Newby Ford navigation app question

[stevenschwartz]

Hi Folks,

New to the EV world, just took delivery on a 23 Mach E GT. 2 questions:

1) Navigation won't search for charging stations. We set up a lot in the SYNC app at the dealer, but I had a strange issue on the drive home. Can use the navigation app to plan a route, but when I tried to search for charging stations along the route the charging station tile on navigation was light color and would not activate. Got some kind of error message about registering ... I have and the ford pass app worked like a charm paying for a charge. So anyone know how to fix this?

2) Are people using the ford navigation or say Apple Maps on car play. Supposedly, it works well and even can detect battery status. If I plan a trip on Apple Maps on my phone it knows nothing about EV's, but I assume when car play is activated, that will be an option. Advice very welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

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[Tim_C]

Hello and congrats on the new car!

1. Have you enabled the Blue Oval Charge Network? This might be necessary, per source.
2. Maps
   1. Mach-E instructions for Apple Maps EV routing
   2. The built-in navigation is apparently the only way to precondition the battery en route to a charger, for optimum charging rates (example comment)

 

[stevenschwartz]

Thanks! We have enabled the Blue Oval network. I think I may need to call Ford next week.

 

[Logal727]

Are you seeing live traffic on the nav?

 

[stevenschwartz]

Are you seeing live traffic on the nav?

Great question - no we are not.

 

[GreaseMonkey]

In my experience, Apple Maps provides an easy and user friendly way to navigate and get very accurate info about ETA and estimated SoC throughout the trip. I use it exclusively.

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Since this is a "new" car ... possibly the modem on your car is wedged. I have two Mach-E's ... a '21 and a '23.

On the '21, Bluecruise wasn't available at time of purchase and was enabled roughly a year after purchase.

But on the'23, Bluecruise was (supposed to be) available right away. The trouble is ... it wouldn't work. Since this is my 2nd Mach-E ... I definitely knew it wasn't operator error since I use BC all the time on the '21.

We did a lot of trouble-shooting on our own ... and what we ultimately discovered is that the map data was out of date. The map data is normally updated over the air each time you drive.

I happen to have contacts at Ford. They checked my car to confirm the modem was activated -- it was. But that's when they noticed something odd ... my car had never actually checked in with the mother-ship (despite their database showing the modem was enabled).

We got suspicious. What we ultimately did was to hard-reboot the car. We opened the frunk, removed the panels that necessary to access the under-hood fuse blocks, and there are a couple of levers that you can pull to disconnect the fuse-banks ... waited 10 minutes and plugged them back in.

That did the trick... the next time the car started, it contacted the mother-ship and started downloading fresh data and Bluecruise finally started working.

I realize your issue is that you can't find charging stations -- but that is data that gets updated via the over-the-air network back to Ford.

If you choose to try this ... be aware that _MOST_ modules are simply put into a "sleep" state when you shut off the car. The next time you start the car, the modules simply wake up and resume from where they left off. They don't actually boot from scratch.

When you hard-reboot the car (deprive power) ... ALL MODULES have to boot from scratch. This takes a WHILE. Plan for at least 15 minutes before modules are back online (it might be 20). ALSO ... you may (and probably will) get some unsettling error messages when restarting the car about various modules being broken (that's because the modules haven't actually finished booting yet.) If you were to ignore those messages ... and after about 30 minutes shut the car off and restart it, you'll find that all those messages have cleared and everything is back to normal.

I'm not saying this _is_ your fix ... but I'm saying that based on what I went through ... the modem being wedged and not pulling down recent data from Ford is a real possibility that might explain why the car can't add charging stops.

On a side note ... I did this one time only on my '23 ... and never had to do it again. (I am not aware of any other way to reboot the modem.)

 

[stevenschwartz]

Since this is a "new" car ... possibly the modem on your car is wedged. I have two Mach-E's ... a '21 and a '23.

On the '21, Bluecruise wasn't available at time of purchase and was enabled roughly a year after purchase.

But on the'23, Bluecruise was (supposed to be) available right away. The trouble is ... it wouldn't work. Since this is my 2nd Mach-E ... I definitely knew it wasn't operator error since I use BC all the time on the '21.

We did a lot of trouble-shooting on our own ... and what we ultimately discovered is that the map data was out of date. The map data is normally updated over the air each time you drive.

I happen to have contacts at Ford. They checked my car to confirm the modem was activated -- it was. But that's when they noticed something odd ... my car had never actually checked in with the mother-ship (despite their database showing the modem was enabled).

We got suspicious. What we ultimately did was to hard-reboot the car. We opened the frunk, removed the panels that necessary to access the under-hood fuse blocks, and there are a couple of levers that you can pull to disconnect the fuse-banks ... waited 10 minutes and plugged them back in.

That did the trick... the next time the car started, it contacted the mother-ship and started downloading fresh data and Bluecruise finally started working.

I realize your issue is that you can't find charging stations -- but that is data that gets updated via the over-the-air network back to Ford.

If you choose to try this ... be aware that _MOST_ modules are simply put into a "sleep" state when you shut off the car. The next time you start the car, the modules simply wake up and resume from where they left off. They don't actually boot from scratch.

When you hard-reboot the car (deprive power) ... ALL MODULES have to boot from scratch. This takes a WHILE. Plan for at least 15 minutes before modules are back online (it might be 20). ALSO ... you may (and probably will) get some unsettling error messages when restarting the car about various modules being broken (that's because the modules haven't actually finished booting yet.) If you were to ignore those messages ... and after about 30 minutes shut the car off and restart it, you'll find that all those messages have cleared and everything is back to normal.

I'm not saying this _is_ your fix ... but I'm saying that based on what I went through ... the modem being wedged and not pulling down recent data from Ford is a real possibility that might explain why the car can't add charging stops.

On a side note ... I did this one time only on my '23 ... and never had to do it again. (I am not aware of any other way to reboot the modem.)

Thanks for all that detailed info. We just told the car about our home network, so perhaps it will work itself out. Other option is to ask the car to download fresh data. Maybe I will try that first before I loose all the setting my wife and I have entered ...

 

[RickMachE]

Thanks for all that detailed info. We just told the car about our home network, so perhaps it will work itself out. Other option is to ask the car to download fresh data. Maybe I will try that first before I loose all the setting my wife and I have entered ...

WiFi makes no difference, and there is no option to "download fresh data".

 

[TheVirtualTim]

Thanks for all that detailed info. We just told the car about our home network, so perhaps it will work itself out. Other option is to ask the car to download fresh data. Maybe I will try that first before I loose all the setting my wife and I have entered ...

Hard-rebooting the car doesn't result in the loss of any settings. It's not really different than rebooting your home PC from a cold power-off state.

Hopefully you work it out without needing to do the hard-reboot. I just threw it out there in case nothing else works ... if your modem is wedged and needs a restart ... this would clear the jam.

 

[stevenschwartz]

Hard-rebooting the car doesn't result in the loss of any settings. It's not really different than rebooting your home PC from a cold power-off state.

Hopefully you work it out without needing to do the hard-reboot. I just threw it out there in case nothing else works ... if your modem is wedged and needs a restart ... this would clear the jam.

Got it, and appreciate the suggestion.

 

[Teslaeata]

Hi Folks,

New to the EV world, just took delivery on a 23 Mach E GT. 2 questions:

1) Navigation won't search for charging stations. We set up a lot in the SYNC app at the dealer, but I had a strange issue on the drive home. Can use the navigation app to plan a route, but when I tried to search for charging stations along the route the charging station tile on navigation was light color and would not activate. Got some kind of error message about registering ... I have and the ford pass app worked like a charm paying for a charge. So anyone know how to fix this?

2) Are people using the ford navigation or say Apple Maps on car play. Supposedly, it works well and even can detect battery status. If I plan a trip on Apple Maps on my phone it knows nothing about EV's, but I assume when car play is activated, that will be an option. Advice very welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

I just don’t find any car maker’s sat nav system good enough and when there’s a perfectly good system on iPhone reflecting and reacting to live traffic conditions I can’t see the point in using our car’s own nav system.

 

[Logal727]

Great question - no we are not.

Yeah, so seems like your connected services aren’t activated yet. Not sure how long it’s been, I’ve heard it can sometimes take a day or so? Does your remote start work from FordPass when you are out of Bluetooth range?

 

[Logal727]

I just don’t find any car maker’s sat nav system good enough and when there’s a perfectly good system on iPhone reflecting and reacting to live traffic conditions I can’t see the point in using our car’s own nav system.

The Ford one isn’t too bad, you can also do multitouch gestures on it which you can’t do on CarPlay maps for some reason.

 

[Logal727]

Since this is a "new" car ... possibly the modem on your car is wedged. I have two Mach-E's ... a '21 and a '23.

On the '21, Bluecruise wasn't available at time of purchase and was enabled roughly a year after purchase.

But on the'23, Bluecruise was (supposed to be) available right away. The trouble is ... it wouldn't work. Since this is my 2nd Mach-E ... I definitely knew it wasn't operator error since I use BC all the time on the '21.

We did a lot of trouble-shooting on our own ... and what we ultimately discovered is that the map data was out of date. The map data is normally updated over the air each time you drive.

I happen to have contacts at Ford. They checked my car to confirm the modem was activated -- it was. But that's when they noticed something odd ... my car had never actually checked in with the mother-ship (despite their database showing the modem was enabled).

We got suspicious. What we ultimately did was to hard-reboot the car. We opened the frunk, removed the panels that necessary to access the under-hood fuse blocks, and there are a couple of levers that you can pull to disconnect the fuse-banks ... waited 10 minutes and plugged them back in.

That did the trick... the next time the car started, it contacted the mother-ship and started downloading fresh data and Bluecruise finally started working.

I realize your issue is that you can't find charging stations -- but that is data that gets updated via the over-the-air network back to Ford.

If you choose to try this ... be aware that _MOST_ modules are simply put into a "sleep" state when you shut off the car. The next time you start the car, the modules simply wake up and resume from where they left off. They don't actually boot from scratch.

When you hard-reboot the car (deprive power) ... ALL MODULES have to boot from scratch. This takes a WHILE. Plan for at least 15 minutes before modules are back online (it might be 20). ALSO ... you may (and probably will) get some unsettling error messages when restarting the car about various modules being broken (that's because the modules haven't actually finished booting yet.) If you were to ignore those messages ... and after about 30 minutes shut the car off and restart it, you'll find that all those messages have cleared and everything is back to normal.

I'm not saying this _is_ your fix ... but I'm saying that based on what I went through ... the modem being wedged and not pulling down recent data from Ford is a real possibility that might explain why the car can't add charging stops.

On a side note ... I did this one time only on my '23 ... and never had to do it again. (I am not aware of any other way to reboot the modem.)

Actually the easiest way to reboot the modem is to pull the 11 and 12 fuses that are under the passenger footwell. Wait a few minutes, then put back in. Make sure it’s while the car is off of course.

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