Does anyone else find Fordpass pretty useless?

[Logal727]

No, it does its job and I know there’s a lot of people working on making it better.

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[alexgorod]

I think the "retirement issue" is because the only way to accomplish any pre conditioning involves using settings that very much favor setting a consistent schedule (weekdays, weekend, etc) vs. just having the ability to push a button to start battery and cabin pre conditioning. The remote start button and pre condition schedule accomplish different things.

Why do you need preconditioning in the first place? It will add 20-30 miles to the range, but do you really need it? If you are making long trips without pre-planning, at random, then your life is definitely more interesting than mine

And don't forget to plug your car in, or "one button" preconditioning (if it ever exists) will be the same as the remote start. And you still need to plan, at least a few hours ahead.

 

[AKgrampy]

I am retired and all I use, for the most part, is Auto Start. Works fine for me. I do look up some info but basically I just start the car and drive - charge - repeat.

 

[ShaggySS]

Useless...Far from it. I use it all the time to see the charging status, prehead\cool the car. Open the Trunk\Frunk. Love not having to deal with a key, while PAAK isn't perfect it has come a long way in the past 14 months I have owned the car.
With that said could it be better, yes. Everything CAN be better. Would love the ability to set the preheat\cool temp and choose which seats get heated. I would love a notification if my charging stopped and PAAK wasn't near. It would be nice to get a notification if the car is left unlocked.

 

[B177y]

If you are making long trips without pre-planning, at random, then your life is definitely more interesting than mine

Trust me, is not that interesting, but there is plenty of randomness...

I drive with "auto 1 @ 68 deg F", but it's super nice to pre condition the cabin with the "warm" setting in winter. The car is like a sauna when I get in... ?

 

[ChasingCoral]

It is my contention that Fordpass was written by software programmers that work and is intended for people that work.
I am retired, no two weeks or days are the same.
It means I don't have a schedule so many of the Fordpass facilities are awkward and cumbersome to use.
In fact the only schedule I want is preferred charge time and that doesn't work at the moment.
See https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/preferred-charging-times-do-not-work.33062/

Are other retired owners as displeased with Fordpass as me?

I'm retired and I find FordPass to be very useful. That said, there is great room for improvement. The fact that so much is focused of people with fixed driving schedules has been raised before and Ford software teams are aware of the need for things like "Precondition the Battery NOW" or at a single time in the future is needed in addition to setting fixed schedules.

As for the assertions in that thread you cite that charge times and preconditioning aren't working, I just used both last weekend and they worked fine. However, having to schedule all of that and then de-schedule them after their use is a real pain for one-off events.

 

[alexgorod]

pre condition the cabin

Bingo!

I was almost sure that it was a terminology issue - "preconditioning the cabin" is achieved by remote start, and there is a button in FP for this. What is usually called "preconditioning" is the warming up the battery to allow it to get more KWh, and it requires the car to be plugged into a level 2 charger and is done according to a departure schedule.

 

[B177y]

Bingo!

I was almost sure that it was a terminology issue - "preconditioning the cabin" is achieved by remote start, and there is a button in FP for this. What is usually called "preconditioning" is the warming up the battery to allow it to get more KWh, and it requires the car to be plugged into a level 2 charger and is done according to a departure schedule.

Due to my rural location, battery preconditioning WOULD be a good thing along with the one touch sauna cabin preconditioning. Remote start only brings the cabin to the "auto 1, 68°F" setting that I last drove with.

A trip to "town" is about 8-10 miles. A trip to the closest "real" town is 40 miles, and a trip to "the city" is 100-150 miles. All one way. A conditioned battery can help squeak out that little bit of extra range. The wife and I don't plan ahead for many of these trips, more of a "Hey, let's go to Silverdale (40 miles) so I can go to ___ store. We'll grab some lunch there too."

I think what the OP is alluding to is it would be nice to not fumble through Fordpass scheduling screens for a last minute (1-hr notice or so) random trip to achieve the cabin and battery conditioning.

 

[Blue highway]

To me the Ford Pass app has come along way in the 2.5 years i have been using it. It's not arrived yet, but it's at least moving in the right direction.

PAAK is completely reliable (IOS)

Now that I think of it, I'll never again have daily driver without an App.

 

[Straight2VHS]

It's a terrible app. It used to show my vehicle's location and now it doesn't. My Lexus app has no issues showing my wife's car location. Currently, I'm unable to save a departure time and charge settings change. I keep getting the error message "Sorry, FordPass isn't responding. Please try again later" What gives??

 

[Jeffvisor]

It is my contention that Fordpass was written by software programmers that work and is intended for people that work.
I am retired, no two weeks or days are the same.
It means I don't have a schedule so many of the Fordpass facilities are awkward and cumbersome to use.
In fact the only schedule I want is preferred charge time and that doesn't work at the moment.
See https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/preferred-charging-times-do-not-work.33062/

Are other retired owners as displeased with Fordpass as me?

I am retired I plug in at night to a 90% SOC and unplug when I need to go somewhere. My car is in the garage so usually not an issue and I drive it local to stores, restaurants, etc. For longer trips we use a Volvo SUV. I use the app as a phone key as well. I find the app now very useful. PAK was not great in the beginning I have a Job 1 car and it was bad. Today much better although I still press the open button the car about 6 times before it opens.

 

[Just Lurking]

I'm quite surprised to see so many people think the FordPass app is fine - I personally think the current version is a travesty.

That said, for the folks who like me hate the current app, take heart - a major overhaul of the app is coming this year. And for those folks who think the current app is fine - be prepared to change how you do things.

 

[david_quick]

It is my contention that Fordpass was written by software programmers that work and is intended for people that work.
I am retired, no two weeks or days are the same.
It means I don't have a schedule so many of the Fordpass facilities are awkward and cumbersome to use.
In fact the only schedule I want is preferred charge time and that doesn't work at the moment.
See https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/preferred-charging-times-do-not-work.33062/

Are other retired owners as displeased with Fordpass as me?

I am also retired. Until my wife sold her business and retired last month I still
used the departure module. For most of last month it was still programmed to precondition at 0600. I just reprogrammed it to precondition at 0930 MWF which is the time we leave to go to the gym. I think you may have a point about the programmers. However the majority of the customer base works and they are the target audience for these features. The one change I’d like to see is charge to 100% at the scheduled charging time. Getting up at midnight to tell the car to charge to 100% is a pain.?

 

[RT1 MME266]

The FordPass App works and could be better! It really needs user interface design make up. Written for 10 years ago human factors. for example, to find the software update information, you see it in the feature and settings.

There are at least three different design layouts:
1. Home page contains circular bottons
2.Vehicle page contain collapsible section with square icons
3. Services, just square icons
4. Maps, floating menu with circular icons of different hardly related features of different designs.

Very outdate designs, it really needs better human interface designs.

 

[Mike Miller]

When I got my car, I set up all the charging schedules and limits in the car, and it has just worked for 2.5 years. I use Fordpass for two things:

- Check the charging level/status
- Set to 100% for a trip the next day

Those two features work great for me. As far as PAAK goes, mine has worked great for the last year, it took Ford about a year to get it working right. For example, my Rivian takes 5-10 seconds to wake the truck up when I approach it, very annoying.

I have been with FordPass Tech Support nearing a dozen times now to retain connectivity and be able to use PAAK. We work through the solutions, get it reinstalled, and the next day FordPas says "Bluetooth Disconnected" and the drill starts again. Citing the definition of "insanity", I have given up at this point. Oh, speaking of bureaucratic insanity, because they can get it working, they are unable to escalate the case. Duh. Similarly, I have the same connectivity issus with Sync. Set it up with TS and watch it disappear. Oh, BTW, sometimes they transfer me back in forth as they are not supposed to work on both sides of the aisle. THAT SAID, I LOVE MY CAR. I HAVE HAD 2 TESLAS THAT I LOVED BUT THE MACH-E IS A BETTER CAR...BUT FOR THE CONNECTIVITY ISSUE. FORD HAS GOT TO DEVOTE MORE RESOURCES TO TECHNOLOGY TO CATCH UP WITH TESLA IN THIS AREA.

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