Should changing the radio station be this slow?

[Kamuelaflyer]

What's radio?

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[Jimrpa]

What's radio?

That thing you guys weren’t listening to in early December, 1941? ?

 

[phil]

Mine still takes 10 seconds after I've been driving 10+ minutes. It's related to whether it's the first time you pull up the radio screen for the drive.

Thanks. It is not quite like that for me. I checked it during my travels today to confirm.

• During the first minute or two after waking the car, it does indeed take close to 10 seconds to pull up the radio screen for the first time. Which is, of course, ridiculous.
• However, after a few minutes, it's much faster - it takes "only" 3 seconds to fully load the radio screen, even if it's the first time I've opened the radio screen during the entire drive. Three seconds is slow, but a lot better than 10 seconds.
• The second and subsequent times I open the radio screen, it loads in about 1 second each time.

So it seems that there are two slowdowns involved - first, when the car wakes up to be driven, Sync is busy with a bunch of stuff and loading screens is VERY slow (though changing radio stations is still instantaneous); and second, the first time an app/screen is loaded during a drive, there's a smaller delay associated with starting up that particular screen for first use. At least on my 2021 Job 2 car, running 3.5.3 that seems to be how it works. Perhaps it's different/worse with newer Sync software versions?

For me, it's only very slightly annoying, because I listen to the same radio station about 90% of the time, and rarely even open the radio app screen. My radio stays on and starts playing immediately every time I use the car. For those who like to switch among different radio stations, I'm sure the annoyance is greater. But it's only really bad if you need to open the radio display to change channels during the first couple of minutes of your drive.

 

[Synkrox]

Mine is the same. First time loading it is slooooow. Not bad once it's been loaded once though. Still one of my main complaints with the car. If you're going to make the screen a massive feature, make it good.

 

[hack-e]

Mine still takes 10 seconds after I've been driving 10+ minutes. It's related to whether it's the first time you pull up the radio screen for the drive.

I tested this scenario yesterday with video capture and indeed after driving for 15 minutes then switching radios stations, it takes the same 8 seconds (as measured from the video).

 

[Mach1E]

Over in another thread about the 2025 MY I said I wouldn't buy a new Mach-E until Ford fixes the slow GUI. I explained that it was taking maybe 5 seconds to switch to a radio station. Then someone mentioned theirs only takes 0.2 seconds. So I took a video to more accurately measure the time I'm experiencing and it turns out to be closer to 8 seconds (see video below: start switch at 2 sec and station audio finally heard at 10 sec).

Is this normal? Or do I have a defective component?

Your video helps.

My guess is the 0.2 seconds person was talking about something else.

You are showing how slow the app is to initially load.

“Changing stations” in 0.2 seconds would be referring to just changing the station after it loads.

Yeah, the app loading isn’t fast. My gripe is more about the stupid load times when you’re on the phone and get in the car. I have to apologize for the next minute to whoever I’m talking to because the car will switch the call to Bluetooth, back to my phone, then BT then CarPlay and we can’t hear each other each time it switches.

Why these things aren’t nearly instantaneous is beyond me.

 

[hack-e]

My guess is the 0.2 seconds person was talking about something else.

That has to be the reason for the discrepancy. I tried to be clear that I was referring to the whole process of getting from Google Maps via Android Auto all the way until the station actually starts coming out of the speakers. I have so many others confirming the ~8 seconds that it must be universal. Though I haven't seen anyone with a 2024 or 2025 MY confirm the 8 seconds, so I hold out a little hope that it has improved.

Yeah, the app loading isn’t fast. My gripe is more about the stupid load times when you’re on the phone and get in the car. I have to apologize for the next minute to whoever I’m talking to because the car will switch the call to Bluetooth, back to my phone, then BT then CarPlay and we can’t hear each other each time it switches.

That sounds rough. Going from phone to car with Android Auto is pretty smooth compared to what you describe. I get at most a second of dropout. Hopefully CarPlay can be improved.

 

[MachhE-CT]

I really haven’t noticed. I guess there is a delay. Certainly when you start the car there is time for apps to load but by the time my cars is out of the garage (2 car lengths) all is loaded and running. I rarely listen to broadcast radio so I can not speaks to HD etc. SiriusXM on the car (any car) is comprised of the lower 242
Channels which are all satellite feeds . Anything above that is streaming by a feed off the internet. I use voice commands for radio. A command like “Sirius play DeepTracks” happens pretty quickly. Even if I use the screen it all seems reasonably responsive. A note in delays. All of SiriusXM is on some kind of time delay. There is some lag even with satellite . The clocks on the Sirius XM clocks and timers account for this delay so that timing both from announcers and computer generated programming seem to happening in real time. Internet adds another delay although 5 minutes seems extreme. This happens on any streaming device. For example I have DirectTV stream TV. If I am watching a sporting event and my neighbor is watching on Xfinity cable , he has to be careful not send a text spoiler on a spectacular play or a buzzer beater. The DirectTV stream (over the internet ( 1 Gbit fiber)) is delayed about 25 seconds . If you have an MME 2024 or older the modem is a 4G so that may have effect as well

 

[phil]

I tested this scenario yesterday with video capture and indeed after driving for 15 minutes then switching radios stations, it takes the same 8 seconds (as measured from the video).

Definitely not working that way for me. After two minutes of driving, the delay goes down to ~3 seconds the first time I open radio, and subsequently it's only 1 second each time.

My software is a couple years old (3.5.3), so I guess that's why I am getting better performance in this case than you and Mach-Lee. I can certainly understand that it gets annoying for you. That is very slow for this day and age.

 

[phil]

My guess is the 0.2 seconds person was talking about something else.

You are showing how slow the app is to initially load.

“Changing stations” in 0.2 seconds would be referring to just changing the station after it loads.

Correct.

I am the 0.2 seconds person, and that was what I was talking about - changing the station. Either before or after loading the app, changing stations is very fast. (You can change stations from the steering wheel without ever loading the radio app onto the big screen.)

 

[Mach1E]

Correct.

I am the 0.2 seconds person, and that was what I was talking about - changing the station. Either before or after loading the app, changing stations is very fast. (You can change stations from the steering wheel without ever loading the radio app onto the big screen.)

It’s also fast if you never shut the radio off.

When I get in the car and start the car, sound from the radio starts nearly immediately from whatever station I was on last.

I can also change the station using the buttons on the steering wheel pretty quickly.

But the visuals on the screen?
Super slow.

It takes a while to boot up then it changes a few times as CarPlay is connecting.

But I can still hear the radio this whole time.

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