I Think I’ve Figured Out PaaK

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Jimrpa

Jimrpa

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My sales guy knows me well and knows that I’ve studied a lot about the car. When I took delivery, he was happy to let me go off on my own with the invitation to give him a call if I had any questions. When I got the Ford survey, I gave my dealer a very honest and well deserved set of top marks across the board. I firmly believe the value the dealer model brings is the long-term relationship that is established between the customer and the dealer. You don’t get that same dynamic at a Tesla store or an Apple store (and I think apple has great customer service).
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pt19713

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Good to know that Tesla has these problems as well. I have a couple of friends who have Teslas and they use the credit card method to get into their car. And the B pillar gets scratched up from all the credit card taps.
It's usually not a Tesla problem. People with iOS usually have to make sure the app and location services is always on. When the phone puts the Tesla app to sleep, it won't communicate with the car.

Once the phone is setup properly, there's usually no issues. Both my wife and I use Android and app works 99% of the time. The few instances where it doesn't work is because my phone connects to her Tesla instead of mine, or vice versa. This isn't an issue for one Tesla households, though.
 

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I've turned off phone and car connectivity to the internet and parked in a basement parking garage for 24 hours with 0 signal to the car. If wifi (5GHz) and Bluetooth (BOTH connections to the car) are on and connected, PaaK works. No internet. (Android 11 required, no clue for iOS)
 

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I think some of the other experts will chime in, but... Paak uses Bluetooth. Bluetooth takes about 5 to 10 seconds to "handshake" and establish communication. So if you approach your vehicle, and the phone connects to the car 5-10 seconds before you get there, PaaK will work well. Fast walkers will have problems, lol.

Some on here have mentioned NFC (Near Field Comm) as an alternate. This is basically an RFID system, at about 14mHz. Good for "swipe to pay" systems. Pros of NFC are low power and fast (<1 sec) handshake, it is a simple protocol and it's robust, i.e. it works nearly 100% of the time. Cons are range is usually less than 6 inches. Bluetooth has about 10x the data rate as NFC, but for stuff like unlocking a door, not much data is passed, so it doesn't matter. I think it is inevitable you will see some sort of NFC on Ford BEVs in the future.
That makes no sense. If the delay was inherent to Bluetooth, then my phone couldn't use Bluetooth to open my Model 3's without the delay you are talking about. It should be seamless. In otherwords, the 5 to 10 second delay you are experience is not due to properly implemented BT protocols.
 

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On my Pixel 4, I'm starting to believe that if my phone ever goes into battery saver mode PaaK won't work. Yesterday I had it in battery saver all day. I then turned battery saver off about an hour before I walked to the parking lot to get in the car. Didn't work. Not until I force closed the app and restarted it, then it worked fine.
 


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Where is the Bluetooth sensor(s) located in the MME? One issue that could also be causing it is the location of the phone on relation to how you approach the vehicle. If the phone is in a back pocket or purse, the body can block the 2.4 ghz wavelength.
 

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PaaK still does not work for me, going on two months and 1,600 miles. First getting the car it didn't work at the dealership. Salesman had a print out of instructions Ford pushed out in case of such issues. Which was basically to reset the car.

I have tried to reset the keys, reset the car, removing car from Ford pass, uninstall Ford pass, unpair the Bluetooth connection etc. Tried PaaK before pairing the phone for music and calls after a full reset. Tried connected to my home wifi, my phone to the vehicle hotspot. I know it shouldn't matter with Bluetooth, but I was trying to rule out every variable. I have set it back to stock as much as possible. I only get on screen setup pop-ups when resetting the whole car, which I have done 5 times now. Really wish I could save settings on a cloud or something, very annoying changing all my settings and creating a profile over and over.

I consistently get a connection error. I'm outside every time, in various locations. Wide open. I'm on a 20 Ultra, wife on a 11 Pro Max. Same thing for both of us. Attached are some screen shots. I've read all tips and suggestions on these forums, others, YouTube tutorials, etc. Nothing works. After an attempt, it shows in Ford pass I have a key. I get the email saying it's created.

My dealership was supposed to get back to me several times with an "expert", hasn't happened. I'm tired of trying with them honestly. Chatted with Ford about it, they're useless. I've done everything they try to get me to. Hard to do it on the phone, while using the phone to troubleshoot as well.

I don't want to make my own thread, even I'm tired of seeing them. I keep patiently waiting for it to work, hasn't happened. I guess I just really wanted to vent.
Ford Mustang Mach-E I Think I’ve Figured Out PaaK Screenshot_20210409-085242_FordPass
Ford Mustang Mach-E I Think I’ve Figured Out PaaK Screenshot_20210409-085316_FordPass
Ford Mustang Mach-E I Think I’ve Figured Out PaaK IMG_8639_20210409_084643
Ford Mustang Mach-E I Think I’ve Figured Out PaaK Screenshot_20210409-085324_FordPass
 

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According to my testing.....
The phone must be connected to the internet via cell or wifi in order for PaaK to work.

I don't use PaaK. I get in and out of my car way too many times in a day to stand there and wait until it does it's thing. The fob has been working well for me and been rock solid so far.
I am ready for a second fob as well. Currently on back order with no eta. Over the last 14 years i had completely forgotten what it was like to fiddle around with keys. I simply put the fob in my pocket and approached the car. Worked every time. Sounds like the promise of PaaK, right? I can say in practice it’s not. Now I just wish the MachE fob were not so bulky. I’m waiting for the second fob to arrive before I delete PaaK, but that is my current plan.

Then I want to figure out how to limit valet mode to something below 80MPH!!
 
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eStang

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PaaK still does not work for me, going on two months and 1,600 miles. .....

I don't want to make my own thread, even I'm tired of seeing them. I keep patiently waiting for it to work, hasn't happened. I guess I just really wanted to vent.
Well, if misery loves company, know that I am in the same boat - I have NEVER gotten past the "copy the code" screen and most of the time I get "Key Download Failed" and thus have never gotten any phones (Android nor iOS) to pair with my car. Going on 3 weeks and 1600 miles. Other than this annoyance, I'm loving the car.
 

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I think I might have figured out Phone as a Key. If I’m right, the secret is to go SLOWLY. I found that if I just quickly walk up to the car and immediately hit the door button, more often than not, the door will ignore me on the first and even second tries. But, if I take my time and don’t hit the button right away, the door opens on the first try. Similarly, if I try to start as soon as I hop on, I’ll usually get the dreaded “No key detected” and May end up having to use the backup password. But, if I take a few moments to put the phone in the charger, fasten my seatbelt, etc, then start the car, it starts right away.
Here’s my theory: when you use PaaK, not only is there some kind of handshake between your phone and the car, there’s also a handshake between your phone and the “Ford mothership” and your car and the “Ford mothership”. Until all parties have talked to each other, authenticated themselves to each other and to the “Ford mothership”, and the “Ford mothership” has told both car and phone they can trust each other this one time for this one session, nothing is going to happen. If I’m correct, then there’s an interesting question: what happens if the “Ford mothership” isn’t available, or you go out of an area with cell service, or to a region with poor cell service? Say you go on a drive to Death Valley? ?
what if you are being chased by Zombies?
 

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what if you are being chased by Zombies?
crank up The Cranberries and take some sleeping pills. because in the Zombie Apocalypse, I'm no Daryl Dixon. And frankly once the grid goes, the Mach-E is going to be become just another road-clogging brick in a while anyway, so PaaK will be the least of my problems.
 
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Jimrpa

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crank up The Cranberries and take some sleeping pills. because in the Zombie Apocalypse, I'm no Daryl Dixon. And frankly once the grid goes, the Mach-E is going to be become just another road-clogging brick in a while anyway, so PaaK will be the least of my problems.
ugh - when I read that, for some reason, I read it at first as "just another brick in the wall" at first :D
 

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It's usually not a Tesla problem. People with iOS usually have to make sure the app and location services is always on. When the phone puts the Tesla app to sleep, it won't communicate with the car.

Once the phone is setup properly, there's usually no issues. Both my wife and I use Android and app works 99% of the time. The few instances where it doesn't work is because my phone connects to her Tesla instead of mine, or vice versa. This isn't an issue for one Tesla households, though.
You might check your phone configurations because both my wife and I use PAAK on our respective Tesla in the same carport without issue. The PaaK works quickly every time (we both have Android phones).

I don't know if this has anything to do with it but we do have different Tesla accounts rather than putting the two cars on one account. That's always an option with no real downside. You can still program both cars on the same keycards in case you lose or break your phone. You can put up to 10 cars per keycard. All four of our keycards will open either car so we have authentication options coming out our ears, LOL!
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