PaaK seems to require cellular service

[ChasingCoral]

Lots of folks on the Forum are indicating that PaaK isn’t ready for prime time. While many folks have indicated they were giving up on it. I’ve gone all-in on Paak and normally leave my fob at home. For this trip to Florida I brought the fob but carried it in the glove compartment wrapped in two faraday bags so Marlin wouldn’t “see” it. Once we got here to Marco I left it in the condo in a suitcase. That means when the 5 March Everglades incidents cropped up, I had no fob to fall back on. It’s now back in the glove box due to the Everglades Incidents below.

General issues:
Sometimes Marlin sees the phone, sometimes he doesn’t. My iPhone 12Pro may be working better for recognition to unlock than my wife’s iPhone 7. However, that may just be because I'm driving most of the time. Unlocking the driver’s door is the most reliable, lift gate second, passenger door the least. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if PaaK is working on the passenger door at all. Often we’ll have to wake up the phone and start or activate the app to get it to work. Sometimes we have to press unlock on the app. Sometimes we have to resort to the key pad to open the car. The phone really needs to be sitting on the charging pad to start the car. Starting almost never works with the phone in a back pocket. Walk-away lock has become unreliable, too. It often works great — probably most of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s not reliable for locking a vehicle in a city.

The Everglades Incidents:
PaaK failed miserably and consistently when there was no cell coverage. Many parts of the Everglades have absolutely no cell signal. This is true of many big National Parks. First, PaaK wouldn’t work at all at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. It would neither open the doors, nor start the car, even if the phone was connected to the USB. The app would not start on the phone since it couldn’t connect to the mothership (won't get past the first Ford splash screen). We had to use the door and start backup codes. Once in Miami for the charge at the Miami International Mall PaaK was working fine. Then we entered the Park through the main entrance. Once a short distance past the Visitor Center, we had no cell signal again. The rest of the day in Everglades National Park, PaaK would not open doors or start the car. Every hike, every boardwalk, etc., we had to use the door and start codes. If I left Marlin on and got out to the pictures, the security system would require a key to put the car into drive. Since the PaaK wasn’t working, that meant waiting for a minute for the passcode prompt to appear and then entering the start code again -- every, single time.

If you're going to be out of cell phone coverage, I recommend you have your fob with you as a backup.

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[KAustin]

What happens if you're in an underground parking garage without cell service? Rhetorical...

 

[ChasingCoral]

What happens if you're in an underground parking garage without cell service? Rhetorical...

It's worth testing. I can't test here because underground parking garages tend to be underwater in FL ?

 

[SnBGC]

Cell service to use PaaK is unexpected. Must need an internet connection for some reason. I looked at the system diagrams and it appears to use the same components as RKE....that is how the car knows the phone is nearby. Based on your findings, there are more requirements then the mere proximity of the phone.

 

[benk016]

So, it seems like this is more of a FordPass App issue and not a car issue then? You just never actually get to the screen with the remote control buttons?

That seems like it should be a decently easy fix for Ford. If the connection takes more than 30 seconds, time out and go into offline mode or something.

 

[benk016]

Cell service to use PaaK is unexpected. Must need an internet connection for some reason. I looked at the system diagrams and it appears to use the same components as RKE....that is how the car knows the phone is nearby. Based on your findings, there are more requirements then the mere proximity of the phone.

It sounds more like an App issue than a vehicle issue. When he had no signal on his cell, the app would never load past the Ford Logo.

 

[MattG]

The app tells you if you’re connected to the car via Bluetooth....and it often loses that connection. I wonder if that’s the culprit here, not cell service?

 

[agoldman]

Seems like this should have been well tested before hand. Or then just called a future feature when it actuially works reliably.

 

[benk016]

I just put my phone into airplane mode to test this. For a good minute it showed the blue screen with the Ford logo. But it finally loaded into the screen with the remote controls, and it connected and was able to open the car.

I do have an android so maybe its just not handling that properly on the iOS side.

 

[sambastang]

Anybody noticed a difference in Android versions 10 vs 11? My hub's pixel is on 11 and he's had zero issues setting up and adding PaaK. My Duo's still on Android 10 and has had very lackluster results even establishing PaaK. I got a cute keychain for the fob. I'll be taking it with me.

 

[sockmeister]

Lots of folks on the Forum are indicating that PaaK isn’t ready for prime time. While many folks have indicated they were giving up on it. I’ve gone all-in on Paak and normally leave my fob at home. For this trip to Florida I brought the fob but carried it in the glove compartment wrapped in two faraday bags so Marlin wouldn’t “see” it. Once we got here to Marco I left it in the condo in a suitcase. That means when the 5 March Everglades incidents cropped up, I had no fob to fall back on. It’s now back in the glove box due to the Everglades Incidents below.

General issues:
Sometimes Marlin sees the phone, sometimes he doesn’t. My iPhone 12Pro may be working better for recognition to unlock than my wife’s iPhone 7. However, that may just be because I'm driving most of the time. Unlocking the driver’s door is the most reliable, lift gate second, passenger door the least. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if PaaK is working on the passenger door at all. Often we’ll have to wake up the phone and start or activate the app to get it to work. Sometimes we have to press unlock on the app. Sometimes we have to resort to the key pad to open the car. The phone really needs to be sitting on the charging pad to start the car. Starting almost never works with the phone in a back pocket. Walk-away lock has become unreliable, too. It often works great — probably most of the time. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s not reliable for locking a vehicle in a city.

The Everglades Incidents:
PaaK failed miserably and consistently when there was no cell coverage. Many parts of the Everglades have absolutely no cell signal. This is true of many big National Parks. First, PaaK wouldn’t work at all at the Shark Valley Visitor Center. It would neither open the doors, nor start the car, even if the phone was connected to the USB. The app would not start on the phone since it couldn’t connect to the mothership (won't get past the first Ford splash screen). We had to use the door and start backup codes. Once in Miami for the charge at the Miami International Mall PaaK was working fine. Then we entered the Park through the main entrance. Once a short distance past the Visitor Center, we had no cell signal again. The rest of the day in Everglades National Park, PaaK would not open doors or start the car. Every hike, every boardwalk, etc., we had to use the door and start codes. If I left Marlin on and got out to the pictures, the security system would require a key to put the car into drive. Since the PaaK wasn’t working, that meant waiting for a minute for the passcode prompt to appear and then entering the start code again -- every, single time.

If you're going to be out of cell phone coverage, I recommend you have your fob with you as a backup.

Starting to wonder if this is by design -- maybe there's a component to it above and beyond bluetooth, for now - it would also account for the delays many are experiencing with PaaK.
Perhaps it first connects via bluetooth, and then the car contacts the server and checks to see whether the phone requesting access is in fact tied to this particular car, and THEN allows it to unlock. This would definitely be spotty and is a terrible way to rely on PaaK, just by design.

 

[ajmartineau]

I hope there is a workaround planned for this in the future. I can think of many times when it will be more than just inconvenient to have the PAAK not work without cellular. Thanks for the find.

 

[Jim_I]

My car is due here in SE Florida in 3-4 more weeks. So I will be able to really test PAAK fully at that time.

That being said, you are putting up with a lot more with PAAK than I would. I will be fine with it when it is reliable all the time.

If it isn't reliable, I will be looking into an additional fob. Maybe I am asking a lot, but when I get to the car, I expect the door to open and the car to start without having to try different options.

Jim

 

[CHeil402]

Starting to wonder if this is by design -- maybe there's a component to it above and beyond bluetooth, for now - it would also account for the delays many are experiencing with PaaK.
Perhaps it first connects via bluetooth, and then the car contacts the server and checks to see whether the phone requesting access is in fact tied to this particular car, and THEN allows it to unlock. This would definitely be spotty and is a terrible way to rely on PaaK, just by design.

This is probably an initial CYA thing from Ford. They might want a log of all access requests from a cell phone unlock if they ever get sued when someone's car gets stolen. Hopefully they can make this a local offline log that just uploads when reliable service is available if so.

 

[CHeil402]

...also, hopefully once "Digital Key" gets implemented more widely this also becomes a non-issue especially if this is implemented at the phone's OS level instead of in the app level to keep the app from getting put to sleep/killed.

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