Few questions about PAAK

[West1134]

So I'm eagerly waiting for my 22 Premium AWD ER MME and have been reading up on PAAK, and being a tech guy, I'm super intrigued by the concept. I've been reading tons of threads on here, watching YouTube videos etc. etc. trying to learn as much as I can in advance of the car showing up. I also have to carry some keys to get in my work, so carrying a fob isn't necessarily a deal breaker for me anyways, but I do have a few questions that I haven't learned the answer to yet.

1) If I choose to use PAAK, and I carry the fob (because it would be attached to my key ring with the work keys I have to carry) would that create a conflict for the car that wouldn't be worth doing?

2) If I set up PAAK on my phone and my wives phone, and we ride together, is that going to create an issue/conflict?

3) It sounds like if you have PAAK set up and charge your car in the garage (which may have a beverage fridge in it) you will inadvertantley wake the car up each time you visit said beverage fridge with the phone in your pocket. Is there a quick/easy way (like toggle switch in the app) to enable/disable PAAK or some geo fencing feature that says ignore PAAK when I'm at home or something worth considering?

4) I've ready some people store the fob in a faraday pouch in the car so the fob won't be recognized by the car, but work as a great backup plan for a variety of scenarios (PAAK failing, valet, service drop off etc.) How well has that worked for people who do that? Any recommendations on a pouch? I kinda like this plan.

Thanks all for any input you can share.

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[MacherAWD]

1. No issue, I would think PaaK wouldnt be used since the Fob works to start further, phone has to almost always be above shifter.
2. I originally had profiles, but the car was always choosing the wrong person, or reverting to default. Since my wife and I have the same seat, mirror, and radio stations I shut profiles off
3. No to my knowledge, for this reason I turned walk away lock off, otherwise it would lock, mirrors collapse all the time. I still have this issue, every time I am near my car (within 40ft) hte lights turn on, but its actually kinda cool. I would LOVE if the car had geo-fence. I would have walk away lock off at home, and on elsewhere, we garage and are in a super safe neighborhood, so we have never locked at home, actually never taken keys out, but I use PaaK so now I technically do.
4. I am doing this, ordered a cheap one off ebay, works great. My wife forgets about it, and about the door code. She locked herself out the other day, called me, I pulled out my phone and unlocked the car from 5 miles away.

 

[ohmslaw]

I kept a spare in a faraday bag in my car for a month. Then I took it out. Outside of maybe a 3 second lag sometimes in unlocking the car PaaK works flawlessly. Never felt the need to have the key.

I do sometimes have a problem when my wife gets into the car with the fob; it will sometimes switch to her profile. A button push on the door is all it takes to get it back though.

FYI: I use an iPhone; reliability may be different in the Android ecosystem.

 

[MacherAWD]

No issues with reliability on Android. I like the spare key cause we weekend away, I had to let me dad take my car and had to give him my phone. Also for valets, and other situations its nice to have the key. One thing on Android, since the car and phone are always connected I have noticed increased battery drain (phone) but its not bad.

 

[West1134]

Follow up question:

Do you just have one Ford Pass account? Then use the same log in credentials on my phone and my wives, or do they want you to have individual accounts? I'm assuming one account share password.

However, if you had two separate accounts with the same vehicle tied to it (not sure it would allow this) then I could see the whole profiles thing working better as it would identify the user based on the user account.

 

[Mosworthy]

I'll start by saying that we use PAAK exclusively since October last year with no issues. Two different drivers. I've had a S10+ and a S22+ and both work great. Both fobs are in a drawer in the house and I haven't looked at them in months.

1) The car will automatically pick the fob first.

2)My wife and I have seperate profiles, and we ride together lots. The trick is to force stop the FordPass app on the phone you don't want to be seen. I drive the car 90% of the time, but when I get into after her, it knows it's me, sets up the seat, driving mode and music to my settings automatically.

3)Same as above. When I get home, I force stop the app. It turns off the background communication. I just restart it when I want to drive again.

4)They live at home. I have no recommendations. I don't like the idea that a broken window let's just anyone drive away. I know for a fact, that keys left in a vehicle void theft insurance where I am.

 

[MacherAWD]

Follow up question:

Do you just have one Ford Pass account? Then use the same log in credentials on my phone and my wives, or do they want you to have individual accounts? I'm assuming one account share password.

However, if you had two separate accounts with the same vehicle tied to it (not sure it would allow this) then I could see the whole profiles thing working better as it would identify the user based on the user account.

I was setting up my wife's with my login, but she has no security on her phone, so it was a no go. I have to get her set up with fingerprint, then will install. She just keeps keys in her giant black hole of a purse.

 

[Mosworthy]

Follow up question:

Do you just have one Ford Pass account? Then use the same log in credentials on my phone and my wives, or do they want you to have individual accounts? I'm assuming one account share password.

However, if you had two separate accounts with the same vehicle tied to it (not sure it would allow this) then I could see the whole profiles thing working better as it would identify the user based on the user account.

Yes, the app on her phone is signed up with my account, the important part is the profile set up in the car knows it's a different phone. You can also set up a priority phone, it will pick that one if it sees both

 

[West1134]

I'll start by saying that we use PAAK exclusively since October last year with no issues. Two different drivers. I've had a S10+ and a S22+ and both work great. Both fobs are in a drawer in the house and I haven't looked at them in months.

1) The car will automatically pick the fob first.

2)My wife and I have seperate profiles, and we ride together lots. The trick is to force stop the FordPass app on the phone you don't want to be seen. I drive the car 90% of the time, but when I get into after her, it knows it's me, sets up the seat, driving mode and music to my settings automatically.

3)Same as above. When I get home, I force stop the app. It turns off the background communication. I just restart it when I want to drive again.

4)They live at home. I have no recommendations. I don't like the idea that a broken window let's just anyone drive away. I know for a fact, that keys left in a vehicle void theft insurance where I am.

Thanks for those details! Force quitting the app totally makes sense. As for the faraday concept, I agree with not wanting to leave the key in the car. However, I have one of those under seat safes that tethers to the car that I could use. I feel like with documentation (pictures) that you did that, insurance would still work with you, but tough call for sure.

 

[daemonic3]

Here are my experiences:

I have my phone and fob and take both if I'm driving (except a couple times I went to play volleyball). If my wife is driving I have my phone but not my fob.
Wife's fob is set as profile #1, she does not use PAAK, she does have Fordpass installed with my login
My fob is set as profile #2, PAAK assigned as profile #2, and I have Fordpass of course
I have a job2 '22

1) No matter what combination is present, the profile first loaded is random. It has never loaded guest, but it is a crapshoot between our 2 profiles. The theories about "last driver" or "fob wins" etc are all theories - there is a bug in the BCM regarding driver profiles that was introduced within the past year and is fixable with a BCM update, but is not present in any OTA. I plan to ask my dealer if/when I ever need to take this thing in!

2) No matter which profile loads, the first phone to connect appears to be random as well. I even set mine as preferred in my profile, hers as preferred in her profile, and it is still a race. This has been true in all our cars however, but I had more hopes for this one since we are actually *using* the profiles. Nope!

3) I set my ambient lighting to a distinct color from hers and when we see the wrong lighting (it shows up quicker than the sync screen), it is a simple button press on the door to change to the correct profile. Whose phone will load is still random!

4) Since I basically ALWAYS have my phone on me, the Mach greets me in the garage. I haven't really paid attention to how often I get the pony puddle light or not, but it basically always greets me. I'm just used to it with my F150 always greeting me if I have my fob and I walk near it. I have not noticed any adverse side effects of the car waking if I walk around the house? I haven't hit any 12V battery issues if that is the worry.

Lastly, I very rarely use any fob buttons or PAAK buttons period. I basically just walk up to the car and hit the door button to open it, and walk away from the car and it locks automatically. Frunk (on PAAK) has really been the only used button. I basically carry the fob because I feel weird not having something in my pocket, and it's insurance in case my phone freaks out.

 

[West1134]

Here are my experiences:

I have my phone and fob and take both if I'm driving (except a couple times I went to play volleyball). If my wife is driving I have my phone but not my fob.
Wife's fob is set as profile #1, she does not use PAAK, she does have Fordpass installed with my login
My fob is set as profile #2, PAAK assigned as profile #2, and I have Fordpass of course
I have a job2 '22

1) No matter what combination is present, the profile first loaded is random. It has never loaded guest, but it is a crapshoot between our 2 profiles. The theories about "last driver" or "fob wins" etc are all theories - there is a bug in the BCM regarding driver profiles that was introduced within the past year and is fixable with a BCM update, but is not present in any OTA. I plan to ask my dealer if/when I ever need to take this thing in!

2) No matter which profile loads, the first phone to connect appears to be random as well. I even set mine as preferred in my profile, hers as preferred in her profile, and it is still a race. This has been true in all our cars however, but I had more hopes for this one since we are actually *using* the profiles. Nope!

3) I set my ambient lighting to a distinct color from hers and when we see the wrong lighting (it shows up quicker than the sync screen), it is a simple button press on the door to change to the correct profile. Whose phone will load is still random!

4) Since I basically ALWAYS have my phone on me, the Mach greets me in the garage. I haven't really paid attention to how often I get the pony puddle light or not, but it basically always greets me. I'm just used to it with my F150 always greeting me if I have my fob and I walk near it. I have not noticed any adverse side effects of the car waking if I walk around the house? I haven't hit any 12V battery issues if that is the worry.

Lastly, I very rarely use any fob buttons or PAAK buttons period. I basically just walk up to the car and hit the door button to open it, and walk away from the car and it locks automatically. Frunk (on PAAK) has really been the only used button. I basically carry the fob because I feel weird not having something in my pocket, and it's insurance in case my phone freaks out.

Thanks for that very detailed write up of your experience.

 

[MacherAWD]

I basically carry the fob because I feel weird not having something in my pocket, and it's insurance in case my phone freaks out

I use the door code, and start passcode as my backup, as long as you can remember them

 

[awp0]

I’ve been tempted to buy a cheap faraday bag, but I don’t think it’s a great solution for PAAK failures. I’m not sure how you would get the key fob if you can’t access the car with PAAK or the door code. Thankfully PAAK has been 100% reliable for me in accessing and starting the car. It’s not so reliable if showing me the welcome lights or unlocking the car before I reach it, but I’ve grown tired of complaining about that

The faraday bag seems like a good solution if you like to use valet parking frequently.

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