FordPass - somebody should get fired

[RickMachE]

PAAK works for me most of the time but only after I took off my iPhone case that also held credit cards.
When PAAK doesn't work I just use the door keypad.

Which gets you in. Doesn't start the car...

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[scoopman]

Re calibration, the way we solved for diversity of Android phones is to look at a distribution of devices. It's pretty easy to know what to prioritize, it's Samsung then everything else basically. Distribution is very uneven. Hope you guys look at some metrics of who downloads FP or stats of sales in general to figure out what priority to calibrate for phone models.

 

[Chuck]

Yikes. Sounds like someone needs an EV-specific app!

That may happen but since EVs are a small amount of cars with FordPass it will be a while before Ford can justify a team just for an EV version of FordPass. Personally I doubt it will ever happen. From a management standpoint it's a duplication of effort.

 

[EELinneman]

That may happen but since EVs are a small amount of cars with FordPass it will be a while before Ford can justify a team just for an EV version of FordPass. Personally I doubt it will ever happen. From a management standpoint it's a duplication of effort.

Chuck, you bring up some important points about the app covering so many cars. But, with the level of software integration and the added complexity of the BEVs, I wonder if a new app just focused on the BEV would be less costly, easier to maintain and grow and provide a better customer experience.

One thing I learned at Microsoft was the "below the surface" costs of carrying around legacy code and support. There comes a time to prune what is not driving value.

 

[barryezl]

I thought that account was redirected to /dev/nul? ???

Based on the number of likes, I assume software engineers are overrepresented as Mach-E owners compared to the general population ?

 

[RickMachE]

That may happen but since EVs are a small amount of cars with FordPass it will be a while before Ford can justify a team just for an EV version of FordPass. Personally I doubt it will ever happen. From a management standpoint it's a duplication of effort.

Chuck, you bring up some important points about the app covering so many cars. But, with the level of software integration and the added complexity of the BEVs, I wonder if a new app just focused on the BEV would be less costly, easier to maintain and grow and provide a better customer experience.

One thing I learned at Microsoft was the "below the surface" costs of carrying around legacy code and support. There comes a time to prune what is not driving value.

It already happened. MyFordMobile. We used it for the 3 years we owned our Ford Fusion Energi PHEV. An EV app, and website, that Ford still uses. Inexplicable to me why the EVs aren't on that.

https://www.myfordmobile.com/content/mfm/app/site/login.html

 

[HuntingPudel]

Quick report on my PaaK trial yesterday. I tried to get into my car three times yesterday. It unlocked once upon walking up to the car. I was approaching from the front of the car and it recognized my PaaK 20 or more feet away. The other two times I approached from the rear and the right side. Neither time did the car recognize my PaaK for entry. I unlocked the car using the button in the FP app. The car started just fine all three times, twice with the phone on my belt (left side), once with phone on charging pad. ?‍?

 

[kltye]

Re calibration, the way we solved for diversity of Android phones is to look at a distribution of devices. It's pretty easy to know what to prioritize, it's Samsung then everything else basically. Distribution is very uneven. Hope you guys look at some metrics of who downloads FP or stats of sales in general to figure out what priority to calibrate for phone models.

Sure, and punish the rest of us who prefer to use non-crap devices? That's exactly what they did, and it's infuriating. There has to be a better, scalable solution to calibrate BT radios - because doing it for every new device that comes out is just ridiculous.

 

[scoopman]

That may happen but since EVs are a small amount of cars with FordPass it will be a while before Ford can justify a team just for an EV version of FordPass. Personally I doubt it will ever happen. From a management standpoint it's a duplication of effort.

EVs are Ford's strategic future, and they have to be realizing how outsized the perceived quality gap is to competitors in the space due to this legacy app they are trying to repurpose.

For EV customers the phone app is not an afterthought, and they might still be resourcing it this way. It is one of the key delighters or detractors of whether customers enjoy their whole $70k car.

I'm just not sure yet they have enough attention on it like they clearly had in so many other aspects of the product they got right with the vehicle.

 

[PaulP]

FordPass 3.35.2 has solved my battery draining problem I think. No drainage since the update. Check your app version.

I'm on 3.35.2. App was deactivated until I read it was fixed and gave it a try these last days. But it's clearly not fixed on a Galaxy S21.

 

[TheFDMayor]

I'm struggling with FordPass. Same as everybody else - PaaK setup on iOS is a goat rodeo. It thinks I'm in Detroit when trying to set departure times. The thing crashes like the Hindenburg, and it times out so often that I think this is the secret name for it - Timeout! And, I have stable gig internet.

Does anybody know a feedback channel that we can use? This POS is Charlie Sheen levels of unstable.

The app always seems to work for me?

 

[scoopman]

Sure, and punish the rest of us who prefer to use non-crap devices? That's exactly what they did, and it's infuriating. There has to be a better, scalable solution to calibrate BT radios - because doing it for every new device that comes out is just ridiculous.

Unfortunately this is one of the wonderful pitfalls of Android, there is a metric crapton of different devices. As a product manager you have to prioritize to maximize the impact of the team resources you have. That means you look at making sure you have coverage with the top n phones first.

As I hinted it's not generally an even distribution.

 

[Malacandra]

Which gets you in. Doesn't start the car...

Isn't that what the Backup Start Passcode is for?

 

[DenverDan]

I'm struggling with FordPass. Same as everybody else - PaaK setup on iOS is a goat rodeo. It thinks I'm in Detroit when trying to set departure times. The thing crashes like the Hindenburg, and it times out so often that I think this is the secret name for it - Timeout! And, I have stable gig internet.

Does anybody know a feedback channel that we can use? This POS is Charlie Sheen levels of unstable.

I haven't had big issues with it. It's stable and works. Installed since February 2021

 

[Mach-e4x]

Isn't that what the Backup Start Passcode is for?

Yes!

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