PaaK stalled me in school car line and locked dial from Drive mode

[gomezjr]

In the "what the hell were you thinking, Ford" moment ...

Went to pick up my kids at elementary school for the first time today in the freshly waxed MME. Finally my turn to pull up front as all the teachers walk around opening doors everywhere so I make sure to turn the dial to just Park to be safe (but not also hitting Start/Stop button in order to keep AC running <- important detail here). With windows down hear several teachers comment "WOW, that's the new electric Mustang", "nice car" etc. I smile , cars ahead of me take off, there is a line of 100 or so still behind me, press brake pedal ... and I'm freaking stuck in Park and can't turn dial back to Drive mode! Look up to see dreaded but familiar "Key not detected" message so I'm frantically tapping Start buttons, quitting/relaunching FordPass, setting new Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Android 11) in charge bay that often strangely speeds up detection. Some 10 teachers all waving me on. Couple cars behind me start honking. Both kids sinking low into the back seat embarrassed. Had to wait what seemed forever for backup password to finally kick in while cars are now driving over curb around me.

Got home pissed as hell while kids get out. Then thought to myself - let's just sit here in Park mode with car still on and AC going. Sure enough, within a few mins the familiar "Key not detected" msg and the dial is stuck in Park again despite brake depressed. Seems to coincide when the phone went to sleep. Turned off car, woke up FastPass app, the usual few taps of Start button to finally start, sat for a few mins to get No Key msg again, and Park dial stuck again ? Yeah, I know watching these forums that PaaK has sadly been a real challenge for Ford s/w engineering. I even waited around at the dealer for the PaaK firmware update a couple months ago with little improvement ...

But can anyone justify why if I have not turned off my MME yet, just putting it in Park to let my foot off the brake pedal while waiting - why would Ford lock the Park/Drive dial in the middle of traffic just because PaaK no longer detected?? I get it if the Start button actually was tapped off then back on but not the case here. Luckily I didn't do this in the middle of stop & go rush hour on our interstate here for someone to plow into me.

<end of rant>
#wheresMy2ndFOB

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[Kabish]

Odd. So I have the random PAAK issue where it sometimes works and sometimes not. I don't know if its a Ford issue or if its an iPhone issue or if its the FordPass issue or a combination of all three.

However like yourself, I also have sat in line at my kids schools recently. I'm sitting for a GOOD 30 minutes (traffic SUCKS) with the car in park and the AC on with no fob in my car, only the phone. I even get the "Press okay to keep your car running message" lol I've never had, knock on wood, the car locked in park for me. I even believe I had the "no key detected" come up once while parked, but I happened to drive off shortly after that error came up.

So what you are experiencing is defiantly not normal. The fact you can repeatedly have the issue makes it seem like something is wrong.

 

[MarkP213]

Not sure why your phone wasn’t detected, but stuck in park with no key detected makes sense. Wouldn’t that be the same with key fobs as well? No key, no moving the car? Otherwise if you stepped out of the car while it was still on, anyone could jump in and take off.

Where in your Mach E was your phone when this happened?

 

[Kabish]

Normally if you get a key not detected message and you turn off the car you get another message saying to turn it back on or you will need a key. I’m assuming that is why the OP brought that up.

Easy to test. Go with only your phone, put the car in drive then in park and turn on airplane mode. That “should” tell you if it’s an issue directly with the no key detected or if it’s another factor.

 

[SashaLondon]

Take the fob with you.

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

IMHO That Ford Pass App has to be up and running. Not running on a phone that has gone to sleep mode. I mean up front and center on the screen; beaming it's white background at you. I find if the phone has not been active for a while and has a blacked out screen; it has a more difficult time communicating with the car. So today, I want you to do the same experiment but this time before trying to reengage your gear to "D". Get your phone out of it's sleep mode and put the FordPass App Front and Center. Then try to put it in D and drive away.

 

[metalpro2021]

My guess as to the root cause of all the PAAK issues : save energy features of the phone. It will disable BT low energy without informing the user. (depending on brand of the phone and configuration) Fordpass depends on this (which it sould not, but then customer experience would be degraded...) Most of the time (but not ALL of the time) when the phone is charging, energy saving schemes are not engaged > BT keeps enabled > Fordpass keeps running > PAAK keeps working.

When is the phone charging?

* Not always with wireless charging (!)
* Always in park mode with phone on a charging cord?
* Always in drive mode with phone on a charging cord (confirmed!)

So what I would advise :
Keep your phone in a charging state that will prevent BT from disabling on the phone.

"So, what to do when you approach the car, then the phone would definitely be in a non-charging state?"

You are screwed. Or... Take a powerbank along.

Anyone care to test this hypothesis?

 

[peoples1234]

This happened to me, but with less drama as it was in a parking garage. It amazing how long it takes to get that backup passcode in when you need to (especially if you type it in wrong under pressure). But now I am aware and don’t put it in park anymore when I stop to let people out.

Still, when I drop my kids off and they get out and close the door, I almost always get the two honk “key not detected”, which draws unnecessary attention…?

 

[imstriker]

I've been through this one a couple of times as well. I also get the seemingly pointless beep-beep when I go to let me kid out at car line.

My fix has been to increase my phone timeout to 2 minutes, open the app as I pull in car line and then keep making sure my phone stays awake. You have to give it a bit to connect and then we seem to be ok. It's kind of like standing upside down, holding your nose, etc... but it does work.

 

[Creaky]

On a Samsung phone, make sure that the FordPass app is always allowed to run in the background. Most Samsung phones have a very aggressive battery saving mode that will prevent the FordPass app and PAAK from functioning while in the background.

 

[ChasingCoral]

In the "what the hell were you thinking, Ford" moment ...

Went to pick up my kids at elementary school for the first time today in the freshly waxed MME. Finally my turn to pull up front as all the teachers walk around opening doors everywhere so I make sure to turn the dial to just Park to be safe (but not also hitting Start/Stop button in order to keep AC running <- important detail here). With windows down hear several teachers comment "WOW, that's the new electric Mustang", "nice car" etc. I smile , cars ahead of me take off, there is a line of 100 or so still behind me, press brake pedal ... and I'm freaking stuck in Park and can't turn dial back to Drive mode! Look up to see dreaded but familiar "Key not detected" message so I'm frantically tapping Start buttons, quitting/relaunching FordPass, setting new Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Android 11) in charge bay that often strangely speeds up detection. Some 10 teachers all waving me on. Couple cars behind me start honking. Both kids sinking low into the back seat embarrassed. Had to wait what seemed forever for backup password to finally kick in while cars are now driving over curb around me.

Got home pissed as hell while kids get out. Then thought to myself - let's just sit here in Park mode with car still on and AC going. Sure enough, within a few mins the familiar "Key not detected" msg and the dial is stuck in Park again despite brake depressed. Seems to coincide when the phone went to sleep. Turned off car, woke up FastPass app, the usual few taps of Start button to finally start, sat for a few mins to get No Key msg again, and Park dial stuck again ? Yeah, I know watching these forums that PaaK has sadly been a real challenge for Ford s/w engineering. I even waited around at the dealer for the PaaK firmware update a couple months ago with little improvement ...

But can anyone justify why if I have not turned off my MME yet, just putting it in Park to let my foot off the brake pedal while waiting - why would Ford lock the Park/Drive dial in the middle of traffic just because PaaK no longer detected?? I get it if the Start button actually was tapped off then back on but not the case here. Luckily I didn't do this in the middle of stop & go rush hour on our interstate here for someone to plow into me.

<end of rant>
#wheresMy2ndFOB

The best part about your exercise is that the problem is highly reproducible. Perhaps you should reach out to @Ford Motor Company to get their help.

 

[agoldman]

Take the fob with you.

Probably the best plan right now. Seems that PAAK is a miserable failure so far as far as reliability. They should just pull it like they did the Watch app, and send it back to the engineers.. I'm not comfortable using it at all right now. It needs to just work.

 

[JoeDimwit]

This is why I don’t rely on PAAK. If Ford had given us 2 fobs, and said we could also set up PAAK, no one would have a legitimate complaint. then, once PAAK was proven stable and effective, they could have went to only a single fob.

anyone wanna guess how many PAAK users are gonna get screwed when iOS updates to 15 in a month(Ish)?

 

[dml105]

I do wish the password option would come up sooner.

 

[RickMachE]

This is such a failure on Ford's part.

- It is no surprise that different manufacturer phones, and different models within a manufacturer, behave differently.

- It is no surprise that Google, or Apple, would introduce new features (aka battery saving options) with operating systems.

Therefore, to develop a "feature" such as PAAK and not consider this and provide detailed instructions on how to handle issues (plus a 2nd key), is a major blunder.

My 2018 Fusion Energi had a bar graph of mpg different from my 2013 F-150. Totally opposite as to which side was the most recent. Ford "just changed it". Same as Google, Apple, or a phone manufacturer changing battery saving features.

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