My Ford Pass Patience Is Wearing Thin

[TaxmanHog]

I use several applications at work, that when the company outsourced software development, they got noticeably better. Might be time for Ford to do so.

I think Ford advertised for a Software Manager in the past year or so, and also got a new Quality Control director recently, so probably another couple of years will go by for any improvements to take affect, if the new hires are competent. @Ford Motor Company

I think that Ford is focusing more energy on the newer platforms {T3} remember that much of what they have now is already outsourced amalgamations, they've admitted that was a problem and bringing more "In House" is the solution, we're just not feeling it yet on the tail end of legacy builds.

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[Smokewagun]

After resetting Sync, playing with charging options and departure times in the truck, and finally deleting and reinstalling Ford Pass several times over two days, I finally received a message…. “Try again later. We are having difficulties”. Prior, it would not communicate.
Now, for the naysayers, my complaint about not knowing if the truck charged or will charge, that’s not a “Well, maybe the truck isn’t for you” answer. Buy a fridge. Put $500 worth of food in it. If it is warm as toast two days later, well, maybe it’s just not the fridge for you. You get the point.
I suspect my increased driving over the average EV driver is part of the problem for some to understand. Driving EV’s 5-10k a year is a waste unless you REALLY get a deal. Now with the tax credits going away in 2025, the savings of driving an EV for new buyers will be extinguished. Because I put higher miles on and my gas bills can approach $800 a month sometimes, I truly save on all accounts. That’s why it IS the vehicle for me.
“Preconditioning now” was not the basis of my of my original argument. Dependability was. Although my issue righted itself within two days, is it too much to ask that the system just WORK all the time on dire items like charging? How many ICE drivers driving new vehicles go out in the morning hoping their vehicles start? NONE. ABSOLUTELY NONE! I’ll give on the preconditioning and other fluff, but really, to say “It might not be for you” is pure craziness.

 

[jefrank]

I think that Ford is focusing more energy on the newer platforms {T3} remember that much of what they have now is already outsourced amalgamations, they've admitted that was a problem and bringing more "In House" is the solution, we're just not feeling it yet on the tail end of legacy builds.

Funny, they used to control all the parts, now they don't and need to.

 

[rhscnative]

What kind of phone do you have ? I'm on an iPhone 13 and it works fine. I wish they would have a "departure now"/"one time departure" feature so that I don't have to cancel my weekly departure after I use it once and don't need it any more but other than that the app works fine for me.

 

[Danface]

This is very similar to the issues with HIS and software/hardware in general namely no one of the entities involved owns the entire solution. You may say "Ford owns it" and they should but they bought this part and outsourced that part and licensed this and developed that and the engineers can make it workbut then the vendor they licensed the blah from no longer supports the widgets used in the prior version etc etc. This was truer in the early days of software and true for Ford because, to me, it seems like they're not a software development house and hopefully begining to understand that. Honestly, all the vendors need to come together and come up with a common platform for vehicles. Cars should talk to each other and have the same code underpinnings to makes things safer at a lower costs and provide consumers with a better, more reliable end product. This IS very much like rocket science in that it involves a fairly high degree on interoperability

 

[Effonefiddy Lightning]

Hmmm.... I've had my Lariat for 15 months with 12k miles. Ford pass has never been a problem. Could it be better? of course, but find me an application that couldn't be improved. I'm thankful for what it does, and stopped worrying about what I hope it could be. No matter how many features they add they can't please all 20k+ owners.

Well Ford should make it work as they intended to. That's what we paid for. Now i'm contemplating the possibility of buying a CT because my past and present experiences have shown me the Tesla product works. I like my Lightning as far as trucks are concerned but damn, I shouldn't have to reset my screen when the navigation freezes up or when it doesnt connect to my phone even after the supposed "Better Connectivity" updated. All of that is just B.S. from a company that's been around for 121 years.

 

[Henry Ford]

To precondition your battery on demand press the Start button in the top right corner of the FordPass home screen before you want to leave. This is essentially what setting a departure time does. You will also need to start the climate control if you want to heat the cabin at the same time.

In addition to warming the battery and cabin setting a departure time will also override any time of use settings in order to hit the target charge by the set time. That's the one benefit of departure time.

 

[GoodSam]

To precondition your battery on demand press the Start button in the top right corner of the FordPass home screen before you want to leave. This is essentially what setting a departure time does. You will also need to start the climate control if you want to heat the cabin at the same time.

In addition to warming the battery and cabin setting a departure time will also override any time of use settings in order to hit the target charge by the set time. That's the one benefit of departure time.

My understanding is that the Start button on FordPass does not precondition the battery, only readies the temperature related items (hvac, seats, steering wheell) in the cabin to your settings. Only by setting a departure time (or driving to a set DCFC) will the battery precondition. And I think one needs to be plugged in when parked to get the battery temperature preconditioned.
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/ice-easy-winter-driving-tips-from-ford.23237/

 

[Henry Ford]

My understanding is that the Start button on FordPass does not precondition the battery, only readies the temperature related items (hvac, seats, steering wheell) in the cabin to your settings. Only by setting a departure time (or driving to a set DCFC) will the battery precondition. And I think one needs to be plugged in when parked to get the battery temperature preconditioned.
https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/ice-easy-winter-driving-tips-from-ford.23237/

Pressing the Start button I circled above causes the truck to start charging, therefore warming the battery. Obviously, this only works when plugged in.

The purpose of preconditioning is to maximize range. Preconditioning without being plugged in does the opposite of the intended effect since it would be using energy without actually moving.

FWIW, when you set a departure time the truck will either time the charging session to finish at the set time or, if it's already at the desired charge level, it will start charging shortly prior to the set time. I routinely find my truck at 86% even though my charging limit is 85% because I have a departure time that coincides with taking my kids to school.

 

[GoodSam]

Pressing the Start button I circled above causes the truck to start charging, therefore warming the battery. Obviously, this only works when plugged in.

I believe this to be incorrect. Only a set departure time will warm the battery when stationary. Hopefully others will confirm this @TaxmanHog @Mike G

 

[Mike G]

I believe this to be incorrect. Only a set departure time will warm the battery when stationary. Hopefully others will confirm this @TaxmanHog @Mike G

If I've left my truck plugged in to charge overnight, and I then press the start charge button in FP the next morning.....I fully expect that it will evaluate the current state of the HV battery, and promptly decide that it's charged enough, and stop charging. So I'm not sure how much battery warming would get accomplished in that amount of time.

 

[TaxmanHog]

To precondition your battery on demand press the Start button in the top right corner of the FordPass home screen before you want to leave. This is essentially what setting a departure time does. You will also need to start the climate control if you want to heat the cabin at the same time.

In addition to warming the battery and cabin setting a departure time will also override any time of use settings in order to hit the target charge by the set time. That's the one benefit of departure time.

I find this an interesting concept, planning a test to verify this using my Emporia energy monitor.

I think hitting the charge to 100% start button causes the truck to start warming the battery, especially if the temp's are below freezing for cell protection, then I'll use the climate start to warm the cabin.

My next test will be late next week when we will have cold conditions again, at the moment it's mild and wet until new years day.

I won't use departure timer, I will squelch the SOC but then turn on the truck and click the [START] charging button (this button was intended to commence spontaneous charge to 100% as it were on the old 4x Fordpass.

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I recently ran a test where I ran departure timer to bring the battery temps up to improve performance without adding substantial traction energy to the pack during this process.

This was the SOC 54% & Limitation of motor power 88% due to COLD soak.

I lowered the charging goal to 50% to ~prevent~ intentional charging of the HVB, there is likely some overflow to the battery.

I set departure time for ~12:50 pm , actual roll out was intended for 1 pm, the truck decided to commence with conditioning the battery temperature 50 minutes prior just after 12:00 noon time, the energy flowed at a modest 9KW rate for about 11 minutes, then jumped to 18KW for the next ~24 minutes, afterwhich it modulated to 4-5KW the balance of the time frame this is when the cabin was being warmed. Used a total of 10 kWh of energy from shore to prepare the truck for travel.

At the end of this process, the motor power available increased to 100% the SOC remained at 54% but the available range with warmed battery and increasing ambient temps jumped from 114/{119} to 134 miles! ie. {2.0 MPK assuming I could perform frugal driving.}

Systemic processes controlled by the design of Ford engineers with departure timed events, show in my sample that it could require up to an hours time, colder situations might require more time.

 

[Mache_Enrique]

Have to agree the app is mega sub par compared to other EV makers besides just comparing to Tesla. If you disagree then you have not experienced enough other apps yet which is not your your fault.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I find this an interesting concept, planning a test to verify this using my Emporia energy monitor.

I think hitting the charge to 100% start button causes the truck to start warming the battery, especially if the temp's are below freezing for cell protection, then I'll use the climate start to warm the cabin.

My next test will be late next week when we will have cold conditions again, at the moment it's mild and wet until new years day.

I won't use departure timer, I will squelch the SOC but then turn on the truck and click the [START] charging button (this button was intended to commence spontaneous charge to 100% as it were on the old 4x Fordpass.

After five days of cold soaking since I last charged or plugged in for battery conditioning, the truck started to show diminished motor energy yesterday & today, temperatures have been cool 40's, 30's & 20's overnight. The Lightning was reminding me to plug in to maintain optimum performance as the temps got to and below freezing.

I plugged the truck in but reduce the maximum SOC for charging to 50%, the battery at 57% I didn't expect aggressive charging to occur during the warming test.

I started driving the truck New Years day through today, so far 46.5 miles 1.1 MPK, lots of off the plug remote starts or departure timed cabin conditioning.

I then plugged the FCSP into the truck, and it clicked active and remained active which surprised me I figured it would do a ~10 second test and click off seeing the SOC of the battery was sufficient and the truck would stop taking any charge, but it continued, I also heard the circulation pump running, the message on the dash and Fordpass indicated spontaneous battery conditioning was running, this is the first time I witnessed this message on the dash. Note the 120 miles of predicted range.

I took an immediate look at the Emporia tracker, it shows the power flow at about 9 kW, the spontaneous battery conditioning ran for 11 minutes, pulling a total of 1.67 kWh of energy consumed to slightly warm the battery, (I don't have OBD2 to give you battery coolant temps)

I unplugged the FCSP to close the energy logs and be able to "start" the truck to display motor energy available, it jumps from 87% to 96%, the SOC did not change appreciably but notice the battery temperature gauge is now at the median point! So warming it improved performance as well as range from 120 miles to 126 miles.

Now for the next phase of the test, having been partially conditioned, I wanted to test the thesis of @Henry Ford {John}, would clicking the START charging button do anything for conditioning? I let this run for only 15 minutes to simulate what might happen with a spontaneous get ready to go scenario, that is if you had a [Precondition] button. The truck only added 1% of SOC but appears to have increase range by another 9 miles to 135.

The Emporia log shows the power demand during this phase

Unplugged the truck to gather the charging logs, says 1% increase in SOC and 2 kWh of traction energy input to the battery though I wasn't officially 'charging' the balance of ~2.09 kWh went to continued battery warming and conversion losses.

Available power to the motors is now at 100%, SOC only rose by 1% ~1.31 kWh

I started the remote climate start to prepare truck [off plug] in preparation to pick up my wife from church, then a ride to dinner and return to the house for the night.

15 miles traveled over ~90 minutes in the cold had already sapped some of the warming process from the battery, the motor energy once again limited to 94%, SOC dropped 6% and predicted range dropped 24 miles

This proves John's assertion that hitting the START charging button in cold conditions does indeed trigger spontaneous battery conditioning in frigid conditions.

If I had my SOC goal at a higher normal max of 90%, the charging phase might have been a little higher over the 15 minute period, or not if the cold conditions were much worse, like zero or sub-zero conditions, then most of the juice would be going to battery warming until it's safe to take on a substantial charge rate.

 

[Grumpy2]

The truck only added 1% of SOC but appears to have increase range by another 9 miles to 135.

To be sure I understand your finding:

I press the "start" on FordPass; and it provides the statement "Charging to 100%" by a specific time (which in my case wasn't in the future); the truck is actually is preconditioning the HV battery?

My test: My Emporia declared it was providing all the kW possible. The FordPass note on the screen states it is charging to 100% (at a past time) and it gave me pause; and I only allowed it 10-15 minutes before stopping the test. I noted there seemed only a small amount of gain to the HVB charge level, say 1% while it consumed 10 minutes of full power.

I assume the "Charging to 100%" by a past time was only a software bug? Or will it go ahead and charge to 100% even though the time to complete isn't accurate?

Is the result of your test: To precondition while plugged in, use the "Start" but be sure to cut it off after the state of charge begins to climb?

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