Would anyone else like a FordPass app on Apple Watch?

TheSeg

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The Car Key is pretty bad right now (I have a MY21 5er BMW with it), but in future with the UWB-support it will actually do something.

It will work like all the Bluetooth-app salesmen hoped their implementation would.

So let’s hope Ford release a car with it in the future.
If I'm correct, the MY2021 Mach-E doesn't need new hardware to support v3 of Digital Keys.

The current Car Key standard (v. 2) is exclusively NFC, which is very near (touch the car in the right spot) to make it work. Spec 3.0 adds not only UWB, but Bluetooth-LE. B-LE does the authentication dance, while UWB simply allows the car the ability to pinpoint exactly where the phone is.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but B-LE alone is what runs FordPass / PaaK. If B-LE alone is allowed (which the docs I read seem to allow), then we could get Apple/Android Car Keys in feature parity to what PaaK currently offers.

The spatial awareness of UWB would allow more narrow area of influence. Right now with PaaK, we have "unlock near the car and guess the profile". UWB would allow "unlock when near the driver's door and use the profile associated to device that entered the driver's door". Neat to have, but not a deal breaker.

We still get current PaaK functionality using our phone and watches. Even when either device is out of power.

This would change the development of FordPass to be an interface with the OS level API, rather than the App running all operations. Resulting in less engineering to maintain a better customer experience. The real question is: Will the teams at @Ford Motor Company have the permission and the gumption to do it? Are they working on this for when iOS 15 and/or Android 12 drops?
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The Car Key is pretty bad right now (I have a MY21 5er BMW with it), but in future with the UWB-support it will actually do something.
What’s UWB?
 

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What’s UWB?
Ultra Wide Band - smears your signal over a relatively large part of the RF spectrum so you get lots of bandwidth (you can send/receive lots of data and tolerate lots of noise/interference) BUT you only do so with very little power so your range is very short (I think 1-2 meters max?)
 

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In lieu of the return of the dedicated watch app, I'm happy with the functionality offered by Apple Watch Shortcuts, i.e., remote start, lock/unlock, etc.

FordPass Siri Shortcuts | 2019+ Ford Ranger and Raptor Forum (5th Generation) - Ranger5G.com
I agree I followed the instructions and it works great! Thanks for showing that. You can avoid the embarrassing standing at the car door waiting for the app to not unlock the car after pushing the button multiple time and just say Siri unlock car in your Apple watch on the way to the car and it works great.
 

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I wouldn't care for one on the Apple watch since I've never bought any Apple products.
 

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While the Ford Pass app has been added back again on Apple Watch, it is still limited to Lock, Unlock and Start Car. Those are probably the most command commands but as Steve mentioned above ( #20 ) you can set up your iPhone and Apple Watch with iOS shortcuts. You don't even have to take out your phone or go on your watch as you can ask Siri to run any shortcut.

In that list of shortcuts above, "What is the Range on my Car" will not work on the Mach-E. I had to change a few things in the shortcut to make it work which I have listed below. I also created two others, "What is the Battery Level of my Car" and "What are the Tire Pressures on my Car"

What is the Range on My Car? (https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/bcfd6f24e31e4a06a1ec1ffd2693ce4a) Range left in miles for the Mach-E

What is the battery level on My Car?(https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/da0f53f31d4d46c48fc7b8bc5be4dd9d) This will let you know the battery level percentage of your Mach-E

What are the tire pressures on My Car?(https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/7c705c978ec548dc9fe9af09ec879039) This will tell you all four tire pressures.
 

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Jimrpa

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I made an interesting/unfortunate observation the other day. I powered off my phone and tossed it in the closed part of the console, then locked my car via the door keypad. I then tried to unlock the car via the FordPass app on my Apple Watch series 6 GPS+Cellular and the app whined that I had to be logged into FordPass on my iPhone. This is stupid. If I’m on a watch with cellular connectivity, I should be able to log into FordPass directly from the Watch and at least do the lock/unlock functions.
 

markboris

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I made an interesting/unfortunate observation the other day. I powered off my phone and tossed it in the closed part of the console, then locked my car via the door keypad. I then tried to unlock the car via the FordPass app on my Apple Watch series 6 GPS+Cellular and the app whined that I had to be logged into FordPass on my iPhone. This is stupid. If I’m on a watch with cellular connectivity, I should be able to log into FordPass directly from the Watch and at least do the lock/unlock functions.
Yes I agree with you it is stupid but the fact is, the Ford Pass app on the watch really is not the app. It is just an extension of the one on the phone. That is the way Ford designed it and actually many of the apps are like that on the watch. Most apps need the phone to be in close proximity to work.
 

Jimrpa

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Yes I agree with you it is stupid but the fact is, the Ford Pass app on the watch really is not the app. It is just an extension of the one on the phone. That is the way Ford designed it and actually many of the apps are like that on the watch. Most apps need the phone to be in close proximity to work.
Yes, but Apple removed that restriction long ago. Apps can now “live” on the watch without having to be “tethered” back to a parent on the iPhone. There are some running apps for example that are like this.
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