2024 Mach E GT performance upgrade OTA

[zvez]

I’m also a software engineer, and I would generally agree. However, most engineers at Ford are salaried and they are being paid for their development work as part of their salary. The money from this performance upgrade is not going directly to the engineers, rather its a profit for the company. Conversely, if nobody bought the performance upgrade, the developers would not get a cut to their salary. It’s just part of their job.

Difference with embedded software that controls the motors on your vehicle is that its something that is included in the vehicle price (or historically always has been), and is a necessity for the vehicle to even function. I think it’s bad practice and a slippery slope for companies (not just auto) to start charging for software unlocks like this. Like I mentioned above, we’ve already seen the extreme BMW went to.

I could see myself paying a software fee if the “performance tune” that gets applied was something unique that was being constantly tweaked and updated over time to further push the capabilities of the motor (similar to the Bluecruise service). From what we are seeing and being told, it’s a one time config deployment.

but the software is the intellectual property of Ford who paid the engineers to develop it, don't they by definition then have a right to charge for that? I mean over the years various tunes for vehicles I've had have come out, they were never free.

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[avdonr]

but the software is the intellectual property of Ford who paid the engineers to develop it, don't they by definition then have a right to charge for that? I mean over the years various tunes for vehicles I've had have come out, they were never free.

They absolutely have a right to charge for it, yes. I’m more so coming from the point of view that the latest and greatest config should just be applied from the factory and included in vehicle purchase price.

 

[phil]

On July 6th we took delivery of a Star White Metallic Tri-coat 2024 MME GT including the performance upgrade for $995. The upgrade hasn't happened yet, but, the dealer says that it will "... in a month or so...".

So they took your money, but they did not deliver the car you paid for? Seems weird. Hope they deliver your upgrade "in a month or so".

 

[Delsk]

I’m also a software engineer, and I would generally agree. However, most engineers at Ford are salaried and they are being paid for their development work as part of their salary. The money from this performance upgrade is not going directly to the engineers, rather its a profit for the company. Conversely, if nobody bought the performance upgrade, the developers would not get a cut to their salary. It’s just part of their job.

Difference with embedded software that controls the motors on your vehicle is that its something that is included in the vehicle price (or historically always has been), and is a necessity for the vehicle to even function. I think it’s bad practice and a slippery slope for companies (not just auto) to start charging for software unlocks like this. Like I mentioned above, we’ve already seen the extreme BMW went to.

I could see myself paying a software fee if the “performance tune” that gets applied was something unique that was being constantly tweaked and updated over time to further push the capabilities of the motor (similar to the Bluecruise service). From what we are seeing and being told, it’s a one time config deployment.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not just a software developer, I'm also a gamer and when I heard that the performance upgrade was like DLC, I kinda chuckled at first and then looked at it as a bit of a paywall.

But the truth is, if you are downloading/installing additional software which performs additional work/calculations/algorithms and requires additional testing, can incur additional costs for Ford with respect to warranty, then I do agree that it should be behind a paywall. It is just nice for some people to pay one price for a GT and others to pay another price for a GTPE, which is the way it has been for years. The only difference is that the hardware this year is the same. The beauty of it to me is that those who don't want the extra GTPE price hit can buy a GT today and pay a modest upgrade fee to drive a GTPE later.

 

[HuntingPudel]

<SNIP>
I could see myself paying a software fee if the “performance tune” that gets applied was something unique that was being constantly tweaked and updated over time to further push the capabilities of the motor (similar to the Bluecruise service). From what we are seeing and being told, it’s a one time config deployment.

Highly unlikely the performance upgrade is going to get many updates in the future to enhance performance. Think of it like paying for a camshaft, set of cylinder heads, or other high-po parts. There will likely be functional updates to the software in the future (bug fixes, compatibility updates, AVL updates, etc.), but I doubt that Ford would unlock 725 lbs/ft of torque or more HP. There might be a future lift to the boost limit (as we with the 2021-2023 GTs are hoping for from the current 5 second limit). ?‍?

 

[Bruboy]

I’m confident it will be OTA via Connected Services.

You would think so, just like adding Blue Cruise for example

 

[HuntingPudel]

You would think so, just like adding Blue Cruise for example

I think there are still some 2021 Job1 cars that haven't gotten all of the necessary updates to even have a functional BC. ?‍?

 

[FachE]

Hi All, this is my first post to the forum. On July 6th we took delivery of a Star White Metallic Tri-coat 2024 MME GT including the performance upgrade for $995. The upgrade hasn't happened yet, but, the dealer says that it will "... in a month or so...". They indicated I will need bring the car back into the dealership in order for them to connect it to their computer for the upgrade. I've asked again for an update, and I will post about this when I know more...

If it’s on your sticker, you have it.

 

[garyd9]

First of all, I'm not condoning people doing this. I'm also not going to get into a debate with people over morality, ethics, etc. I'm not condoning any actions. To me, it's nothing more than an interesting topic. I don't have a 2024 GT.

I would think that since it's VIN-driven, Ford's servers could easily filter out VINs that are not paid if using FDRS. Hacking the modules with FORscan for this using a different VIN's images would likely void the car's warranty. ?‍?

I don't know if they can legally void the warranty. Think about the Magnuson-Moss warranty act. IF I made this modification to some file and then uploaded it to my car, and then tried to get warranty service for something broken... Ford would have to prove that my uploading of their firmware caused the breakage. That would be an interesting case to watch.

At best, if someone were to download and share the firmware file for others to upload, Ford might be able to sue that distributor for software piracy, but once that file ended up on the internet, it's really hard to "take it back."

Perhaps Ford could manage the issue by requiring the car to "call the mothership to validate" every few days or weeks. A car with DRM. Wouldn't that be fun...

 

[leeman]

Hm does an option to purchase show up under the connected services on the account dashboard? I kind of assumed the software was already loaded and you were just paying to “unlock” it, but I could be wrong.

https://www.ford.com/myaccount/connected-services

No it's not something that shows up in the Ford Pass website area under connected services are reading routes unfortunately.

 

[HuntingPudel]

<SNIP>
I don't know if they can legally void the warranty. Think about the Magnuson-Moss warranty act. IF I made this modification to some file and then uploaded it to my car, and then tried to get warranty service for something broken... Ford would have to prove that my uploading of their firmware caused the breakage. That would be an interesting case to watch.

At best, if someone were to download and share the firmware file for others to upload, Ford might be able to sue that distributor for software piracy, but once that file ended up on the internet, it's really hard to "take it back."

Perhaps Ford could manage the issue by requiring the car to "call the mothership to validate" every few days or weeks. A car with DRM. Wouldn't that be fun...

SInce the files are VIN-specific, I believe that messing with the files (jailbreaking?) in order to get them to work with a different VIN would be an unapproved modification. Not a lawyer, so I dunno but I suspect this might be the case for modules specifically affected by the files that were modified. ?‍?

I would also guess that future OTAs that affect the modified modules would revert the car back to the way Ford sees the as-builts should be. Of course, once modifications are made OTAs could be disabled on the specific car in order to prevent this. ??

Seems like a lot of work to me for something that could be financed with the purchase price of the car at a not unreasonable price. ??

 

[FachE]

If they do a drift mode unlock on the GT, as much as I’d complain, I’d get it. I’m that stupid.

 

[Mach1E]

Yes, a one time fee is more reasonable for sure. I would have more of a problem with it if it was a subscription and I feel like a lot more people would as well.

A lot of people got mad about the “subscription” thing and it went away.


In reality, all they did was shoot themselves in the foot.

BMW gave people the OPTION of a 1x fee or paying monthly.

Paying monthly was CHEAPER for people who didn’t keep the car for more than 2 years.

And keep in mind…… it was an OPTION to do so.

So now people yelled and complained and they took that option away. So now those people have to pay MORE.

It would be like screaming and yelling until car manufacturers took away the option to lease a car and now everyone has to buy.

Was so silly. People got philosophical about payment plans all of a sudden.

 

[smoke20]

If it helps…
The salesman I was visiting this past weekend looked on the order screen and said he did not see that option but he spent all of 30 seconds looking at it. He also looked at all of the Mach-Es that were on order/in transit and didn’t see the performance upgrade on any of them.

Ford prolly still testing if the contactor can handle it.....

 

[load97]

Come on Darren Palmer, 21-23 GTP’s want our performance increase as well.

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