Why no Pet Mode yet?

[BMT1071]

That’s a great generalization about what the market wants. I’m sure you’re 1000% correct and have the authority to make that decision for all the owners.

Do you have data to prove otherwise?

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[AliRafiee]

lol mmmkay the biggest component of pet mode is to put on the giant screen that the car is in a pet mode. So…… do gooders don’t smash your windows and call the S.W.A.T team while you’re running an errand. #ThisIsNotHard

When the car is on so is the screen. Who would think the car is off?

 

[BMT1071]

Do you have data to prove otherwise?

Or just more snark?

 

[JustSomeQuickGuy]

Yall need to understand that Ford isn’t a software company - they’re trying, but it’s not happening without a complete reorg. Their software rollouts and feature development is slow and inefficient. What you is months/year away to be included in new physical builds not updates in weeks like Tesla, Rivian, Lucid, chinese ev brands.

Software defined vehicles are the future but legacy auto manufactures will need to completely change their organizational structure - aka make a lot of tenured people unhappy and angry - and that’s not changing anytime soon during our mach-e’s infancy.

Yep, this will be what holds back the the legacy auto companies early on. I'm sure they know it, the software is such a big part of the EV experience now that it has to happen for them to be successful long term.

I have list of specific wants and issues but overall the biggest disappointment for me is the performance of the system as a whole. It just isn't a smooth experience that you'd expect on a medium to high end phone or tablet. I sure hope the performance issues are software based and can be patched out over time.

Also, adding pet mode is an easy win for Ford, you don't need to be a fully advanced software company to realize and implement something like that.

 

[Space Ghost GT]

Or just more snark?

The wizard he knows all!

 

[Jimrpa]

Because the Pet Mode team has been focused on getting the Job 1 Frunk release out. Once that’s done, they’ll be able to worry about pet mode.

 

[TheSeg]

Of course in a perfect business world there are plenty of resources for both bug fixes and new feature development. We haven't been in anything close to a perfect business world for about three years.

I would hardly say approaching that balance to perfection. Dismissing the desires of customers blocks progress and only serves to reinforce the status quo.

I know it's not the perfect analogy, but feature development allows for better systems as a whole.

For years, Unicode had little adoption and prevented other languages and cultures from participating in computing. With the wide proliferation and expectation of Emoji, developing for the Unicode standard became an essential requirement. The knock-on benefits of supporting the capability of other languages at an operating system level.

Pet mode on the surface may not be your cup of tea, but the path to that feature allows the flexibility of the software to also fix or improve other systems. This is how I've spent over two decades of my software development career in various industries. The path to tentpole features to provide the development for a better engineering system.

It is not the job of any one of us on a forums to dictate priorities of feature sets. We are only here to elevate and point out the things that need attention. What purpose does silencing others have on making a product better?

 

[minders]

When the car is on so is the screen. Who would think the car is off?

You'd be surprised. EVs are so quiet that the general public who doesn't have our EV experience just assumes the vehicle is off. I've had people ask me if the car is running when they've walked up because it was so quiet. Some people don't know to look at the center screen or there is a sun shade up or the windows are heavily tinted. That's why I made the note to put on the dash or between the sun shade and windshield (for our Tesla) that I shared earlier in the thread. Probably seems silly, but I'd rather waste a piece of paper and some ink than have the windows broken. That'll be my fix until other options are presented.

Edit to add funny example of people not seeing the middle screen: Reddit link

 

[passtc]

Also, adding pet mode is an easy win for Ford, you don't need to be a fully advanced software company to realize and implement something like that.

It’s a culture issue. An engineer can build dog mode quickly - hell i bet a pet loving engineer working there would build it in their free time. But the process of getting that through validation and whatever bureaucratic processes ford has is likely very slow (like their infotainment team and embedded systems teams don’t work closely together) and a simple thing like dog mode would take at least 2 quarters. Then it needs to be included in a release, and then orchestrated update cause it’ll probably require changes to some embedded system that’ll also need an update. and what do you know it’s 1.5 years since dog mode was coded out.

The mach-e we have today will never have good software - and i’m ok with that because it’s what i bought today. I didn’t buy a tesla or rivian or other mfgs that are known for quick software iterations. but hopefully once ford gets its shit together, the mustang 5/7 years out will be as good and feature filled.

 

[SWO]

Teslas need a pet mode because the car automatically turns off when you get out.



If you want to leave the Mach-E climate control on, just leave it running with the 30min timer off.

 

[MachEMaster]

I have left my dog in her kennel in the back with the AC on, and a hand written message Air Conditioning On. Dog OK. In cool blue pen on the Center screen. I just ran in for some booze, and right back out. I wouldn't leave her in the car for anything close to 30 minutes.

 

[Jimbo]

There are day one bugs still in existence that need fixing before any new features are added for any reason.

What are you referring to?

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

What are you referring to?

Bugs that have been in existence since the first deliveries back in very early 2021. Some of these include the alarm that doesn’t stay disabled, the ever present guest profile bug, and the vanishing radio preset. There are more, but those will do for now.

 

[Cm12]

Bugs that have been in existence since the first deliveries back in very early 2021. Some of these include the alarm that doesn’t stay disabled, the ever present guest profile bug, and the vanishing radio preset. There are more, but those will do for now.

You’re right about all of that. But doesn’t it seem like the real problem is that Ford is extremely bad with software development, not that others want a particular feature that really shouldn’t be hard to implement? I totally agree that the priority of Ford should be to fix the numerous pervasive issues that negatively affect everyone, but I don’t see how it’s unreasonable for people to desire a feature readily available on all Teslas and Rivians. Ford touted their EVs as being able to be routinely updated with new features via OTAs, and that’s all people are asking for. That was a day one marketing promise that is still being advertised.

Ford has really kind of screwed the 2021 job 1 owners, no doubt (I had one before selling for for a 2021 job 2). The frustration is understandable, but asking for pet mode isn’t much different than asking Ford to fulfill the OTA update promises that haven’t come to fruition.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

You’re right about all of that. But doesn’t it seem like the real problem is that Ford is extremely bad with software development, not that others want a particular feature that really shouldn’t be hard to implement? I totally agree that the priority of Ford should be to fix the numerous pervasive issues that negatively affect everyone, but I don’t see how it’s unreasonable for people to desire a feature readily available on all Teslas and Rivians. Ford touted their EVs as being able to be routinely updated with new features via OTAs, and that’s all people are asking for. That was a day one marketing promise that is still being advertised.

Ford has really kind of screwed the 2021 job 1 owners, no doubt (I had one before selling for for a 2021 job 2). The frustration is understandable, but asking for pet mode isn’t much different than asking Ford to fulfill the OTA update promises that haven’t come to fruition.

I’m about to go off on a tangent here …

One of the possible reasons pet mode does not exist yet might very well be the alarm bug. Rather obviously, one can’t have the alarm going off in dog or mongoose mode*. Sort of defeats one of the purposes. While we all say this stuff is easy, odds are fairly high it’s not otherwise it’d be done by now.

As for you post, I quite understand the sentiment. But really Ford … 2 years on … fix a bug. Pick one using a dart board if need be.


* I actually know someone who had a pet mongoose as a kid. Really.

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