The forgotten suggestion box

[Audi_Guy]

Well I know the voice feedback is available and we even have @Ford Motor Company here in the forms, but I really wish there was a constructive way to get some test features and or permanent options available to the MME without it just going in the drawer to never be heard from again.

1. Adjustable propulsion sound: Can we have a volume knob or something if we want more or less regardless of drive mode?

2. The ability to join guest wifi networks or networks with a portal: It's so crazy to me that in 2025 we have a locked down web browser. So much so that when I'm at gas stations to charge or even a grocery store, they have free wifi but guess what, THERE'S NO WAY TO ACCEPT THE TERMS! Come on, even if we can't have an open browser, at least put the right protocol in to re-route a wifi portal page.

Both these are little to no cost at all to implement and really makes me wonder why no one else has asked about this.

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[dan_meh]

Yes! I would love some kind of suggestion box akin to a software company’s Roadmap Influence tool. Something where ideas can persist, get up and down ranked, people can sign up to influence or vote to influence, where ownership is verified, and where (sure) you can have a threaded conversation about the suggestion.

Also, 100% agree with the noise. I’m teaching my daughter how to drive, and I’m really understanding that a loud acceleration sound is a safety feature. For everyone, but for new EV drivers especially. I would join your quest!

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Yes! I would love some kind of suggestion box akin to a software company’s Roadmap Influence tool. Something where ideas can persist, get up and down ranked, people can sign up to influence or vote to influence, where ownership is verified, and where (sure) you can have a threaded conversation about the suggestion.

Also, 100% agree with the noise. I’m teaching my daughter how to drive, and I’m really understanding that a loud acceleration sound is a safety feature. For everyone, but for new EV drivers especially. I would join your quest!

Am I not enough?

You'll have to take my word for it, but I do create reports that are sent directly to the product development teams - including feedback + requests!

 

[CoyoteMach]

Brian,
Do not misunderstand... we all appreciate your efforts on our behalf. However, the missing element here is feedback back to us on suggestions that are submitted to Ford. So to us, it seems that it all goes into a black hole... never to be seen again.
I'm sure you are highly restricted on what you can tell us, but hopefully you can see the frustration. Transparency is good.

 

[Astrodan]

Am I not enough?

You'll have to take my word for it, but I do create reports that are sent directly to the product development teams - including feedback + requests!

This is my first email, so forgive me for not using another more proper channel to express my thoughts and suggestions.

Ford software on my 2022 Mach E, stinks, and here are my thoughts:

1: The Android Auto constantly is dropping out. I know because I listen to Pandora while driving. It stops, I get the phone list and later it reconnects. Very distracting.

2: The goofy mapping software constantly announces where every railroad crossing is, but never announces where the charging stations are. Asking verbally for where the nearest charging station is, it provides nothing!! And, you can not use the touch screen while driving to find something this important to an electric car without stopping?? Ridiculous.

3: The driver display has Speed off to the right, instead of center. The user cannot change the positions. Instead, the little car and circle are in the center. Really, what's the logic for that?

4: Adaptive cruise frequently acquires speed limits which are incorrect. I've personally had my Mach E attempt to accelerate to 70mph on a 2 lane back road which should be 55mph. I've also had it slow to 35mph from 55mph on another road. These changes were not at all posted or correct. Terrible!

5: The 4 way flasher button is down by the gear selector, forcing the driver to look down while driving to access it. That might be ok stopped or at 5mph, but, I thought it was a requirement on Interstate Highways when going less than 40mph?

6: The wonderful large console display forces the driver to distract their road vision to touch the screen to access important features. Can a user verbally ask to see important data like tire pressures? Can a user verbally ask for heated seat settings while driving without having to hunt and peck? Turning on the radio, then try to turn it off while driving. Or selecting a station memory or choosing a destination to drive to. ALL of this should be verbal, with manual adjustments (and confirmation) from the right steering wheel buttons. Just like you turn the radio volume up or down from the wheel, a user should be able to scroll a heated seat up, down, or off, FROM the WHEEL.

7: I really do not mind doing settings when I am stopped, but there are lots of things a driver wants to set while driving, and, constantly being on that console display is no more safe than a person texting while driving. Most of what Ford thinks a driver should be doing on the console display should be illegal to adjust for safety reasons.

8: Truthfully, I couldn't care less about playing games and watching YouTube when I'm behind the wheel when I'm stopped. Sounds like a good way to have a child inside a car at 110 degress.

9: I noticed a somewhat cryptic warning light come on when the detected air temperature was near freezing. Too bad it's tiny and way off to the left below the battery readouts. It should show up in the center or even be audibly announced.

Best wishes
Dan

 

[celestial_knight]

I want a more space ship sci-fi propulsion sound available

I want Iced Blue Silver or Cyber Orange paints back

 

[Bad Dolphin]

This is my first email, so forgive me for not using another more proper channel to express my thoughts and suggestions.

Ford software on my 2022 Mach E, stinks, and here are my thoughts:

1: The Android Auto constantly is dropping out. I know because I listen to Pandora while driving. It stops, I get the phone list and later it reconnects. Very distracting.

2: The goofy mapping software constantly announces where every railroad crossing is, but never announces where the charging stations are. Asking verbally for where the nearest charging station is, it provides nothing!! And, you can not use the touch screen while driving to find something this important to an electric car without stopping?? Ridiculous.

3: The driver display has Speed off to the right, instead of center. The user cannot change the positions. Instead, the little car and circle are in the center. Really, what's the logic for that?

4: Adaptive cruise frequently acquires speed limits which are incorrect. I've personally had my Mach E attempt to accelerate to 70mph on a 2 lane back road which should be 55mph. I've also had it slow to 35mph from 55mph on another road. These changes were not at all posted or correct. Terrible!

5: The 4 way flasher button is down by the gear selector, forcing the driver to look down while driving to access it. That might be ok stopped or at 5mph, but, I thought it was a requirement on Interstate Highways when going less than 40mph?

6: The wonderful large console display forces the driver to distract their road vision to touch the screen to access important features. Can a user verbally ask to see important data like tire pressures? Can a user verbally ask for heated seat settings while driving without having to hunt and peck? Turning on the radio, then try to turn it off while driving. Or selecting a station memory or choosing a destination to drive to. ALL of this should be verbal, with manual adjustments (and confirmation) from the right steering wheel buttons. Just like you turn the radio volume up or down from the wheel, a user should be able to scroll a heated seat up, down, or off, FROM the WHEEL.

7: I really do not mind doing settings when I am stopped, but there are lots of things a driver wants to set while driving, and, constantly being on that console display is no more safe than a person texting while driving. Most of what Ford thinks a driver should be doing on the console display should be illegal to adjust for safety reasons.

8: Truthfully, I couldn't care less about playing games and watching YouTube when I'm behind the wheel when I'm stopped. Sounds like a good way to have a child inside a car at 110 degress.

9: I noticed a somewhat cryptic warning light come on when the detected air temperature was near freezing. Too bad it's tiny and way off to the left below the battery readouts. It should show up in the center or even be audibly announced.

Best wishes
Dan

Dan, for number 3 have you tried changing the view using the steering wheel buttons on the right side? We are always in Unbridied, but ai understand the driver display may also vary with different modes.

 

[dan_meh]

Brian,
Do not misunderstand... we all appreciate your efforts on our behalf. However, the missing element here is feedback back to us on suggestions that are submitted to Ford. So to us, it seems that it all goes into a black hole... never to be seen again.
I'm sure you are highly restricted on what you can tell us, but hopefully you can see the frustration. Transparency is good.

Exactly! It’s not that Brian falls short, it’s that too much is asked of one person. Where’s the place where top asks are displayed, voted on, ranked and pegged to a status?

Look, I’m not delusional. I know that some answers to some suggestions will be “nope.” And I know that Ford is accustomed to selling cars and moving on. But when Ford (not Brian) makes a promise of OTA updates to make the car better than when it was purchased, then it’s buying into an influence tool.

And please, dear heavens, please don’t copy the tweet-at-Elon influence tool. It’s like Oliver Twist walking up with an empty porridge bowl begging for more calories.

 

[CarGuy11]

Pre 2025s would like BC1.4

 

[Ford Motor Company]

Brian,
Do not misunderstand... we all appreciate your efforts on our behalf. However, the missing element here is feedback back to us on suggestions that are submitted to Ford. So to us, it seems that it all goes into a black hole... never to be seen again.
I'm sure you are highly restricted on what you can tell us, but hopefully you can see the frustration. Transparency is good.

*Brian, blink twice if you agree*

LOL - What I can say is yes and no. But I can't say what the yes is and the no is... What I can say is that a huge part of my (broader) role is to be "the voice of the customer", and I use a lot of information and data provided from folks just like you to do so.

 

[Budmen]

"Brian Ford Motor Company", Here's my suggestion, and I've put it elsewhere, so who knows, maybe you've heard it.

1. There's a button " |P| " on the console for parking assist....the only thing it does on my 2025 is start a search for a parking spot. It would be great if that |P| would start En Route Pre-Conditioning for up to 30 minutes.
2. There's a button to start Climate and a routine to set Departure Time on the app. It would be great if there was a button to start En Route Pre-Conditioning on the app for up to 30 minutes and/or set a specific pre-conditioning time in the app.
3. There's a vehicle screen you can use to switch between drive modes. It would be great if there was a button to start En Route Pre-Conditioning on this screen for up to 30 minutes.

Any one or all three of these solutions would ensure that Apple, ABRP, Plug Share or other charging app users could En Route Pre-Condition their vehicle

I used 30 minutes for my example because I think I've read that's how long before a stop en route pre-conditioning starts, but maybe I'm completely out of mind (which is entirely possible). Maybe it's another amount of time, or maybe my Mach-E or the app could just ask me or have an extend button like climate does.

 

[Fenixgoon]

I'd like the throttle sound to lean into the EV-ness of the car. Make it sound like the Pike's Peak Mach-E race car, rather than trying to emulate something that it absolutely isnt. I am convinced that the shriek of an EV motor will be the sound the next generation of gearheads thinks of when they think of a performance vehicle.

 

[RickMachE]

Beyond new features in new model years, I can't think of a single thing that anyone posts that hasn't been posted since 2021, many times. No Ford vehicle preconditions on demand. It's been posted why you can't use CarPlay to precondition (Apple), but Google Maps with Android Auto works fine.

Ford discontinued parking assistance in all vehicles, it's not coming back...

As to feedback, it's never going to happen. Yes, like other companies they listen. No, like some companies they don't provide feedback. Most of that is due to legal reasons. Bob says "I want this feature". Ford says "thanks Bob". Now when the feature comes Bob says "hey, that was my idea, where's my royalties?"

If you look at the companies you deal with everyday, and the ones that you communicate with, the ones that communicate back either have to for their business (i.e. portal for your doctor), or can't because of the army of lawyers worried about liability. Automakers are way up in that category (please, no one say that Elmo's company responds, it's Thanksgiving and I don't need to hear it).

Brian, not AL (who is AL?), has to follow a set of rules in what he is allowed to say, or not say. His lip is bloody from biting it, but he knew what he was getting into. I have had Ford vehicles since 1998, been active on Ford-related forums since 2013, and I can say that Ford is definitely engaging more directly (like with Brian, not AL) today then they ever had. They actually left the forums a few years ago, then returned to some of them.

Back over 40 years ago, I had a computer and a dot matrix printer. It didn't do subscripts or superscripts, so you couldn't do a footnote number. I figured out the code to do that, made it do it, and sent it to the manufacturer of the word processing program. They sent me a thank you, and had me sign a release that they could incorporate it into future versions and I would be compensated, in full, by a free copy of a future version. But printers don't cause accidents...

 

[Astrodan]

Thanks Bad Dolphin, I'll try it.

Well, most of my "suggestions" involve the computer software of the car, which brings me to a question / suggestion. I know Ford does show the software version, but is there anywhere listing the specific changes made in each version? i.e. I found a table of listing how Blue Cruise was updated to include lane changing, but did that fix any bugs, include new maps, etc. And, I also found that my 2022 can only update to 1.3, but that does not list just what all 1.3 has over 1.0.

Computerwise, I live in the Open Source world where version histories are usually clearly posted. This way owners can decide, or not, whether a feature update really does what they suggested.

Who knows, maybe we'd all want purchase a 2025 if we knew what all is changed beside just lane changes.

 

[RickMachE]

Thanks Bad Dolphin, I'll try it.

Well, most of my "suggestions" involve the computer software of the car, which brings me to a question / suggestion. I know Ford does show the software version, but is there anywhere listing the specific changes made in each version? i.e. I found a table of listing how Blue Cruise was updated to include lane changing, but did that fix any bugs, include new maps, etc. And, I also found that my 2022 can only update to 1.3, but that does not list just what all 1.3 has over 1.0.

Computerwise, I live in the Open Source world where version histories are usually clearly posted. This way owners can decide, or not, whether a feature update really does what they suggested.

Who knows, maybe we'd all want purchase a 2025 if we knew what all is changed beside just lane changes.

Here's a comparison of BlueCruise versions. https://www.ford.com/support/how-to...-highlights/ford-bluecruise-software-updates/

No, there is no listing of bugs fixed, and never will be. This isn't open source.

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