Installed Sync APIM Update in FDRS ('21 GTPE Job 2) -- Summary of Changes

[scoopman]

I started on what turned into a nearly 6-hour oddessey this evening at 5:12pm, which ended finally at 10:45pm (!). It was a big gigantic mega APIM update of 5gig. TLDR: good update, worth doing if you're offered it in FDRS, but do it on a weekend or at least have some brewskies in hand, you'll need them.

Not sure if this brings my Job 2 GTPE up to the latest 3.53 power up, but I hadn't had any APIM updates in a very long time (I think I've only had one before this one) and my OTA was stuck at 2.83 before this.

This did all of the following, which seemed a really good step change from the old infotainment stuff my car was running:

• Greatly reduced latency, everything seemed much snappier and less latency and jank throughout
• Hitting the "car" now brings you (much faster!) into access by default, not drive mode, which is hugely good. Very quick experiments in my garage but time-to-task for opening my hatch or frunk was much much better, perhaps even enough to prevent me from cutting up wires in my dash to install a physical hatch button
• Access screen seemed less tall so it didn't scroll annoyingly, and the touch target seemed to work every time (this didn't for me before, there were strange scrolling and touch target problems)
• Drive mode screen also was less cluttered in layout and was much snappier to use
• Profile button at the top revealed a reorganized app menu to apps / entertainment (although Sketch isn't entertainment??) and it seems to give you all of the same games as the F-150 Lightning and 2022 MMEs.
• AC button!
• Alexa is there, and I promptly signed in then signed out to make her go away (I think that's the only way you can get rid of the Alexa icon at the top, which is "feature discovery" as we call it that gets her annoyingly telling you to sign in)
• Might just be me perceiving everything to be faster, but touch responsiveness of CarPlay also seemed better, I bet there's a later version of the head unit carplay code in there too. The Phones menu in Settings is cleaned up, had much less lag too
• Oh and I got YouTube, too! (just kidding, I didn't).

All in all a good update -- and luckily I could take this laptop inside my house to let it create the 5gig flash drive instead of sitting in my car the whole time. (I think my USB flash drive had really poor write performance -- installation took 15-20 min I believe, so YMMV to create the flash drive. Took over an hour to download over very fast residential internet before it created the drive).


Resulting Sync version:

Default when you pull down car menu is at access (YAY finally):

Drive modes screen seemed more compact and definitely less lag to switch modes:

Gee thanks for the release notes.

 

[Jonno21]

Default when you pull down car menu is at access (YAY finally):

Gee thanks for the release notes.

This is one of my gripes. I like to see release notes on what has changed, bug fixes etc. It's good for monitoring if the update has really worked as you know what to look out for. Those who don't want to see it, can just ignore it.

 

[Kabay0]

Did you get the full screen android auto?

 

[MuckyMach-e]

Is it possible to do an APIM update with just a USB stick and 1 day FDRS license or do you still need all the other expensive items like Mongoose cables and battery chargers?

 

[tobin1920]

Great write-up, thanks a lot for sharing your experience and first impressions. The Access-by-default tweak would be such a big improvement - I’ve been very close to doing the physical button mod for the hatch button for a while but was holding out hope that they’d change this. I’ve gone for stretches of time when it seemed like it was defaulting to Access, but then started going into Drive Modes again by default. I couldn’t identify any pattern but hopefully this latest update fixes that for good!

 

[Mach-Lee]

That’s the same APIM version I just got with 3.5.3 OTA so you’re finally at the same software level as a 2022. Congrats.

FYI you can tap the Alexa icon and select dismiss without having to sign in.

 

[kdonnel]

Is it possible to do an APIM update with just a USB stick and 1 day FDRS license or do you still need all the other expensive items like Mongoose cables and battery chargers?

You still need the mongoose cable or equivalent.

A certificate specific to your car is generated as part of the USB stick creation process which occurs while the laptop and FDRS are connected to your car.

 

[scoopman]

Did you get the full screen android auto?

sorry no Android phone anymore to check

 

[Mach-Lee]

Did you get the full screen android auto?

It should have it, that came out a couple versions prior.

 

[scoopman]

You still need the mongoose cable or equivalent.

A certificate specific to your car is generated as part of the USB stick creation process which occurs while the laptop and FDRS are connected to your car.

you definitely need the cable to at the beginning to let it create the USB, and after it’s done loading the usb, it configures the module over the cable.

this one is quick to configure and you need your car with hv on for about 20 minutes to load up the software from the usb, so I bet you would be able to get away without the power supply.

But I’m not sure I would chance it.

 

[scoopman]

Great write-up, thanks a lot for sharing your experience and first impressions. The Access-by-default tweak would be such a big improvement - I’ve been very close to doing the physical button mod for the hatch button for a while but was holding out hope that they’d change this. I’ve gone for stretches of time when it seemed like it was defaulting to Access, but then started going into Drive Modes again by default. I couldn’t identify any pattern but hopefully this latest update fixes that for good!

yes I think this alone is worth the ridiculous amount of install time on this one.

 

[generaltso]

I’ve gone for stretches of time when it seemed like it was defaulting to Access, but then started going into Drive Modes again by default. I couldn’t identify any pattern but hopefully this latest update fixes that for good!

I haven't done this update yet, but the prior behavior was that it would go directly to Access after the car was turned off (but before a door was opened). Maybe that's when you were seeing it.

 

[scoopman]

I haven't done this update yet, but the prior behavior was that it would go directly to Access after the car was turned off (but before a door was opened). Maybe that's when you were seeing it.

correct but now it goes to access every time by default which is great

 

[scoopman]

correct but now it goes to access every time by default which is great

i take that back now that I’ve driven with it. If you’re parked you get access by default. While in D, you get drive mode screen by default.

basically what they should have done originally.

 

[Mauser]

FYI you can tap the Alexa icon and select dismiss without having to sign in.

That's what everyone's saying, but when I tap it, it's prompting me to go through the registration/trial process. Am I missing something?

Sponsored