Recommended Connected Vehicle Features / Settings?

[Mirak]

I had some time to waste yesterday so I called up Ford to ask why I haven’t received my OTA update yet. She told me I probably didn’t have all my Connected Vehicle Settings properly activated. I knew this was likely nonsense, but went ahead and turned everything on just to humor her.

I’m going to start switching stuff back off now. I’d like my car to track me as little as possible, without losing important functionality.

So what do you guys recommend leaving on, and why?

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[DaveQ]

I had some time to waste yesterday so I called up Ford to ask why I haven’t received my OTA update yet. She told me I probably didn’t have all my Connected Vehicle Settings properly activated. I knew this was likely nonsense, but went ahead and turned everything on just to humor her.

I’m going to start switching stuff back off now. I’d like my car to track me as little as possible, without losing important functionality.

So what do you guys recommend leaving on, and why?

Looking at it I may leave all on except Insurance-related data. Did you click the (i) for each of them and digest the help info text?

 

[Mirak]

Looking at it I may leave all on except Insurance-related data. Did you click the (i) for each of them and digest the help info text?

Yeah the way Ford describes them they all sound amazing. But I’m kinda skeptical. I don’t want Ford collecting data on my driving unless it clearly gives me some benefit. I’m not having an easy time finding any explanation about this stuff. There’s barely anything in the owner’s manual.

 

[Jimrpa]

All the stuff under feature settings, with the exception of insurance related data, is pretty benign:
Digital assistant - basically just shares information about personal settings, times that you go places, where you go, so that the car can suggest them. I think that user-specific data is stored locally. You could turn it off if you want.
Upload phone contacts - just tells your phone to send a copy of your contacts to the car. They don’t go any further (at least they shouldn’t).
Connected navigation - allows the navigation system to get current information, such as the status of chargers, traffic conditions, etc. it should t send any information about your specific car location that can be related to you. It’s possible that it may send anonymized location information to traffic services for the purpose of collecting traffic volume and congestion information. Turning this off would hobble the nav system I’d think
FordPass Power my Trip - not sure what this one does yet? Tie in with the app?
SiriusXM with 360L - enables SiriusXM. Should be harmless.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Yeah the way Ford describes them they all sound amazing. But I’m kinda skeptical. I don’t want Ford collecting data on my driving unless it clearly gives me some benefit. I’m not having an easy time finding any explanation about this stuff. There’s barely anything in the owner’s manual.

the benefits of a lot of this sort of collection are going to be somewhat filtered based on your personal take on telemetry.

for example, I turned off "Media Analytics" - but it means that if SiriusXM ends up not playing a song I like, I own part of the reason, because they don't know I was listening to it.

all the vehicle stuff? I left it on, because honestly if I didn't trust Ford for basic vehicle data, I shouldn't be driving the car.

speech recognition feedback? I left on because I don't know how the system can get better without that kind of telemetry.

I think I have a bit of a more nuanced view than some - there are absolutely people that will be like "NO WAY IS FORD GETTING MY DATAZ" and turn it all off and that's fine, it's a personal choice for each person.

 

[Deleted member 3569]

All you need is to latch your Mach-e to the Wi-Fi network of your home ... the question is do you have Wi-Fi coverage in your garage or where you normally park your vehicle - in the driveway? ... in an assigned parking slot? I believe it will also work through the GPS antenna if you are parked under skies.

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