Fantastic Car, but PAAK, Phone Integration, FordPass and overall Software is an Abomination

Debangor

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Yeah given everything I have seen on this Forum, we are not going to even try Paak. It isn't worth it. It seems the GTs are coming with 2 fobs, but if not that will be the first thing we buy
I ordered my 2nd fob within a week of realizing how bad PAAK was, but still am pissed I had to go that route. A spare key should not be considered a luxury!
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Well, I patiently waited 9 months for our MME, and as a car, it is phenomenal. In the meantime, I also bought a 2021 Ranger. Also, for context, been an engineer in the software/tech business for 35 years and I've seen it all, built tons of cool stuff and broken more than my fair share of tech products. Worked on aircraft, networks, chips/ASICs, software (including mobile) and lots more interesting stuff.

First of all, mobile phones as all around platforms where you need to RELY on them as things like car keys is simply dumb. Yep, trendy and we're all used to using "apps", but phones and the wireless networks that they leverage are not now, and likely will never be as reliable as a simple key fob. FordPass is basically useless, as I had 3 cars on it, now down to 2 (sold my Mustang GT), and it just has almost zero value. On my Ranger, it does nothing other than unreliably and slowly lock/unlock or remote start the car. Why couldn't they give me remote start on the Fob like EVERY other car and manufacturer on the earth. On the MME it is simply stupid for Ford, which just produced a tour-de force in the Mach E, to destroy the ownership experience with this idiotic and banal Phone As A Key idea. FordPass is filled with garbage that I, and I assume almost everyone else, doesn't care about. I constantly have new "messages", which basically is just more garbage notifications about nothing. If they ever put something important in there, I'll never see it, because I don't have 30 minutes a day to scroll through, read and delete mindless marketing dribble from some random Ford marketing unit that has nothing better to do than "engage" with their "Ford family".

The PAAK implementation is horrendous. I have a choice, either leave the app running all the time and drain my phone battery, have the phone and the car confuse each other all day when I walk by it with my phone in my pocket or leave it in proximity, OR disable the app until I need it, and wait 10 minutes for it to get itself organized, then wait another 5 minutes for the car to decide it likes the phone, then wait for the car to give me an error message "no key detected", shut itself off, then restart the FordPass PAAK thingy, then wait another 10 minutes, then maybe, just maybe, I can reliably leave my house. Yesterday, it took 45 minutes of this idiotic dance before I literally lost it, went into the house, grabbed the single Fob (which my wife uses as she has no patience for garbage tech), then left the house. Just awful and its literally like this EVERY single time. It is shameful that of all the places that the MME/Ford team decided to remove cost, was in the basic and absolutely crucial area of having a reliable KEY to start and use your car. OMFG.

Next, phone integration is wildly inconsistent, even when its working well. Its not just me. Just read the threads here (and other MME forums) about phone problems regardless of which phone brand you have. Apple/Android... doesn't matter. Sometimes it connects, other times nothing. Sometimes wired works, other times, nothing. Sometimes wireless Carplay/Android Auto works, other times nothing. Its monstrously distracting and frustrating. More than that, its incredibly UNRELIABLE, which Ford of all companies should be sensitive to, as it got killed years ago in JD Power surveys for the notoriously fickle My Ford Touch that they eventually killed after bad publicity and litigation. It can take me 20-30 minutes sometimes simply to get Google Nav to work reliably on the glorious screen in the MME. I have to pull over, plug, unplug, reboot the phone, shut the car off, open and close the door, then start the phone, wait for it to completely boot, then restart the car, then pray. Over and over and over again. I know that Android Auto and CarPlay can work, as they work in our other cars. Android Auto works fine (mostly) in my Ranger as an example (not 100%, but fairly reliable). But in the amazing Mach E, who knows? Now this is not all on Ford, as Google and Apple, in their most profound arrogance, really don't care about their software quality anymore as they have plenty of nasty bugs all over the place, and their billions of users can't escape them. But it is on Ford to ensure that the CAR I bought from them works like a car, and not like a mutant phone/toaster/TV/car hybrid contraption.

Finally, overall software is totally wonky. Ford should try to be Ford, and not Tesla. I don't care about all sorts of goofy features, but the ones that make a car actually work. I just want to be able to change the damn radio channel without nearly crashing while I'm trying to figure out how to get back to the Sirius station I was on before I accidentally hit some random arrow and ended up on an non broadcasting AM band blaring static. I have to pull over so I don't crash while I figure out how to get back to Sirius, and then figure out how it ended up on Sirius channel 53 when I was previously listening to channel 9. How can this be so terribly executed.... Same with lots of other basic car features.

Out of the 122 cars I've owned over 40 years, the MME is amongst my 3 or 4 favorites (up there with the incredible Aston Martin Vantage that I recently sold). I'm totally sold on the CAR part of the MME, but the software part is an abomination. And I hope that Ford doesn't have another case of My Ford Touch lurking in the shadows. They need to rethink how they're doing this software, what's important, and how they can make it RELIABLE every.....single..... time.

Rant complete
The problems are bad enough to me where I think I'm going to sell and look at other options now. It was fun the 6 months I owned it, but not being able to just get in my car and leave stress free is a deal breaker.
 

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The problems are bad enough to me where I think I'm going to sell and look at other options now. It was fun the 6 months I owned it, but not being able to just get in my car and leave stress free is a deal breaker.
Use the fob. Set your charging schedule in the car. You don’t have to use either FordPass or PAAK.
 

MarkP213

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Use the fob. Set your charging schedule in the car. You don’t have to use either FordPass or PAAK.
(If he couldn’t figure that out on his own, maybe it’s time we let him move on. ? (just kidding))
 

fayt349

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Use the fob. Set your charging schedule in the car. You don’t have to use either FordPass or PAAK.
It's not just that, lots of issues with general software, camera views are always ghosting and messed up, takes forever to just load up when getting in the car, one time I had the reverse camera just not work at all when in reverse. Lot's of other software issues too. It's ok, I am kinda decided already.
 


fayt349

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(If he couldn’t figure that out on his own, maybe it’s time we let him move on. ? (just kidding))
One of my biggest reasons for coming to this car was PaaK.... after my tesla I was loving the no key life. My house key is digital too.
 

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One of my biggest reasons for coming to this car was PaaK.... after my tesla I was loving the no key life. My house key is digital too.
We have a 2020 Raptor and the Mach-e. The Raptor us my wife’s. She doesn’t have FordPass in her phone. She uses the fobs for both cars. While I prefer no keys, or everyone is like that.

Good luck wherever your vehicle journey lands you.
 

MarkP213

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One of my biggest reasons for coming to this car was PaaK.... after my tesla I was loving the no key life. My house key is digital too.
Yeah, I get that. I‘ve had my Mach-E since April and have around 4000 miles on it so far. Never used the fob. Issue free?.. No. But nothing so bad that it’s frustrating or annoying.

The good news is you’ll be making someone very happy finding a slightly used Mach-E for sale!
 

fayt349

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Yeah, I get that. I‘ve had my Mach-E since April and have around 4000 miles on it so far. Never used the fob. Issue free?.. No. But nothing so bad that it’s frustrating or annoying.

The good news is you’ll be making someone very happy finding a slightly used Mach-E for sale!

Yup, and I’ll be happier with a different choice! However I probably won’t be changing cars until a year from now, so I still have a year with this thing lol.
 

Mirak

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Well, I patiently waited 9 months for our MME, and as a car, it is phenomenal. In the meantime, I also bought a 2021 Ranger. Also, for context, been an engineer in the software/tech business for 35 years and I've seen it all, built tons of cool stuff and broken more than my fair share of tech products. Worked on aircraft, networks, chips/ASICs, software (including mobile) and lots more interesting stuff.

First of all, mobile phones as all around platforms where you need to RELY on them as things like car keys is simply dumb. Yep, trendy and we're all used to using "apps", but phones and the wireless networks that they leverage are not now, and likely will never be as reliable as a simple key fob. FordPass is basically useless, as I had 3 cars on it, now down to 2 (sold my Mustang GT), and it just has almost zero value. On my Ranger, it does nothing other than unreliably and slowly lock/unlock or remote start the car. Why couldn't they give me remote start on the Fob like EVERY other car and manufacturer on the earth. On the MME it is simply stupid for Ford, which just produced a tour-de force in the Mach E, to destroy the ownership experience with this idiotic and banal Phone As A Key idea. FordPass is filled with garbage that I, and I assume almost everyone else, doesn't care about. I constantly have new "messages", which basically is just more garbage notifications about nothing. If they ever put something important in there, I'll never see it, because I don't have 30 minutes a day to scroll through, read and delete mindless marketing dribble from some random Ford marketing unit that has nothing better to do than "engage" with their "Ford family".

The PAAK implementation is horrendous. I have a choice, either leave the app running all the time and drain my phone battery, have the phone and the car confuse each other all day when I walk by it with my phone in my pocket or leave it in proximity, OR disable the app until I need it, and wait 10 minutes for it to get itself organized, then wait another 5 minutes for the car to decide it likes the phone, then wait for the car to give me an error message "no key detected", shut itself off, then restart the FordPass PAAK thingy, then wait another 10 minutes, then maybe, just maybe, I can reliably leave my house. Yesterday, it took 45 minutes of this idiotic dance before I literally lost it, went into the house, grabbed the single Fob (which my wife uses as she has no patience for garbage tech), then left the house. Just awful and its literally like this EVERY single time. It is shameful that of all the places that the MME/Ford team decided to remove cost, was in the basic and absolutely crucial area of having a reliable KEY to start and use your car. OMFG.

Next, phone integration is wildly inconsistent, even when its working well. Its not just me. Just read the threads here (and other MME forums) about phone problems regardless of which phone brand you have. Apple/Android... doesn't matter. Sometimes it connects, other times nothing. Sometimes wired works, other times, nothing. Sometimes wireless Carplay/Android Auto works, other times nothing. Its monstrously distracting and frustrating. More than that, its incredibly UNRELIABLE, which Ford of all companies should be sensitive to, as it got killed years ago in JD Power surveys for the notoriously fickle My Ford Touch that they eventually killed after bad publicity and litigation. It can take me 20-30 minutes sometimes simply to get Google Nav to work reliably on the glorious screen in the MME. I have to pull over, plug, unplug, reboot the phone, shut the car off, open and close the door, then start the phone, wait for it to completely boot, then restart the car, then pray. Over and over and over again. I know that Android Auto and CarPlay can work, as they work in our other cars. Android Auto works fine (mostly) in my Ranger as an example (not 100%, but fairly reliable). But in the amazing Mach E, who knows? Now this is not all on Ford, as Google and Apple, in their most profound arrogance, really don't care about their software quality anymore as they have plenty of nasty bugs all over the place, and their billions of users can't escape them. But it is on Ford to ensure that the CAR I bought from them works like a car, and not like a mutant phone/toaster/TV/car hybrid contraption.

Finally, overall software is totally wonky. Ford should try to be Ford, and not Tesla. I don't care about all sorts of goofy features, but the ones that make a car actually work. I just want to be able to change the damn radio channel without nearly crashing while I'm trying to figure out how to get back to the Sirius station I was on before I accidentally hit some random arrow and ended up on an non broadcasting AM band blaring static. I have to pull over so I don't crash while I figure out how to get back to Sirius, and then figure out how it ended up on Sirius channel 53 when I was previously listening to channel 9. How can this be so terribly executed.... Same with lots of other basic car features.

Out of the 122 cars I've owned over 40 years, the MME is amongst my 3 or 4 favorites (up there with the incredible Aston Martin Vantage that I recently sold). I'm totally sold on the CAR part of the MME, but the software part is an abomination. And I hope that Ford doesn't have another case of My Ford Touch lurking in the shadows. They need to rethink how they're doing this software, what's important, and how they can make it RELIABLE every.....single..... time.

Rant complete
But, as an engineer, you of all people should know that #SoftwareIsHard and it is unreasonable to expect software engineers to deliver working products on a deadline. If you expect something better, well you obviously don’t care about safety.

Alright, so sarcasm aside, I basically agree with everything you said. I love the MME physical hardware. The software side is a mess, plain and simple. My frustrations align with yours and fall into Four Basic Categories:

  1. FordPass sucks.
  2. PAAK is inconsistent and never fails to fail right when you need it to just work.
  3. SYNC is a mess.
  4. Ford can’t seem to get its sh*t together with respect to OTA updates to fix any of this.
FordPass Sucks

it’s been well documented on this forum that FordPass is horrifically designed. Ford could give us everything we need on one Home Screen. Instead it’s a cluttered mess of mostly useless crap. But not only the design is crapty - it is also riddled with bugs large and small. Like draining Android batteries, crashing, failing to timely update state of charge, etc. etc. etc.

You Can’t Trust PAAK to Work When You Need It

PAAK works for me about 80% of the time. But the only thing that is truly consistent about PAAK is that it never fails to sh*t the bed exactly when you’ve got an armload of groceries or you’re rushing out the door and need PAAK to work.

Then when it works, it’ll still give you idiotic “no key detected” messages after it already unlocked the doors for you, or sometimes even after you’re driving. Then there’s the “restart now or key is needed” message which is totally pointless.

SYNC Is a Mess

SYNC’s overall design is pretty good for a car GUI. It’s a little laggy but I can live with that. But the bugs are super annoying. The two biggest bugs are (1) failing to retain certain settings (which currently doesn’t allow me to keep interior alarm motion sensors switched off GAH!) and (2) Apple CarPlay connectivity. Just like PAAK, CarPlay usually works. And then it decides not to, and is still haven’t found a quick and sure fire way to get the connection restored.

Ford OTA should be called LOL

Bug fixes coming Q2 2021 huh? We’re almost to the end of Q3 and these clowns simply cannot get it together.
 

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I ordered my 2nd fob within a week of realizing how bad PAAK was, but still am pissed I had to go that route. A spare key should not be considered a luxury!
A 2nd FOB is about the same price as a set of floor mats…not a big deal. I ordered a 2nd FOB too based on the whining on the forums. It sits in a Faraday bag in my glove box, never been used. Some of us just enjoy our Mach E and have used only PAAK, (5 months now) and don't carry a fob in our pocket. Worst case is a few seconds delay on door entry. Losing 2 seconds in my life is not a deal breaker. The software issues I have are minor, again not worth getting stressed out.
 

MarkP213

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A 2nd FOB is about the same price as a set of floor mats…not a big deal. I ordered a 2nd FOB too based on the whining on the forums. It sits in a Faraday bag in my glove box, never been used. Some of us just enjoy our Mach E and have used only PAAK, (5 months now) and don't carry a fob in our pocket. Worst case is a few seconds delay on door entry. Losing 2 seconds in my life is not a deal breaker. The software issues I have are minor, again not worth getting stressed out.
Couldn’t agree more.
 

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A 2nd FOB is about the same price as a set of floor mats…not a big deal. I ordered a 2nd FOB too based on the whining on the forums. It sits in a Faraday bag in my glove box, never been used. Some of us just enjoy our Mach E and have used only PAAK, (5 months now) and don't carry a fob in our pocket. Worst case is a few seconds delay on door entry. Losing 2 seconds in my life is not a deal breaker. The software issues I have are minor, again not worth getting stressed out.
The thing that bothers me is that every other vehicle I have ever owned comes automatically with 2 fobs. I guess if you can afford a $50,000+ car you can afford to pay over $300 for an extra fob, but I don’t think you should have to.
 
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That's not my experience at all. For me waze, MLB, and podcast addict work all the time with a minimum of fuss. I used waze wirelessly for 4 and half hours today with my pixel 5. How old is your phone, and which android OS are you running?
Totally generic.. Pixel 4A5G, bone stock, totally up to date. Its not the phone, as it works fine (99% of of the time at least) in my 2021 Ranger.

Nope, the problem is something in the MME software stack. I've tried uninstalling Android Auto, reinstalling and reinitializing several times. The MME is wildly inconsistent.

Wondering though as I type this and read your post.... Is your phone the only one registered as an AA device? My wife and I both have our phones set up, and she uses the car almost every day, but I don't. Wondering if having multiple phones set up on AA causes some kind of corruption in the MME AA setup

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Totally generic.. Pixel 4A5G, bone stock, totally up to date. Its not the phone, as it works fine (99% of of the time at least) in my 2021 Ranger.

Nope, the problem is something in the MME software stack. I've tried uninstalling Android Auto, reinstalling and reinitializing several times. The MME is wildly inconsistent.

Wondering though as I type this and read your post.... Is your phone the only one registered as an AA device? My wife and I both have our phones set up, and she uses the car almost every day, but I don't. Wondering if having multiple phones set up on AA causes some kind of corruption in the MME AA setup

Love Podcast Addict!
Hmm, maybe. My wife has an iPhone and my phone is the primary. We don't have PaaK set up and each of us has a profile in the car tied to each of our fobs.
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