Update on Mach-E launch progress from engineering friends in Mexico

[balthisar]

I’d like to offer a perspective as a HUGE apple fanboy. My opinion of CarPlay? Meh. I’ve tried it a few times and prefer Sync 3 to CarPlay.

I'm in the same boat, but apparently Sync 4 offers wireless CarPlay, and so I may give it another shot. Having to plug in my phone just to use Waze or Apple maps was always a deal breaker for me. I also don't like how enabling CarPlay currently disables non-CarPlay apps, i.e., AppLink apps, which often have a better, more integrated experience.

Given that now all the physical buttons are gone, let's hope another frustration of mine is gone: right now when using CarPlay, I feel like I have to jump through hoops to get back to my car's actual controls. If I have to jump through hoops to adjust the climate control, then I'll simply never use CarPlay.

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[SteveUk]

Andriod auto is rather good. Infinitely better that sync 3.

 

[All Hat No Cattle]

Sorry for responding again but I couldn't let this go as I HAD a 2002 Thunderbird (first year roll out just like our Mustang Mach E's in 2021) and witnessed first hand the excellent communication/customer relations experience by the Ford Motor Company!

Comparing the roll-out of a 2002 ICE vehicle to the roll-out of of a new-to-Ford Battery Electric Vehicle that can essentially drive itself, seems to be comparing apples to oranges.

And in the middle of a world-wide Covid 19 Pandemic???

I would think that Ford had other things to think about than customer freebies.

 

[eastern refugee]

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that the map data itself (not the live traffic but the streets/etc) was live (or auto-updates regularly). Meaning it wouldn't need future updates like Ford is always trying to sell us on other models.

At least I hope it's that way. Would be a shame for a car this connected to have a static 2020 map. Especially since it has Android Auto that people can (and probably would) just switch over to if the maps got out of date.

From everything I have read Ford is looking for a secondary income stream. I suspect OTA will be a separate monthly charge in the $20 a month range. Everything on the net is going to subscriptions. This would make sense. The I can live with a $20 monthly fee for example. In this way you get constant updates. Either that or it is financed into your agreement. I doubt it is free.

 

[ARK]

To be honest, the biggest thing with updated navigation for me is the knowledge that it is up to date. Otherwise, practically speaking, when do roads ever change such that an update is needed? I suppose this might matter if you are traveling to a new residential development or some place that didn’t exist a few years ago, but in practice would seem to be a very rare situation for almost anyone. Real time traffic can be useful but I think probably dependent on the owner subscribing to a third-party data plan.

The bigger issue I noticed when I saw the MME in person and based on some reviews is that the infotainment system seems a touch laggy. I hope this is a pre-production issue or that a software update can resolve it as opposed to a hardware limitation, but if most buttons, switches, and dials are being banished in favor of the touchscreen I hope it is as responsive as a new smartphone.

 

[malba2366]

That was my impression as well. And since Ford has stated that we will have access to Nav for the life of the car, I don't think we will have to pay for conventional map updates. For what it's worth, Ford has also said that they will not charge for the ability to control the car with the app over cellular for the life of the car. This is a big deal. My wife's Pacifica lost this ability after the first year of ownership and reinstating it would cost $14.99/mo, which is ludicrous. Volvo charges $200 a year and doesn't allow you to remote start the car at all without it. Remote access is a big deal to me, and I'm very happy to know that it will continue to work with the MME.

They are being very vague about it. The window sticker for Mach e says 3 years of connected services included. The maps that are loaded on the vehicle will stay with the vehicle, but may stop updating at some point if you opt out of a subscription fee. They probably haven't decided what they will do at this point, if they can figure out a way of monetizing the data from the connected vehicles they may be able to keep it free, if not then they will likely start charging for it.

 

[DaveRuns]

Agree with this perspective. Can't imagine using the MME's navigation given Android Auto and Apple Carplay. Ditto for charger location or any data subscription. Some people might want the WiFi hotspot subscription but I've never found I've needed that either.

However, for handsfree the digital maps will need to be upgraded, which I'd assume would be included in the subscription fee for that.

FWIW I like subscription models for software so I'm not opposed to the idea of a subscription. And of course anyone who has a closed end lease is committed big time to a subscription model. LOL Less so for an open end lease but definitely getting there.

For me, I view the Ford nav as useful for long road trips where it will plot routes based on charging needs. For local use, I’d probably just use CarPlay (Waze or Google). I can use the PlugShare app to find a local charger and route to it using Waze.

 

[ajmartineau]

Hmmm... How is my hands free driving on mapped highways going to work without updating those highways when they change? (rhetorical question)

 

[DaveRuns]

How is my hands free driving on mapped highways going to work without updating those highways when they change?

I think it would be useful to know what roads are included or where the hands-free system will work before I paid for a subscription.

 

[Marcel]

A little peek into the ABRP labs ?#CarPlay pic.twitter.com/TSNPogkyFU
— ABetterRoutePlanner (@RouteBetter) December 26, 2020

 

[FPLiptak]

Yes, just like I do with my C-Max today, but if I want to update the maps, I have to pay.

And that (paying for map updates) is the biggest rip-off. I paid $4,420 for the "Equipment Group 600A" for the 2016 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid which included the Navigation System. Then two years later they offer me the option to upgrade my maps for $200.

Compare that to my Garmin nuvi 2797 LMT which cost $270 and came with Lifetime Maps and Traffic. Also, the maps are updated at least 4 times a year.

Somehow, I've never understood why Ford just doesn't team-up with Garmin and let the customer update the maps.

 

[stroszek]

The bigger issue I noticed when I saw the MME in person and based on some reviews is that the infotainment system seems a touch laggy. I hope this is a pre-production issue or that a software update can resolve it as opposed to a hardware limitation, but if most buttons, switches, and dials are being banished in favor of the touchscreen I hope it is as responsive as a new smartphone.

From what I've seen/heard it gets laggier as it continues to run, which sounds like a memory leak or some software issue that can hopefully be resolved.

 

[Mach-E VLOG]

A lot of times, beta or pre-production software has a lot of debugging and performance logging flags turned on. Once the switch is flipped to final code, the flags are turned off and performance is fine.

I usually run the developer and beta releases of Android. Every pre-release version has some lag or excessive battery usage issue. As soon as I update to the final version, it all disappears. Hopefully, that is the case here.

 

[DBC]

For day-to-day navigation I'll probably stick with Waze. However, for road trips I see value of using the built-in navigation if it works as advertised. Including topography, maybe weather, and updated charging station info will be important in those cases. There may be a good way to run both FordPass and Waze navigation together. We'll see.

For local trips I'll just use what I normally do. For longer trips, I've never thought of myself as much of a planner, but before leaving I'd already have looked at distances, charging stations, and topography and would have Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C in place. The NAV would only be for when I know I have enough range but don't know the exact location of what I'm looking for.

With respect to FordPass, do you think it will be as good as Plugshare? I don't.

 

[JamieGeek]

For local trips I'll just use what I normally do. For longer trips, I've never thought of myself as much of a planner, but before leaving I'd already have looked at distances, charging stations, and topography and would have Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C in place. The NAV would only be for when I know I have enough range but don't know the exact location of what I'm looking for.

With respect to FordPass, do you think it will be as good as Plugshare? I don't.

There was a Ford press release a while ago saying that they were importing Plugshare data into their system...

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