Met the Ford team today + charging tips from Donna Dickson (Mach-E Chief Engineer)

[imstriker]

I feel your pain Black Horse. I love my MME Premium ever since purchased a year ago; however, I was promised BlueCruise would be ready by 2021 fall. Ford said it would be delayed further. Seems like Ford could let us know something as we are now in middle of March 2022?

I'd say this is really my only disappointment with the process. They went all over the media with releases talking about how all of this stuff would be added when we purchased our cars. Then they never communicate with us at all. The only way we knew BlueCruise was delayed was this forum and an investor call. Then in May they did a big press release about Alexa, features, etc and none of that happened. I just wish they would really communicate with owners instead of feeling like it is more about press releases. Otherwise I love my car and none of it really bothers me a great deal.

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[All Hat No Cattle]

In Jan Ford of Europe began talking to news outlets about an escape room game for the Mach-E. They had no intentions of actually rolling this out to cars but allowed countless news outlets to make big headlines about it. ( THIS IS LITERALLY VAPORWARE 101 )

Is there such a thing as vaporware news hype? Because if what I highlighted in bold actually happened......

 

[kindofblue]

I got to meet some of the folks behind the @Ford Motor Company today ... a really cool experience.

One of the reasons to avoid charging above 90% (unless you need the range) has to do with the car's ability to leverage regenerative braking. When the battery is at (or near) 100%, it is harder to push electrons into it. As a result, the regenerative braking is less efficient with a full battery and you'll see a lower miles/kWh rating (particularly in stop & go driving when regen is really useful.)​

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If you limit charging to 90%, you've left some room to make regenerative braking more efficient. (I cap mine at 80%)​

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Also, it will tend to be more efficient (better rating) on longer drives rather than short trips.​

If you are a person who routinely charges to 100% ... but don't technically *need* that 100% ... you'd be better off to limit the charging to get higher efficiency.

There were some hints about things to come. But I'm not sure what I can share ... so I'd prefer to keep private anything that may have been shared in confidence.

Charging no more than 80% is what Tesla has recommended for a long time now and only charging up to 100% just before you're heading out on a trip and need the max range.

 

[Jimrpa]

The OP works in tech, as do my wife and I so I'm certain he's heard of the term vaporware. That term is essentially Ford's whole strategy right now to drum up excitement by any means necessary, sell cars, then screw over paying customers and blame everyone but themselves. Sorry but it's just true, I'm not a Ford fanboy so it's extremely obvious to me what's going on...


Vaporware

noun
INFORMAL•COMPUTING

software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed.


( FYI I love my match-e, I just have no faith in Ford motor company to deliver and do the things they say they will do because they literally are not delivering and doing the things they say they will do )

You know who else had problems with “over the air” updates when they first started doing them? Apple. Go take a look at how many issues people had with the early iPhone over the air updates. Or the first macOS updates that were done entirely through software Update/App Store.
I’ll assume you really do “work in tech”, so you should know well the incidents I’m referring to.
This is Ford’s first run out of the gate. As eager as I am for the Remote Frunk Release PowerUp (are you beginning to get it @Ford Motor Company ?), I’m willing to cut them slack. This is non-trivial. If Apple were to brick my phone, it would be an annoying trip to the Apple store, or a call to Apple support. If Ford bricks my car, that’s a much bigger deal.

 

[Jimrpa]

The frunk button. Duh.

This has been explained. Anyone who’s read more than one post from me knows how eager I am for the frunk button. Clearly Ford is focusing resources on other updates that they feel are either more important to the functioning of the vehicle (all the under the hood stuff to keep things running smoothly) and the marquee feature a lot of people want to see - BlueCruise. Which do YOU think would get more negative press “Over 1.5 years in and some Mustang Mach E owners don’t have remote frunk release” or “Over 1.5 years in and Ford still hasn’t delivered their much hyped BlueCuise to early Mustang Mach E buyers”?
I’m not a marketing expert, but I’ll bet Ford is really focused on trying to make sure the second headline doesn’t get printed!

 

[strangeengine]

This has been explained. Anyone who’s read more than one post from me knows how eager I am for the frunk button. Clearly Ford is focusing resources on other updates that they feel are either more important to the functioning of the vehicle (all the under the hood stuff to keep things running smoothly) and the marquee feature a lot of people want to see - BlueCruise. Which do YOU think would get more negative press “Over 1.5 years in and some Mustang Mach E owners don’t have remote frunk release” or “Over 1.5 years in and Ford still hasn’t delivered their much hyped BlueCuise to early Mustang Mach E buyers”?
I’m not a marketing expert, but I’ll bet Ford is really focused on trying to make sure the second headline doesn’t get printed!

It was a joke, man. ?

 

[DYohn]

I have a '21. Current model year is '22. This is literally * the * first * time * ever * that a manufacturer has pushed updates to a car that wasn't the *current* model year. I'd say this is a step in the right direction.

I realize we want everything delivered tomorrow and I don't blame anyone ... I do too. But I'm realistic about priorities, complexity of software (I work for a major Silicon Valley software company.) For most software ... if you screw it up, peoples' safety is usually not in jeopardy. But this is a car... so understandably, they do need to proceed with some of these updates a bit more carefully.

Some things to keep in mind:

1. Most new cars are just an iteration of the previous model year. This car isn't one of those.
2. When that's not the case, a 'new' car model is usually built on an existing vehicle platform. This car isn't one of those either.
3. Even when there is a 'new' car-platform ... most of the technology are re-used from other car-platforms. This car doesn't get to use so much of that either.
4. This is a completely new car *and* car-platform *and* car-technology.
5. It's also the first car to seriously leverage OTA updates.
6. And they have the mis-fortune to be doing all of this in the middle of a pandemic with a global supply-chain shortage hitting all industries.

With all that in mind... as a 'new' vehicle ... it's a lot more 'new' than any 'new' thing that Ford has done in *quite* a long while (possibly ever). It's pretty ambitious. I had no expectation that there would be no hiccups along the way. But I *am* impressed (having spoken with and met many of the Ford people behind making this all possible) with their passion. They are moving as fast as they safely can. I have had interactions with them on weekends ... when I'd expect them to be taking a break.

This gives me a LOT of confidence in the future of this car ... and the company.

This makes me sound like a fan-boy watching through rose-colored glasses. I'm just trying to be realistic about how quickly we can expect them to progress features and updates.

With that aside, I didn't bother to ask about the Frunk. We all know that's coming anyway ... so that would've been a wasted question (sure ... I'm curious too).

At this point in time ... it seems like getting BlueCruise out for everyone still waiting for it is getting a lot of attention. EAP cars are going through this now (but in batches ... not all at the same time.) So this is NOT something that was shared with me in confidence... but this is just me leveraging my experience in software: I do not realistically expect Ford to be pushing out more updates to other things while they are focused on getting BlueCruise out. Owners have been waiting for this for a long time. My car is a bit over 13 months old (although I didn't expected it any sooner than last fall). If I get a frunk-update before the Job 1 cars complete the path to BlueCruise I will be both surprised and impressed.

Great post. I feel the same way. Viva Ford!

 

[DYohn]

It was a joke, man. ?

I thought it was frunking funny.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Ugh. MCAS. The acronym Boeing didn’t even specifically call out in training docs because they were hiding the fact that the new engines they were using were placed such that flight characteristics were compromised. Way to go guys. 2 totally avoidable 737 write offs and tragically, hundreds dead.

Yeah Ford, take your time, don’t pull a Boeing.

Yeah, and it’s actually worse than that.

Ford is a long ways from Boeing. Unfortunately, that’s a very good thing these days.

 

[Jimrpa]

You must have blue cruise already, as do I. Not everyone does. Some people bought the car, paid extra for blue cruise, was told they would get it by X date, and it's been a year and they still don't have it.

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In Jan Ford of Europe began talking to news outlets about an escape room game for the Mach-E. They had no intentions of actually rolling this out to cars but allowed countless news outlets to make big headlines about it. ( THIS IS LITERALLY VAPORWARE 101 )

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Still no frunk button for some

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You bring up OTA's - I'm happy Ford is trying their best but the way the updates are rolling out is archaic. We all are on this forum having to crowd share info on what the latest update is. From my research, I can't find any source via Ford on what updates have been pushed for the car.

Plus a ton of people are still stuck on very early versions of the car for some odd reason.

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The above is just this car -> don't even get me started on the terrible rollout of the Bronco

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I'm going to go drive my car now. You all can have fun protecting your corporate daddy's honor ?

I did NOT pay “extra” for BlueCruise
The Escape Room was clearly identified as a research project by Ford Europe Research to explore different ways cars could be used to entertain. I never had any expectation that would become a product.
Do you have ANY idea how much “crowd sharing” goes on with Apple products (there are entire INDUSTRIES dedicated to that!) I would like to know what Ford has officially distributed for my car, but they aren’t there yet. Again, I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re still mastering crawling.
could you please be specific about the OTA issues the Bronco is facing. None of the issues with Bronco that I’m aware of (such as with the roof supplier) have to do with software and OTA
Yes, it sounds like a nice drive in your Mustang Mach E might be a good thing. Enjoy.

 

[Jimrpa]

It might help to think of the battery like a giant gum ball machine where the gum balls are electrons and the only way to refill is by shoving in the balls from the dispenser opening. In that analogy, it would be easier to shove in the balls when the container is nearly empty and get much harder as the container become full. More heat is created when shoving in electrons on a nearly full battery compared to a nearly empty battery.

Additionally, that statement about regen being more efficient when the battery is less full should have a caveat. It CAN be more efficient but isn't ALWAYS more efficient. Even then....it's such a minor variance that it is hardly measurable. An aggressive driving style would likely benefit slightly by charging to something less than 100% displayed while a moderate driving style would make no difference at all.

100% displayed is less than actual. It's not a fixed number, it varies by temperature and some other factors.


Agree. It all comes down to watts. Charging losses (including regen) are due to heat. The less heat, the more efficiency you can achieve.

I started my day with 100% displayed and then drove 21 miles. GOM said I consumed 5% of the allowable capacity. 5% of 88 kWh is around 4.4 kWh so that calculates out to about 4.77 miles per kWh which of course if not correct. There are way too many rounding errors for such a short trip like that. Plus, 100% displayed was actually 87.72 kWh available this morning so that skews the figure a little bit. So, what was the variable today? Temperature. Battery was cooler when I started my drive and warmer when I finished. The HVB voltage increases slightly as the battery temp rises.

But what if there’s only One Electron in the Universe? ?

 

[Jimrpa]

Bribery, of course! ?

.
.
.

It was completely unexpected. I was contacted by someone on behalf of Ford (this person does not work directly for Ford) if I might be willing to be interviewed regarding the car and I agreed.

I thought I would be meeting the person interviewing me and the camera crew. I was NOT expecting to meet so many people on the Ford team. That was a pleasant surprise.

Super super nice people!

I was wrong. I read in between the wrong lines ?

 

[SnBGC]

But what if there’s only One Electron in the Universe? ?

Biggest gum bubble ever. That will get all over your face when it pops!

 

[Jimrpa]

Yeah, and it’s actually worse than that.

Ford is a long ways from Boeing. Unfortunately, that’s a very hood thing these days.

You mean to tell me that putting really big engines closer to the pointy end of the plane isn’t a good idea aerodynamically? But it works so well when I put lots of engines by the at lavatories ???
Maybe the NextGen 737 will feature the 737 max engines counterbalanced by a 727 tail engine configuration ????

 

[Jimrpa]

It was a joke, man. ?

Sorry - I had you confused with the other dude who was whining about how terrible ford is at software updates. ?

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