A burglary uncured as a result of a software error

[swemme]

Scenario:

In the car: A driver with the car key and a passenger.

Both leaves the car and go pick up things from the trunk. The driver with the key leaves first and goes away so the key loose the connection to the car. The passenger after a little bit close the trunk and leaves the car as well.

Expected action:
After a short time the car should lock it self as it does if both leaves at the same time.

The actual action:
The car will not lock it self and will be unlocked until someone with a key enters the car and leaves again or locking the car using the app.
I’ve tested the scenario a few times with the same faulty result. I get the same result with a key as well as a software key on my iPhone.

Burglary…
A burglar came by my car at 4am this morning and probably saw that the side mirrors were out and directly went to the passenger side, opened the car door and emptied the glove compartment and took some other small things he could find. (I have it on camera so I know what happened.)

Report bugs?
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Summary:
Please pay attention when the car key is not last to leave the car.

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[RickMachE]

This is exactly how it works. Bug?

 

[swemme]

If the car has a setting that the it should lock up when leaving the car and it does not do that I would say that’s a software error.

If the “key” leaves the car and a person is still in the car, the car will lock. If you leave at the same time a a passenger it will lock. If the key leaves first the car should do not lock?! I disagree.

 

[ab13]

If the car has a setting that the it should lock up when leaving the car and it does not do that I would say that’s a software error.

If the “key” leaves the car and a person is still in the car, the car will lock. If you leave at the same time a a passenger it will lock. If the key leaves first the car should do not lock?! I disagree.

The issue with your expectation is that many doors could open after the key has walked away. What if there are 3 or 4 other people leaving the car but at different times, maybe 5 to 10 seconds between each person, the system doesn't know when everyone is done with the car, so it can't know when to lock.

Sorry about the burglary.

 

[Polar]

Not a bug. Sorry this happened.

 

[swemme]

Other cars I’ve had have locked it self when all doors have been closed for a while and the key is away.

 

[Polar]

Other cars I’ve had have locked it self when all doors have been closed for a while and the key is away.

As a counter point - I’ve never had a car do this. ‘05 Focus ZX3, ‘07 Mazdaspeed3, ‘07 Mazda6 Wagon GT, ‘12 Leaf SL, ‘17 Highlander Limited

**only listing cars that had power locks

Maybe my cars weren’t fancy enough - but I would include the MachE in the same non-luxury group as these.

Again - sorry it happened. But it’s avoidable, hey is the car locked, should check as the horn never chriped?

Now when PAAK doesn’t lock the car when you walk away by yourself and no one else is there - that’s an annoying issue.

 

[Mach1E]

Other cars I’ve had have locked it self when all doors have been closed for a while and the key is away.

This one doesn’t.

If you open the tail gate, walk away lock doesn’t work.

Car probably assumes (and rightfully so) you are loading or unloading the vehicle and don’t want it to keep locking each time you take groceries, bags, kids, etc out of the car.

 

[HuntingPudel]

Wow, this sucks and is not how I would expect it to work. Being that I do not use walk away lock and how I was indoctrinated into always locking doors as a child (hyper-paranoid master locksmith for a father), I always manually lock the car before closing the door. Sorry to hear you were burglarized. ??

 

[Jimbo]

The issue with your expectation is that many doors could open after the key has walked away. What if there are 3 or 4 other people leaving the car but at different times, maybe 5 to 10 seconds between each person, the system doesn't know when everyone is done with the car, so it can't know when to lock.

Sorry about the burglary.

By this logic, shouldn't walk-away lock never occur, even if I'm the only person in the car, and all I do is open and close the driver door and walk away? What if there are 5 or 6 other people leaving the car but at different times?

 

[dmitry]

In my opinion it’s not a bug. There is many scenarios when car shouldn’t locks when key is away. For example my Kia Sorento when I leave the car open send me the message you car was left open. Maybe ford should implement this as well. It’s not difficult just small software upgrade.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Sorry to hear about that.

I thought the common notion was burglars just try door handles looking for an open one rather than checking for mirrors that aren't folded in? Either way the end result would've been the same in this situation since the car didn't lock

 

[Mach1E]

By this logic, shouldn't walk-away lock never occur, even if I'm the only person in the car, and all I do is open and close the driver door and walk away? What if there are 5 or 6 other people leaving the car but at different times?

Then luckily the car doesn’t lock them in!

Would be really frustrating for the alarm to go off every time my kids take more than 10 seconds to get out of the car.

 

[ab13]

By this logic, shouldn't walk-away lock never occur, even if I'm the only person in the car, and all I do is open and close the driver door and walk away? What if there are 5 or 6 other people leaving the car but at different times?

In this case the hatch is open when the key walks away, so the car is not closed.

 

[scoopman]

I have had walk away sometimes not work with PAAK or with another person getting out after me. I see the former as a bug (but it's gotten a lot better with later RFA updates) but the latter is just how Ford did the compromises in logic with this feature.

I have trained my lizard brain to listen for the horn honk when I walk away from the car and I'm expecting it to be locked. I also have done away with most FordPass notifications on my Android phone (or made them silent) but I have a loud distinctive notification sound for the FordPass walk away notification. These basically have solved these quirks for me, I've not had an instance where my car was left unlocked since then, and I think the tradeoffs of having walkaway locking on are worth it (as I'm more-often than not driving alone).

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