What I didn't anticipate was how unreliable the software would be

[Beans]

Before buying my Lightning, I probably read about EVs daily for the past three years. I understood the lack of DC charging in my area and accepted I may have some range issues. I understood and assumed I may lose 30%-40% of my range on cold days, and I knew if towing, I should expect to lose over 50% of my range.

What I didn't anticipate was how unreliable the software would be! I walked into my garage this morning, thinking it was odd the truck wasn't preconditioning. I have it set to precondition weekdays at 6:45 a.m. I returned to the house and looked at the FordPass App, which says "Plugged in - Not Charging." Typically not a big deal, but yesterday was one of those days I drove it down to 40% and expected to have it charge up overnight. I have a schedule set to only charge from 12:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m., and the app said it was waiting to charge between that time. Well, it indeed didn't charge during that time last night. Since I had the truck in June, this has happened to me at least monthly.

To add insult to injury, I'm sitting at work with sweat running down my back. Why, you ask? When I saw it wasn't charging, I thought I'd start the vehicle to warm it up on house power before leaving. After unplugging and driving off, my seat was scorching; as usual, the heated seat was on high, so I turned it off. No change; still hot. I turned it to level one. No change; still hot. So, regardless of the setting, my seat was heating. Fortunately, the control turned on cooling when set to cooling, so I had both heat and cooling going on. To add to my aggravation, the truck told me my range was low at one point and I should adjust my climate control to extend the range. I sure wish I could have turned off the heated seat!

The FordPass app is just ridiculous. You can't easily select to charge to 80%, you can't rely on the charge time window, and you can't rely on it to precondition when it's supposed to. My power usage from the Ford charge station shows up randomly. It shows I used 18 kWh one day in October, despite charging daily. It's a stretch to find anything good to say about FordPass. All I can think of is that 50% of the time, it will tell you your accurate charge state, but I'm probably high on the 50%

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[F150ROD]

Same thing happened to me this morning. I walk out and everything was turned off, no pre-conditioning, cabin was hot. I’ve also had a couple of days where I had to double check to make sure it was charging.

 

[Toby57]

Is there a way to control these things without the Ford pass app?

 

[sotek2345]

Is there a way to control these things without the Ford pass app?

I set it all up in the truck and have had no issues.

 

[Maxx]

Before buying my Lightning, I probably read about EVs daily for the past three years. I understood the lack of DC charging in my area and accepted I may have some range issues. I understood and assumed I may lose 30%-40% of my range on cold days, and I knew if towing, I should expect to lose over 50% of my range.

What I didn't anticipate was how unreliable the software would be! I walked into my garage this morning, thinking it was odd the truck wasn't preconditioning. I have it set to precondition weekdays at 6:45 a.m. I returned to the house and looked at the FordPass App, which says "Plugged in - Not Charging." Typically not a big deal, but yesterday was one of those days I drove it down to 40% and expected to have it charge up overnight. I have a schedule set to only charge from 12:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m., and the app said it was waiting to charge between that time. Well, it indeed didn't charge during that time last night. Since I had the truck in June, this has happened to me at least monthly.

To add insult to injury, I'm sitting at work with sweat running down my back. Why, you ask? When I saw it wasn't charging, I thought I'd start the vehicle to warm it up on house power before leaving. After unplugging and driving off, my seat was scorching; as usual, the heated seat was on high, so I turned it off. No change; still hot. I turned it to level one. No change; still hot. So, regardless of the setting, my seat was heating. Fortunately, the control turned on cooling when set to cooling, so I had both heat and cooling going on. To add to my aggravation, the truck told me my range was low at one point and I should adjust my climate control to extend the range. I sure wish I could have turned off the heated seat!

The FordPass app is just ridiculous. You can't easily select to charge to 80%, you can't rely on the charge time window, and you can't rely on it to precondition when it's supposed to. My power usage from the Ford charge station shows up randomly. It shows I used 18 kWh one day in October, despite charging daily. It's a stretch to find anything good to say about FordPass. All I can think of is that 50% of the time, it will tell you your accurate charge state, but I'm probably high on the 50%

FORD - Hire better software engineers!

I know that even when this works it is not a permanent fix but since you own the truck and do not have a better option right now, have you tried to reset the system in case some of these issues is the result of a combination of conditions the developers didn't think of and testers didn't test for (not an excuse). Again even if this fixes some of those situations, they will come back but you may have an overall less frustrating experience until Ford fixes the situation.

 

[Toby57]

I set it all up in the truck and have had no issues.

Thank you. Good to read.

 

[sotek2345]

Thank you. Good to read.

We also did the same with our Mach-e and no issues in over 9 months.

 

[RickLightning]

Some of the updates will lose your saved home location, and therefore the charging settings. You have to charge for a few minutes, then resave the location, set preferred charging hours, and percentage. Then plug back in.

One of the issues with the Ford EVs is the constant issues with the FordPass app. Many don't realize that they can sit in their vehicle and set departure times, charging locations, etc. Relying on the FordPass app means you will be disappointed at some point.

 

[Beans]

I know that even when this works it is not a permanent fix but since you own the truck and do not have a better option right now, have you tried to reset the system in case some of these issues is the result of a combination of conditions the developers didn't think of and testers didn't test for (not an excuse). Again even if this fixes some of those situations, they will come back but you may have an overall less frustrating experience until Ford fixes the situation.

I did reset the Sync system on my drive, but it didn't feel like that reset my seat issue. I do love the truck and and am a huge EV enthusiast, but something as simple as charging should be rock solid and not something you even have to worry about. You'll never get mass adaption if someone who's on the fence about EVs has this type of experience. You don't fill up an ICE vehicle, park in the garage, and then have to worry if it will have a full tank in the morning.

It's good to know by setting charge times in the truck it's more reliable. You'd assume setting it in the app just pushes the settings to the truck, essentially doing the same thing, but I guess not. I'll have to give that a try.

 

[Ostrichsak]

Historically Ford has been with electronics and software. It doesn't surprise me that they would be bad with EV firmware either, sadly. I just hope they get their stuff together because it's not a good look when a spunky little upstart (Tesla) has firmware that runs circles around the century-old established corporation with incredibly deep pockets. They are their own worst enemy at this point because they haven't prioritized the customer experience which is more software driven these days than hardware. As soon as they discover they need to bolster that site of things they'll throw a bunch more resources at it and it will get better. As long as they sell more trucks than they can make though it won't be a priority (unfortunately) so don't hold your breath.

 

[sotek2345]

You don't fill up an ICE vehicle, park in the garage, and then have to worry if it will have a full tank in the morning.

Well, that depends on how old and rusty that ICE vehicle is

 

[frautumn]

I've had the same issue a few times (car doesn't charge overnight), but not in the past 2 months so seems to be improved. There are definitely a lot of issues with the software, hopefully they will get fixed as time goes on.

 

[Traconesu]

Before buying my Lightning, I probably read about EVs daily for the past three years. I understood the lack of DC charging in my area and accepted I may have some range issues. I understood and assumed I may lose 30%-40% of my range on cold days, and I knew if towing, I should expect to lose over 50% of my range.

What I didn't anticipate was how unreliable the software would be! I walked into my garage this morning, thinking it was odd the truck wasn't preconditioning. I have it set to precondition weekdays at 6:45 a.m. I returned to the house and looked at the FordPass App, which says "Plugged in - Not Charging." Typically not a big deal, but yesterday was one of those days I drove it down to 40% and expected to have it charge up overnight. I have a schedule set to only charge from 12:00 a.m. - 7:00 a.m., and the app said it was waiting to charge between that time. Well, it indeed didn't charge during that time last night. Since I had the truck in June, this has happened to me at least monthly.

To add insult to injury, I'm sitting at work with sweat running down my back. Why, you ask? When I saw it wasn't charging, I thought I'd start the vehicle to warm it up on house power before leaving. After unplugging and driving off, my seat was scorching; as usual, the heated seat was on high, so I turned it off. No change; still hot. I turned it to level one. No change; still hot. So, regardless of the setting, my seat was heating. Fortunately, the control turned on cooling when set to cooling, so I had both heat and cooling going on. To add to my aggravation, the truck told me my range was low at one point and I should adjust my climate control to extend the range. I sure wish I could have turned off the heated seat!

The FordPass app is just ridiculous. You can't easily select to charge to 80%, you can't rely on the charge time window, and you can't rely on it to precondition when it's supposed to. My power usage from the Ford charge station shows up randomly. It shows I used 18 kWh one day in October, despite charging daily. It's a stretch to find anything good to say about FordPass. All I can think of is that 50% of the time, it will tell you your accurate charge state, but I'm probably high on the 50%

FORD - Hire better software engineers!

All those things you've mentioned here work great on my platinum. I'd say it's past time to take your truck in for repairs. If something like that happened to me even once I'd take my truck in for repairs.

 

[chandwawar]

extremely disappointing not having autostart in 15 degree weather because Fordpass won't connect to the automobile.....

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