Wifi and hotspot set up

[TRP]

Pardon me if this is basic, but.......................

The Mach E has wifi and hotspot capability, correct? I have it connected to our house network. What I'm wondering is in order to use the car as a wifi hotspot I would need to contact our provider and add it as a device. Correct?

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[Mopey]

No. The in car hotspot is a separate subscription via ATT. There is a free trial and after that it's a monthly fee or $200 for a year.

 

[TRP]

What is the advantage of it?

 

[jjhenry]

What is the advantage of it?

You could use it to connect non-cellular devices, such as a tablet or laptop, to the internet. I think it is meant for passenger entertainment. It looks like the AT&T plan has unlimited data (although AT&T mentions that speed could be slowed after the first 22 GBs of the billing period,) so that also might be useful if your own cell plan has data limits.

I thought perhaps 911 Assist would use it too, but no, that needs your own bluetooth linked cell phone.

 

[TRP]

I see. Not sure it would be worth it for us, we have an old unlimited data plan already.

 

[Cay_cal]

You could use it to connect non-cellular devices, such as a tablet or laptop, to the internet. I think it is meant for passenger entertainment. It looks like the AT&T plan has unlimited data (although AT&T mentions that speed could be slowed after the first 22 GBs of the billing period,) so that also might be useful if your own cell plan has data limits.

I thought perhaps 911 Assist would use it too, but no, that needs your own bluetooth linked cell phone.

I am debating whether I should extend mine past the trial. If I cancel what happens with the OTA updates? Will I have to use my phone tethering or another wifi to complete them? I live in an apartment building so it is not easy to access my home wifi.

 

[bshaw]

I am debating whether I should extend mine past the trial. If I cancel what happens with the OTA updates? Will I have to use my phone tethering or another wifi to complete them? I live in an apartment building so it is not easy to access my home wifi.

I think ota and FordPass functionality will continue to work over cellular after the hotspot “free trial” has ended. At least that’s what I’m expecting because I’m not renewing after the trial period.

 

[Mopey]

Yes, the car's ota is not reliant on the ATT data plan, but using the car's hotspot I do have better 4G signal than just the phone - especially in rural areas and when the phone is charging on the wireless charger

 

[mpshizzle]

Might be worth throwing a little warning in here too - on a previous thread we learned that your phone cannot be on the hotspot while using wireless Androud Auto or car play. If you want to use the hotspot you need to do the wired version of AA/CP.

 

[sandrift]

[If this has been addressed in another thread, feel free to point me there -- perhaps my searches of the forums haven't yet used the right terminology.]

This thread seems to be circling around a question I have, which is whether the car needs to be on a cellular network to update things like state of charge in the FordPass app.

We live in a semi-rural area in the foothills outside Denver. We have no cell coverage at home. When we're home, the FordPass app seems to think the car is in whatever was the last town we were in that had cell service. It doesn't update the state of charge information, even though the car is connected to our home WiFi. (We bought our car on 5 July, and shortly thereafter Ford started having issues with FordPass, so that could be a factor, I don't know.)

The problem with this is that if the car/FordPass does need cell service and we want to set up custom charging times and level, the car doesn't know it's at the "Home" location. I also then wonder if this will affect OTA updates (I was under the impression that being connected to our home WiFi network was all that is needed, and I could imagine that being separate from the vehicle status information, but...?).

If these features do rely on cellular connectivity, this seems like a gross oversight on Ford's part -- not everyone lives in a place with cell service. We have an ATT MicroCell, but it requires an approved user list so you have to add cell numbers to allow "phones" to access it. We have no idea how to obtain the number of the car, if it even has one.

Curious to know what is the collective wisdom of the group...

 

[benk016]

[If this has been addressed in another thread, feel free to point me there -- perhaps my searches of the forums haven't yet used the right terminology.]

This thread seems to be circling around a question I have, which is whether the car needs to be on a cellular network to update things like state of charge in the FordPass app.

We live in a semi-rural area in the foothills outside Denver. We have no cell coverage at home. When we're home, the FordPass app seems to think the car is in whatever was the last town we were in that had cell service. It doesn't update the state of charge information, even though the car is connected to our home WiFi. (We bought our car on 5 July, and shortly thereafter Ford started having issues with FordPass, so that could be a factor, I don't know.)

The problem with this is that if the car/FordPass does need cell service and we want to set up custom charging times and level, the car doesn't know it's at the "Home" location. I also then wonder if this will affect OTA updates (I was under the impression that being connected to our home WiFi network was all that is needed, and I could imagine that being separate from the vehicle status information, but...?).

If these features do rely on cellular connectivity, this seems like a gross oversight on Ford's part -- not everyone lives in a place with cell service. We have an ATT MicroCell, but it requires an approved user list so you have to add cell numbers to allow "phones" to access it. We have no idea how to obtain the number of the car, if it even has one.

Curious to know what is the collective wisdom of the group...

There is a chance that ford only allows the car to report back using a secure channel through cellular. Kind of like a VPN setup. ATT can make any device on their network be directly connected to private company networks directly.

Its possible they do that so the communication between the car and Ford can't be intercepted and possibly compromised as easily.

But I agree, If there is no cellular coverage, it should be able to do that over wifi as well.

 

[Mopey]

[If this has been addressed in another thread, feel free to point me there -- perhaps my searches of the forums haven't yet used the right terminology.]
...The problem with this is that if the car/FordPass does need cell service and we want to set up custom charging times and level, the car doesn't know it's at the "Home" location. I also then wonder if this will affect OTA updates (I was under the impression that being connected to our home WiFi network was all that is needed, and I could imagine that being separate from the vehicle status information,..

Curious to know what is the collective wisdom of the group...

I'm pretty sure Ford Pass uses GPS location data from the phone rather than cell tower info as the primary location source. You do have GPS location enabled on your phone and Ford Pass location permission enabled?
That, along with your home wifi connection should allow you to setup your correct Home location.

 

[sandrift]

I'm pretty sure Ford Pass uses GPS location data from the phone rather than cell tower info as the primary location source. You do have GPS location enabled on your phone and Ford Pass location permission enabled?
That, along with your home wifi connection should allow you to setup your correct Home location.

I do have GPS enabled and FordPass location permission enabled ("always"). I had no problem setting up our Home address as a saved location for charging (i.e., using a pinned location).

The problem is that the car shows up on the map as being in town even when it's actually at home, so the actual battery state of charge is not showing correctly in the app -- it's showing whatever was current when it was in town. That means it doesn't "know" it's at home and probably won't correctly implement charging preferences at home. That's why I'm questioning the need for cellular service. Hope this clarifies and thanks.

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