Why is PAAK so bad?!?

[cooltatts]

Was speaking with a Hyundai owner who raved about never having their “Phone-as-a-key (PAAK) fail. I literally have to make sure the Ford App is active and often have to launch the app and press unlock to get into my 2024 MME4X.

He shared that can add his Hyundai Key to his Apple Wallet. That makes it work every time.

is that an option for the Ford App? Can’t find if it is.

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[cooltatts]

Don’t get me wrong. When it works the experience is amazing. It’s just always a surprise when I approach and it actually works.

 

[Space_Pony]

I never have a problem with PAAK using my Samsung S25+. I'm wondering if the problem may be with your phone. What phone are you using?

 

[RickMachE]

No, there is no wallet option.

 

[cooltatts]

I’ve used a Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 but now I’m on the iPhone 17 Pro. I’ve even temporarily tried a Google Pixel before going to the iPhone. Didn’t matter the phone. It’s always a surprise when it works. I can approach the car and nothing (until I press the unlock button in the app) but then later walk past it for the mail and the car lights up from 20 feet away. It’s just not reliable.

 

[Maquis]

Mine worked flawlessly until about 3 months ago. Some update to either the car, phone, or combination screwed it up.
It’s nice that they added a rain sensor so I am always standing next to the car getting soaked trying to get into the car!

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

I don’t know about Androids but most of the the iPhone PAAK issues are Apple related. That said, I had some serious issues about 3 week ago on a a Sunday, and nothing since.

 

[RickMachE]

I don’t know about Androids but most of the the iPhone PAAK issues are Apple related. That said, o had dime serious issue about 3 week ago on a a Sunday, and nothing since.

This hints at the answer, what is PaaK so bad?

- Apple and Android keep tweaking their OS.
- Myriad of phone manufacturers tweak the OS (on the Android side).

With all the possible permutations, it's a wonder that it works at all.

 

[kltye]

To pile on to the anecdotes, it works fine on my not-very-common Sony Xperia 1 VI, along with my wife's more-common Pixel 9 Pro. The most that needs to happen is to wake the car up by pressing one of the unlock buttons.

 

[E90alex]

Hyundai Digital Key is using a digital car key standard that is built into the native phone OS like Apple Pay and Google Pay. Uses NFC or Bluetooth+UWB. As it is native to the OS, it can even work in power reserve mode for several hours after the phone has died by tapping the phone to the door handle.

Ford’s PAAK is a homegrown solution utilizing only Bluetooth. Since it’s not native to the OS, the Ford app must be running in the background.

There is no way to switch to the digital key standard on existing cars because they don’t have the proper hardware.

 

[rsq0001]

To pile on to the anecdotes, it works fine on my not-very-common Sony Xperia 1 VI, along with my wife's more-common Pixel 9 Pro. The most that needs to happen is to wake the car up by pressing one of the unlock buttons.

Pressing an unlock button does not constitute "working fine" when other manufacturers are lightyears ahead with bluetooth connectivity. OP's point still stands.

 

[rsq0001]

This hints at the answer, what is PaaK so bad?

- Apple and Android keep tweaking their OS.
- Myriad of phone manufacturers tweak the OS (on the Android side).

With all the possible permutations, it's a wonder that it works at all.

No. Other manufacturers like Rivian and Tesla have flawless interactions with customer smartphones. I've also seen Hyundai and MB have much better connectivity than my '22. It might be a smartphone issue to some degree, but I don't think we should be marveling that Ford got it to "work at all" when other manufacturers are leaps and bounds ahead in reliability and user experience.

 

[rsq0001]

Going off of what OP said, why don't we have the option to add a key to our Apple Wallets? That seems like a no-brainer and is very secure? Other manufacturers have it so it can't be an Apple issue.

 

[TomRend]

My PAAK always takes a long time to wake up. I sometimes stand at my car pressing the button for 10-20 seconds before it wakes up. Sometimes I just end up opening the app and unlocking it from there. And yes, I always keep my Ford app running on my phone. In contrast, my wife has a BMW X5. I added her PAAK to my phone and anytime I'm within 20 feet of it, her car wakes up. The difference is crazy.

 

[kltye]

Pressing an unlock button does not constitute "working fine" when other manufacturers are lightyears ahead with bluetooth connectivity. OP's point still stands.

Sure, but that happens relatively rarely (I guess I don't get the welcome lights when that happens?), and the door still opens after that one press, albeit after a short delay. I'm not privy to how other manufacturers do this, but there must be a tradeoff here - and my completely unfounded suspicion has something to do with battery life (either on the car, on the phone, or both).

It might also have to do with the fact that PaaK wasn't quite as common when the Mach-E was being designed, so the modules probably aren't as sophisticated as others. I'm the last person to defend Ford, (and their early PaaK implementation required me to DDoS their servers with 404 errors in order for it to even work on a not-common phone), but this level of Works On My Device™️is good enough for me. As for why it is unreliable on other devices, that's a mystery that needs to be solved, but I doubt it's on Ford's radar.

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