Mach-E = Beta Tester

[TruWrecks]

If you own a Mach-E you are an Early Adopter (AKA Beta Tester)!

Like it or not. That is a fact, The MME is not ready for mass adoption. With all the on going issues it will take a few years for Ford to get everything refined to the point that anyone could operate one without issues.

Our job as Mach-E owners is to help Ford pave the way for the future. Our pain and suffering will payoff when the days come that EV ownership is taught in public schools as the normal way to drive. We are along way from that.

PaaK is one example. It is not a simple program. I needs to support 2 operating systems and multiple versions of each. Along with this it needs to be tested with dozens of different popular phones to make sure 90% of the customers are covered. Same thing that Tesla does and Tesla took 7 years to get it pretty smooth. Tesla customers still have issues today with some of the Tesla app updates but their mindset on ownership of the car is different then most gas and legacy car owners. Most Tesla owners accept that they are drive a cutting edge computer that will sometimes have software issues. PaaK will get better in time, but it takes a lot of time to get it working for all possible phone/OS combinations. We may have to accept that some phones will never work correctly and 90% is good enough on Ford's part. (Besides this, if you are buying a $50,000 car upgrading your cell phone so you have the best overall experience should be easy enough.).

A modern EV is a supercomputer with wheels. It is a software controlled appliance that you can drive. It is a major departure from legacy cars from the past 100 years. This software is very complicated and takes many very talented programmers to develop, maintain and troubleshoot. It takes a team. When a company like Ford spends 100 years trying to make affordable gas cars then designs an EV from scratch, it may as well be from a different company because Ford had to learn to think different to design the Mach-E. The software may have issues but the hardware is pretty damn impressive.

If we work with Ford and be patient about the little issues we will help pave the way for future EVs from Ford that are truly unplug and drive.

Everyone else we will drag into the future kicking and screaming.

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[Billyk24]

Like it or not. That is a fact, The MME is not ready for mass adoption. With all the on going issues it will take a few years for Ford to get everything refined to the point that anyone could operate one without issues.
That is vey true for Tesla which rips off customers for an upfront FSD payment with no intent to bring it to the market.

 

[AlpaChino]

Our job as Mach-E owners is to help Ford pave the way for the future. Our pain and suffering will payoff when the days come that EV ownership is taught in public schools as the normal way to drive. We are along way from that.

I agree with some of your thoughts, but no one buys a premium car going in with an understanding or agreement to be a beta tester. We are customers first and many of us just want the features marketed to us as additional values to work as intended. Some of us have more patience than others, but really no excuses need to or should be made on behalf of a global car manufacturer with over 100 years of experience.

 

[JRT]

For me 2 weeks in just under 500 miles, my issue is only the PAAK. Ford is a great company with history and resources in this case 2 key fobs would solve the issue till this is seamless.

 

[RockwallRick]

For me 2 weeks in just under 500 miles, my issue is only the PAAK. Ford is a great company with history and resources in this case 2 key fobs would solve the issue till this is seamless.

I am trying to get my Wife to have more patience with her PAAK! We have had the car for less than a week and she already wants to get a 2nd FOB!!

 

[Tyldum]

Any new model has a first year of issues. I keep an eye on multiple forums for owners of various EVs and it's trouble everywhere.

ID3 was almost banned in Norway due to bugs with the heating system causing the windows to completely fog down.

I don't have any issues making the car undrivable, but I tolerate more than the average buyer as I am in thr tech industry...

 

[TruWrecks]

I agree with some of your thoughts, but no one buys a premium car going in with an understanding or agreement to be a beta tester.

What classifies a car a "Premium"?

Price? The average mean price of all mid-range cars is around $43000 US, The puts the Mach-E slightly above average for gas cars, but in the middle for an EV. Price means nothing here.
Features? You can buy the cheapest Tesla or any other 200+ mile range EV and get similar feature.
Rarity? 50,000 the first year. More than Tesla built from 2013-2015. Not exactly rare for a new product.

Premium might be a trim level but this certainty is not in the ranks of a C8 Corvette. I think some expectations needs to be based on reality and facts.

 

[timbop]

I agree with what you've said, but something not addressed is that a platform like the Mach E requires more than just hardware and software engineering. The piece Ford clearly hasn't grasped yet is customer support, and unless they recognize and address that the car will not go beyond a niche market space.

As a vast majority of threads here and probably elsewhere shows, the model of having dealers support the car for Ford is wholly inadequate. The car is too new, too complex, and has too little profit for dealers to do the job right. Until the car hits mass adoption or Ford offers service revenue on SOFTWARE support to dealers, the dealerships are not very interested in gaining expertise with and disseminating CORRECT information about the Mach E. The solution for Ford is to change their mindset and recognize the need for centralized software support and have a hotline with fully qualified tier 1 and 2 support techs. Some of the veterans on this forum are far more qualified at supporting the car than the existing Ford hotline staff. THAT is both unacceptable and the most significant barrier to mass adoption, IMHO.

 

[TruWrecks]

I agree with what you've said, but something not addressed is that a platform like the Mach E requires more than just hardware and software engineering. The piece Ford clearly hasn't grasped yet is customer support, and unless they recognize and address that the car will not go beyond a niche market space.

As a vast majority of threads here and probably elsewhere shows, the model of having dealers support the car for Ford is wholly inadequate. The car is too new, too complex, and has too little profit for dealers to do the job right. Until the car hits mass adoption or Ford offers service revenue on SOFTWARE support to dealers, the dealerships are not very interested in gaining expertise with and disseminating CORRECT information about the Mach E. The solution for Ford is to change their mindset and recognize the need for centralized software support and have a hotline with fully qualified tier 1 and 2 support techs. Some of the veterans on this forum are far more qualified at supporting the car than the existing Ford hotline staff. THAT is both unacceptable and the most significant barrier to mass adoption, IMHO.

Ford would do well to setup their own national support center for their EVs. Then most of the support issues could be better handled.

 

[MG101]

PAAK is well over a year old at this point. Ford knew it wasn't working properly yet but they released it as feature of a car that they HAd to get right the first time(800 miles in and so far they did). It doesn't "bother" me that it doesn't work as it should but it certainly doesn't instill confidence. It's convenient you find out how poorly it works AFTER you write the check. Speaking of checks when is Ford paying us to be bug testers?

 

[Scooby24]

100% agree with OP. If we want a product that is entirely bug free we will be waiting another 5 years at least. Teslas been doing this a loooot longer with superior software and still haven't gotten it perfect. Software issues can be resolved with time. Hardware and build issues mechanically are not as easy to resolve and this is where ford is better at building a car. The software bug will get better.

 

[Scrannel]

Again, IMHO, it's Ford's business legacy that's going to stand in their way. Agree they should have a "tech mothership" out there to exclusively deal with these issues. I think it's less an issue of "will they", and more an issue of "can they." I'm already seeing dealer-idiot-intervention described on this and other forums.

When my wife's previous Range Sport started throwing error messages (it had a bunch of miles) and the air suspension stopped working, the dealer made a list of what needed replacing -- including a new suspension pump. I replaced the battery -- all messages went away and the suspension came back on line and work till the say we sold it. The dealer knew a battery change would solve the issues. Ford has 100 + years of doing that to people...

 

[MachTee]

100% agree with OP. If we want a product that is entirely bug free we will be waiting another 5 years at least. Teslas been doing this a loooot longer with superior software and still haven't gotten it perfect. Software issues can be resolved with time. Hardware and build issues mechanically are not as easy to resolve and this is where ford is better at building a car. The software bug will get better.

This right there.

Tesla believes everything can be solved via software, and I gotta admit there are some pretty ingenious ways they implemented a software fix for some hardware problems. One is the frozen window issue, in which during fridge temperatures, the windows leaves a millimeter or two from closing completely, alleviating that issue.

That said, having driven a TM3 for 44K miles, I still could not accept all the compromises in all the missing hardware.

 

[theo1000]

I don't think this is a Beta car at all. Its just a new model and architecture and hard to nail everything down. I have just over 4,000 miles on the car in 3 weeks, and the car has never broken down or had a major service issue. Sync 4 which is real heart of the software has worked well, couple of crashes, but car kept driving. I think once you abandon PaaK and get your second key fob, it feels like a trully well put together car. I'm confident enough to let my Wife/Daughters drive long distance on it, I wouldn't do that with a Beta car.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I am trying to get my Wife to have more patience with her PAAK! We have had the car for less than a week and she already wants to get a 2nd FOB!!

Go get one. If you can't find a "real" MME fob, check the forums out for a substitute one and get it programmed. While neither my wife nor I have issues with PAAK (at least consistently), having two fobs is worth the peace of mind imo. The car should have come with 2.

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