also are not having those issues.

Like mentioned above: Forums have a way of concentrating problems so that they appear more frequent than they actually are happening. I've seen this all over the place, not just here but many other forums. I've also seen many posts similar to yours of people expressing a similar opinion: "Wow! I had no idea product XYZ was so fraught with problems--I'm for sure not getting one".

99% of the happy people are out driving and not posting here. Its the nature of the beast these days: What is the first thing you do if you have an issue? Google it which leads you here. If you don't have an issue you're not googling it.

 

[Shayne]

Reading this thread and others over the last few months confirms my decision to keep my 2011 Ford Explorer for the foreseeable future.

It works.

Just looked in my rear view mirror ............... now I see you . Vehicle works fine here. For the hundredth time people do not seek out forums to congratulate anyone they do because they have a problem and it does not matter how small. This car is by far the most interesting and enjoyable vehicle I have ever driven. It has a weird attraction to owners and when it is this good you seek it to be perfect. I had one defective module; Ford came through and troubleshot it, replaced it and since then it has been fantastic. I guess paak on your Explorer is glitch free and hence the decision based on this thread. Paak (this thread) is not the MME and does not require it to operate. This car works ????? Look at the awards.

@JamieGeek It is getting better we are down for 31 post lurkers before they start bashing ford with long BS posts from non-owners about how it does not work. They know this because it was on the internet and if someone says it on the internet it is fact. Issue and whining free here at this stage also. Those that do not wanting to buy one are just better for someone that does. How many times do you think they will try to spread misinformation and bad PR on this vehicle before they leave? Not buying it because of a paak thread ?. Felt the need to post this decision and then hammer it again. Wonder if they even test drove it or this thread was all it took? ?

 

[RockwallRick]

My Fordpass experience has been MUCH better since going PAAK less!! The only problem I see is the home page not updating with the correct SOC and range.

 

[Shayne]

My Fordpass experience has been MUCH better since going PAAK less!! The only problem I see is the home page not updating with the correct SOC and range.

That works. The only part of paak that I care about is the remote start for winter time. This part of phone as a fob shows up by just installing fordpass and not the actual paak part. So really I only need fordpass installed and only for the remote start button. I know of no workaround of a fob button sequence to achieve this function yet (windows up and down yes). Which means I only need to open the fordpass app once in a blue moon which may save my phone battery. I know for a fact I will not be doing that and have paak set up on two phones . A sucker for new tech through and through. I think most of the owners of MME's may be a bit the same.

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