Suggestion for Ford: Regional EV only service centers

[rugedraw]

Good points.

There are some updates that are "safety" related - the front parking sensor one for example - so to CYA, Ford is going to want it done by their trained techs and probably in shop.

Also the 24B56 CSP is apparently a 2-1/2 hr procedure that requires the LV battery to be on a battery maintainer to keep it at at least 85% SOC.

Now it is true any shop/or experienced competent DIYer could do the update with the right equipment, but for now, only Ford tech's can/should be trusted with an update related to safety.

Too bad some Ford dealerships tech's are not properly trained. There was one post where the mobile tech hooked up the battery maintainer the wrong way, for example.

Whenever MS sends out a major update, before I install it, I check the internet to see if there have been any serious problems with it, and if so, I put it off. I do not automatically install updates - based on experience it is asking for trouble. I also make system images on a regular basis and before installing major updates just in case. I also have several spare cloned drives made when the system is functioning and virus free, that I can pop in if something goes wrong. Of course all data is backed up regularly to external drives.

Anyway, the point is, software is complicated and lots of things can go wrong. We are now driving computers with wheels, so fingers crossed the software updates have been fully tested before rolling out.

There has been at least one that Ford stopped installing - because it bricked some Lightnings - until they fixed whatever bug it had.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" could be applied to our Lightnings as well.

MS, a software company, still sends out updates with bugs - recently with Win 11 that crashed a bunch of user laptops - so what are the chances every Ford update will be bug free?

Just saying...

FDRS literally tells you to connect a power supply before you start any update....even ones that take a few minutes and don't require it. It is actually pretty damn dummy proof; seems to have been purposely designed to be user-friendly. The IPMA update for that CSP to address the parking sensors takes 2.5-3 hours with a Mongoose, but the VCI that dealers use is much more expensive and capable of faster write speeds to the blocks, so it take less than half the time for them to do it than it would take a DIYer; reducing the risk of LVB drainage causing an issue.

Ford updates are for sure not bug free. CMR OTA 6.13.0 comes to mind that broke BC for many people, but Ford was fairly quick to send out the CMR-FX update to fix it and created a TSB to be fixed at the dealer level quickly, too.

I just spoke to one of the EV techs here. I'm not sure how it works with Ford, but with JLR, we have level 1 and level 2 EV techs. A level 1 tech can do updates on EV's, but only a level 2 tech can perform HVB related repairs. A tech that is not level 1 or 2 cannot touch an EV. Not sure how it works with Ford, but I'm sure there is a similar structure.

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