I went back to my OTA notes, finding that I got an email on Sept 21, 2021 saying, "Ford BlueCruise is almost here," with advice on how to be ready. Sure enough, it was delivered via OTA on June 20, 2022!
I have a 2021 Job2 GTPE and Bluecruise has never gone into full hands free for me. I have had many discussions with the BEV team, and the they finally told me to take it to the dealer. After waiting 3 months for an appointment, my dealer threw up their hands after working on it for over a week (at least they gave me a 2023 Bronco as a loaner ?). They said they will be contacting the Bluecruise team via email. This was last week and I have not heard anything back. I hope that maybe 1.3 will fix my issue, but am not holding my breath at this point. I am now 21 months into my 3 years of Bluecruise and it hasn’t worked yet. Hopefully @Ford Motor Company will extend the service period if they ever get it workin…
"Coming Soon" = 6+ months in Fordspeak.
That’s weird, I got this, but not 4.3.6…The last OTA I received was on July 21st called “Smart Changes”. Not sure what it does. 4.3.6 was awhile ago.
I totally get what you are saying here. I am not making any excuses for Ford. I will say this, they are relatively new at software, and as far as I know, the Mach E was their first vehicle that they started OTAs with. They should have anticipated the branching scenario that they were bound to create with their deploy strategy, but they didn’t. This is the result. I’m honestly surprised that there aren’t more cars stranded without updates.
EA membership provides email surveys and very occasionally access to a feature in beta testing. But I don’t think it has ever been confirmed or conclusively demonstrated that EA applies to non-beta deployment.
When I had the opportunity to give Ford some feedback, I suggested that on the Software Updates page that they clearly state whether there is anything preventing the updates from happening (e.g. low SoC of LVB). It's frustrating when the operator has no way to know what's preventing some automated function from happening.
This^^ My Mach-E is more than just a car to me, it is my hobby (among others), a toy, it is fun. I anticipate the updates like a kid on Christmas morning. Using that analogy, imagine if you were still a kid, looking forward to Christmas, or your birthday, or a present-getting holiday of your choice, and you were not given a date for it! "Yes little Timmy, there is the great day coming where you will get some wonderful gifts, but we are not going to tell you when, just that it is 'coming soon'". Each day you hope is the day, but no present, and no idea when.
In case you missed the announcement on July 13th, they did say it would start to roll out to vehicles later this summer. I take that to mean it will be sent to at least 1 vehicle by Sep 22. That is something. If they published a timeline by build date or such, they might be able to keep that due to problems discovered during rollout.
I would suspect that a higher than normal rate of turnover in the sections responsible for rolling these updates out, as well as nobody there wanting to be the reason that "things are screwed up" doesn't help. This has the classic earmarks of a 'leadership problem' to me.
I hear you. I am glad I have almost 2 more years with it before I have to decide whether I will pay that much. But when I compare it to what Tesla wants for their equivalent tech, it is less expensive, though they do give you an option for a lifetime purchase. I haven't looked at other OEM car equivalent tech and their cost (e.g. Hyundai HDA II). I am hoping that competition drives this down to a lower number before I have to renew.
