Why does the ford app suck so badly?

[dolvio]

It doesn’t. I have no problems with it at all.

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[The Electric Duo]

So I got it set, finally, to the charge times and settings I want for everyday use. Tomorrow I'm going on a trip for a tournament and I want to charge more. I went into the app to start the charge earlier than normal and charge to 95%. Its been at least 30 min and the wheel of death is still spinning, and the car is not charging. Why is this so hard? I like the car but if I can't go where I need to its pretty useless. WTF? Is it really that hard to make an app that works? I'm going to have a hard time recommending this car if I cant drive it when and where i need to.

It may not be the app, it my might be the network connection. Our house is quite the dead zone for cell phones no matter what network people are on. The FordPass app has trouble connecting to our Mach-E, and our Chevy app also has problems connecting to our Equinox EV. And our Tesla friend has complained about the same. No connection is the cause for all of these.

 

[Maquis]

I’ve never done this. I find the app to be buggy, but giving up is not the solution.

Making settings in the car isn’t giving up. Refusing to do so when the app doesn’t work is giving up.

The setting in the car is what controls everything anyway. The app is just a way of affecting the settings in the car remotely. But only when the Ford servers are in the mood to allow it.

 

[ChasingCoral]

Make the settings directly in the car.

THIS!!!!

 

[curtisfinney]

Making settings in the car isn’t giving up. Refusing to do so when the app doesn’t work is giving up.

The setting in the car is what controls everything anyway. The app is just a way of affecting the settings in the car remotely. But only when the Ford servers are in the mood to allow it.

I use the app to change charge times and target. Why should I want to be forced to do it in my car. I always makes these decisions when I’m not in my car

 

[ChasingCoral]

I use the app to change charge times and target. Why should I want to be forced to do it in my car. I always makes these decisions when I’m not in my car

Setting the charge target usually works in the app. However, there may be issues if you have settings in the app and the car that disagree.

If it is important to get a full charge, set it in the car.

 

[curtisfinney]

Setting the charge target usually works in the app. However, there may be issues if you have settings in the app and the car that disagree.

If it is important to get a full charge, set it in the car.

I’ve never used the car. The app is buggy - I usually just keep at it until it takes my charge setting changes

 

[ChasingCoral]

I’ve never used the car. The app is buggy - I usually just keep at it until it takes my charge setting changes

That's certainly an option. However, if it's important to me to get a full charge, I'll set it in the car.

 

[Zekester]

I've been offered applications for my phone with each of the last 4 cars I purchased. I've never found that they have much utility for me. I've found them to be buggy and intended to offer services or functionality that i don't really need. I have, thus far, felt that this was a gimmick, not a useful tool. I also have a personal preference for controlling the functionality of my card from my car, not some other device.

To me, this is amateur of expectations management. Ford (and Stellantis, and Subaru, the other manufacturers of my last four cars purchased) are automobile manufacturers, not software companies, although I acknowledge that line is starting to blur (in very small increments. Additionally, as i believe someone may have already mentioned, building software that runs on another company's operating system to interface with your own device can be particularly challenging, as there are many parameter over which you have no control.

I'm not a digital native, so perhaps I have a different context for managing my expectations. feel bad for you that you find this limiting, but you can easily make the changes you desire in the car. I recommend you try that and move on, there are a lot worse things you could be dealing with.

 

[Maui]

I have had issues with the app and or car, but have been able to navigate around them. But I’ve been a programmer / automation engineer for many decades.

The one I saw where the app couldn’t talk to the car because of the time being wrong in the car, was tough because the app produced no actionable error message. I’ve seen this when debugging apps I support and they will throw a “time skew” error message. For end-to-end encryption to work, but side need to agree on the time. Changing the clock in the car resolved this issue.

when ford sent me a survey, I said I liked the car but I did mention I don’t know how non-computer people were able to use these cars without being frustrated.

IMO, the mach-e system management is closer to having a desktop windows computer than managing an iPad. They need to move the needle.

 

[AnimalChin]

As a person who used to work in a Microsoft data center I can assure you this is not referred to as a resolution. Microsoft calls it a "workaround", and its unacceptable. Not surprising given the riff-raff I see working in IT.

99% of the time an issue that can be resolved by a power cycle.

 

[NorthlandPhil]

Call Ford support. They can tell you things you cannot determine on your own, like - is your car connecting to their server.

I find the app to be quirky and lacking in functionality, but *mostly* pretty solid. I have not had a case where I changed something in the app and it didn't actually change the settings in the car.

Anyway, call Ford support. They can tell you if it's a connectivity issue.

 

[Gloff]

As a person who used to work in a Microsoft data center I can assure you this is not referred to as a resolution. Microsoft calls it a "workaround", and its unacceptable. Not surprising given the riff-raff I see working in IT.

Sure, there's a resolution somewhere in the code, but practically speaking, if a workaround works and it's non-frequent, then it's practically a resolution.

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