Ford Streaming vs. Hotspot vs. WiFi

[indubitalist]

it's almost as if they f'd it up on purpose to make it just that bit more complicated than it has to be and hope that people just pays for it to not have to deal with all the hassle.

I'm pretty confident this is what's going on. They wanted to have a subscription service, they knew the WiFi hotspot would negate the value of that service, so they made it so you couldn't use the WiFi hotspot's data connection for anything "local" to the truck itself, the truck could only be a pass-through to something else, which anyone could take advantage of, they just need a device that can connect to WiFi and stream music back to the head unit, but it's just inconvenient enough that some people would rather pay not to.

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[jimfigler]

I’ve never found the value of the Wi-Fi vehicle hotspot, even years ago when phone unlimited plans were the rarity. But not that the opposite is true and unlimited data is the norm the vehicle hotspot is a dinosaur. The streaming is just useless but maybe I don’t understand it. I either just play the music on my phone or use the SiriusXm app.

 

[indubitalist]

Hmm, no way to limit data rate for Ford streaming or AT&T? Is either one an unlimited plan for data?

AT&T is unlimited unless you get the cheapest plan. My kid can watch videos all day, I just can't stream through the head unit, which is asinine. I did confirm I can get it to stream through a work-around of having my phone connected to CarPlay via USB, then having my phone connect to the truck's WiFi hotspot, then using the CarPlay controls on the truck's touchscreen. I'm considering just leaving an old iPhone in the truck that's connected in this way all the time, just so I can have streaming music "built-in" to the truck without having to play this silly game every time I get in.

I did some more research before completing this post and found something I think may be an acceptable workaround, given how much I have to charge my phone anyway: I went into my iPhone's CarPlay settings, "forgot" my truck, then plugged the phone into the USB port in the center stack under the air conditioning controls. When I connected the wire, the phone asked me if I wanted to have it available for CarPlay, and if I wanted to use wireless or USB-only. I selected USB-only. This should prevent CarPlay from seizing the WiFi connection from my phone, which was keeping my phone from using the truck's hotspot data. If this works consistently I'm going to be pretty happy, I'll just have to plug in my phone every time I'm in the truck. I use the PlexAmp app since all of my music is on a server at home, so having this access is essential, I can't just use Ford Streaming or Amazon or whatever.

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