A bug leaves your car unlocked

[Mach1E]

Though none of those scenarios apply to me, nor frankly look reasonable to me, I never said there should be just one true way. To the contrary, I repeatedly said it's a simple software fix to allow customization. You are not forced to use the walk away feature either, which would prevent you from doing all those things. Don't like it -- turn it off. What was ridiculous in this thread was people insisting that the current behavior is the only one that has the right to exist, even though it's clearly a corner case and opens people to the possibility of theft.

Dude……. Just lock your car.

No car ever has locked itself without interaction from the driver somehow, which is what you’re asking for.

You have SO many options on how to lock the car. Just use one of those. If you don’t do one of these things, it’s YOU that opens the car up to the “possibility of theft.”

-hit lock on the inside of the door
-hit lock on the outside of the door
-use the keypad code to lock
-hit lock on the key fob
-hit lock on the FordPass app
-close the doors and walk away with the fob
-close the doors and walk away with PAAK

The only “ridiculous corner case,” is the person who leaves the doors open, returns without a fob or phone, and FORGETS to do one of the above things!

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[will]

My Honda will not lock if I have passed a certain point and a door has not yet been closed, IE someone else then shuts the door (the mentioned passenger scenario where I'm dusting them from wherever we're going or coming from).

The thing with the Honda though in that situation is I won't hear the excellent 'Beep' sound and know I need to reach in my pocket and hit the lock button.

Unfortunately with the Mach-E the only option is the LOUD honk for confirmation... so I would turn that off immediately cause I can't have that in my garage...

If I end up in the scenario being described in this thread as a 'bug' I'd just rely on seeing the mirrors fold or not and know I need to reach into my pocket like I already do with the Honda.

 

[dwadj]

Dude……. Just lock your car.

No car ever has locked itself without interaction from the driver somehow, which is what you’re asking for.

You have SO many options on how to lock the car. Just use one of those. If you don’t do one of these things, it’s YOU that opens the car up to the “possibility of theft.”

-hit lock on the inside of the door
-hit lock on the outside of the door
-use the keypad code to lock
-hit lock on the key fob
-hit lock on the FordPass app
-close the doors and walk away with the fob
-close the doors and walk away with PAAK

The only “ridiculous corner case,” is the person who leaves the doors open, returns without a fob or phone, and FORGETS to do one of the above things!

MMm,

Strange, i also use the auto lock feature and it most of the time works when i have the fob in my pockets. Walk away results in auto close, again coming closer, car will flash lights to welcome you...
However, i do have some issues, which i didn't had on my previous car.

1. When going out of the car and opening the trunk, then close the trunk again, the auto lock does not work any more, so need to close the car with fob, PAAK or App.
2. When getting close to the car, the lights will give you a welcome flash, however sometimes they don't and mirrors stay closed, i need to press the lock button on the door like 5 times before the door will open.

 

[Awmustang]

My technical background taught me two things, applicable to this situation. First, don't sacrifice the basic operation for the corner cases. Second, don't make something work by attention only. Both principles are broken in this design. But the good thing, it's all software, so it can be easily customizable. Ford could have at least provided options, so people could chose the behavior they want.

I was repeating it in every post that this applies to the situation when the key fob or Paak are not in the proximity. That covers the case of a key being left inside.
But the case of a key in a purse is actually another example of why you would want autolocking behavior. Because a person wouldn't want to take the key out every time they need to lock the car, they would just want to walk away and be sure the car will be locked, even if there is another passenger who is leaving the car a few seconds behind or taking/putting the stuff from/in the trunk.

Ok, how mad would you be if the car worked as you requested and one of the doors is imperceptibly cracked open. You say you want it to lock at all times when the last door is shut but what if you walk away and one of the doors isn't quite shut and then the car doesn't lock. You walk away without ensuring the car is locked, come back to an unlocked car and bam are posting on a forum like this.
I believe Ford designed it the way they did so that it minimizes you blindly walking away and assuming it will be locked. There will always be edge cases. I think that's one of the main reasons Ford defaults the mirrors to be folded when the car is locked so that you can visually confirm it is locked from a distance.
I had a 2007 Mazda CX-7 and it was the first proximity key car I'd had. Mazda offered the walk away lock, but they had a chirp and lights flash when it locked. But it worked exactly the same as the Mach-E. You needed to be in range when the last door closed and then move out of range.

Finally, as someone in the tech field, I can assure you, this isn't a bug. It is working as intended by the designers. You can argue that it's poor design and it should work differently, but you can't say it's a bug.

 

[Mach1E]

MMm,

Strange, i also use the auto lock feature and it most of the time works when i have the fob in my pockets. Walk away results in auto close, again coming closer, car will flash lights to welcome you...
However, i do have some issues, which i didn't had on my previous car.

1. When going out of the car and opening the trunk, then close the trunk again, the auto lock does not work any more, so need to close the car with fob, PAAK or App.
2. When getting close to the car, the lights will give you a welcome flash, however sometimes they don't and mirrors stay closed, i need to press the lock button on the door like 5 times before the door will open.

Yup. Sounds pretty normal. And that’s the issue with any auto detection setting; the car doesn’t always instantly know you’re there.

I don’t trust the walk away or walk up features entirely. Thus the need for visual and audible cues (mirrors, lights, honking, FordPass notifications etc).

I mean there are SO many redundancies with locking the car. I’m shocked the OP thinks we need yet another one!

 

[dbsb3233]

When getting close to the car, the lights will give you a welcome flash, however sometimes they don't and mirrors stay closed, i need to press the lock button on the door like 5 times before the door will open.

Mine does that sometimes too. Not sure, but I think it's when the car has gone into it's "deep sleep" mode (like overnight). Next morning, it often doesn't flash the lights when approaching with the fob. But once it "wakes up", it does the rest of the day.

As for the door button, I find that's usually because my body is blocking the (picky) fob signal. I've read that the receiver is in the driver door up by the hinges. When I approach the car in my garage on the morning, I'm usually facing the door turned outward a bit when pressing the button, which means with the fob in my right pocket, it's directly opposite the receiver through my body. But if I simply turn my body a little so there's a clear line between the fob and the receiver, it works fine. Seems bizarre, but consistent.

 

[RedStallion]

Dude……. Just lock your car.

Dude ... did you notice you are not adding anything to the conversation?

 

[Mach1E]

Dude ... did you notice you are not adding anything to the conversation?

I gave you a handful of solutions, if you choose to ignore them that’s on you.

 

[skiingj]

Mine does not lock all the time either. With Paak it was horrible, with the one and only fob not reliable enough not to check or push a button. My outside little lock buttons do not work. Another trip to the dealer I guess. Four visits in six months, Lots of problems, not sure why I bought a first year domestic car. I should have leaned my lesson with Jeep in the 90's.... Foreign brands have been great, almost no problems.

 

[dougni]

1. When going out of the car and opening the trunk, then close the trunk again, the auto lock does not work any more, so need to close the car with fob, PAAK or App.

Wait what? I don't believe I had this happen to me, ever. And I got stuff out of my trunk several times immediately after leaving my car (still unlocked) as well as car already locked and I just needed something out of my trunk (only trunk unlocks).

Did I misunderstood what you meant there?

 

[Maquis]

Wait what? I don't believe I had this happen to me, ever. And I got stuff out of my trunk several times immediately after leaving my car (still unlocked) as well as car already locked and I just needed something out of my trunk (only trunk unlocks).

Did I misunderstood what you meant there?

I would agree, the car doesn’t unlock until you attempt to open a door (not the trunk).

He's in Europe, I wonder if the logic is different for their cars?

 

[jglor]

I find it interesting (read: frustrating) that most of the "solutions" to the walk-away lock behavior are to manually lock the car. (I.E. To not use walk-away lock).
"Dude, walk-away lock works just fine if you use one of the other methods of locking your car instead."

None of the other methods of locking the doors require all of the doors to be closed. Is it a wonder that the assumption is that walk-away lock would behave the same?
I get why it works the way it does, but if you don't realize that's how it works, you might expect your car to be locked when it's not. And let's face it, most people don't RTFM, and even so, that section is kind of confusing. It looks like it was written by the programmer (source: am a programmer).

 

[dbsb3233]

Every time this thread title pops up, I keep picturing some giant bug crawling on the lock button of the car. ? ?

 

[Mach1E]

I find it interesting (read: frustrating) that most of the "solutions" to the walk-away lock behavior are to manually lock the car. (I.E. To not use walk-away lock).
"Dude, walk-away lock works just fine if you use one of the other methods of locking your car instead."

None of the other methods of locking the doors require all of the doors to be closed. Is it a wonder that the assumption is that walk-away lock would behave the same?
I get why it works the way it does, but if you don't realize that's how it works, you might expect your car to be locked when it's not. And let's face it, most people don't RTFM, and even so, that section is kind of confusing. It looks like it was written by the programmer (source: am a programmer).

Well here you go OP, it only took 6 pages, but finally someone agreed with you!

And honestly, it’s a reasonable point! (That the other locking methods don’t require doors to be closed).

 

[robbinbadams]

I modified my post to include this example as you were typing your reply. Yes, this is the way the MME works. If the fob or PaaK is not in range it when doors are closed it will not auto-lock. It requires the fob to leave proximity while the doors are closed.

The door lock button on the B-Pillar also requires the key to be in range. Again, this is similar to other mfgs with the touch button on the door handle. Also something I've seen a few people complain about here.

I would not like a walk away feature. If I want it locked, I will lock it. If I leave it unlocked, I want it in locked!

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