Why does unplugging a charger turn your AC off?

[dww]

Why does unplugging your Lightning from charging turn off the AC? I purposefully leave my truck on when I am traveling with my dogs or preparing for a trip and pre load them. I just noticed on my last trip as I had loaded the dogs and the charge had reached 99% that when I unplugged the charger the AC compressor stopped and the truck went mostly silent. It was 100 degrees out and the truck was in the sun and I thought if the truck was on the AC would stay on. Apparently it went to accessory mode as the fan was still running. How could this be the default behavior? This would seem to be inconvenient for anyone that was waiting in the truck while it was charging and then being unplugged.

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[Heliian]

the truck was on the AC would stay on. Apparently it went to accessory mode

Did you use the climate control in FordPass or did you turn the truck on via the dash?
Do you have the toggle for climate while unplugged on?

There is also a built in shutdown timer in the truck that can be adjusted.

 

[StrikesTwice]

That is one of the unfortunate quirks with the software. If the truck is on from the key it will turn off when you unplug. But if the climate is on through the app it will continue to run when unplugged.

To complicate matters the inverse is true when opening the frunk. If the climate is on through the app and you open the frunk, it turns off. If the truck is on with the key, it will remain running when you open the frunk.

 

[dww]

I turned the truck on with the dash. This also happens if you arrive at a charger, do not turn the truck off, plug the truck in, then stop the charger.

 

[dww]

That is one of the unfortunate quirks with the software. If the truck is on from the key it will turn off when you unplug. But if the climate is on through the app it will continue to run when unplugged.

To complicate matters the inverse is true when opening the frunk. If the climate is on through the app and you open the frunk, it turns off. If the truck is on with the key, it will remain running when you open the frunk.

Thanks! I did not know that about the frunk. This seems to need a PSA. And I did not use remote climate because I was going to be opening and closing doors a lot. I thought “ON” was the safest bet for not accidentally turning the climate off.

 

[hturnerfamily]

I'm not really sure why the truck returns to 'Accessory' mode when you unplug anything from the Charge Port, but it sure does seem to unintentionally complicate things. I see the same thing everytime: your truck is left ON, and the Air Conditioner is left RUNNING. Your get in and out of the truck several times to plug in and start the charge, to cool back down in the truck, to get back out to stop the charge, and then, when you UNPLUG, the truck changes to 'Accessory' mode, where things get a little weird.

Now, whether the a/c continues operating as it had previously, I'm not sure, but what HAS changed is that little Green Light BEEPING now on the 'Start Button', meaning that something is now 'different' from the 'ON' mode you had left originally left it in.
It's confusing, too, because you now need to 'restart' the truck, which is not a really big deal, but 'WHY?' is the question. Maybe there's a safety concern. Maybe there's a technical reason. Who knows...but what I DO now know, is that everything else is mainly 'the same', except your THIS TRIP meter, which has now reset, but even your CRUISE CONTROL setting STILL REMAINS...crazy. This also adds to the confusion, since you have to 'restart' the truck, and now, down the road several miles, you go to turn ON Cruise, just to find out you have now actually turned it OFF, etc.

Interesting how these things work, and while we can get used to almost anything, it DOES beg the question of WHY.
I'll add this to the original post, if you are concerned about the passengers and pets and air conditioning, etc... when you UNPLUG, you are OUT of the vehicle, AND the doors might could be locked, even accidentally, before you get back in, and therefore, the 'Accessory' mode reversion just might have been the engineers reasoning for turning the truck 'OFF', from a driving perspective, although everything else 'should' remain the same(that's to be debated, yes)...

so, in the end, it MUST be a reason of SAFETY and/or SECURITY.
Let's imagine your own scenario, with pets, especially dogs, but you could also include CHILDREN, too.
You get out of the 'running' truck to unplug. You unplug, go to rehook the cable on the station, and look back to see your truck MOVING. Someone, or something, has put the truck into GEAR and it is now rolling. This can NOT happen if the truck is no longer ON, which may be the reason.
Now, I know what you are going to say: "but, you had to get out of the truck BEFORE just to plug the charge cable IN, and the truck does not have to be in Accessory mode, so why does it automatically revert to that when you UNPLUG? I suppose, like many 'safety and security' reasonings by engineers and committees, who make these decisions, THIS may the time where there is the most opportunity for an unfortunate 'mistake' to take place.

Maybe none of that is true, but It's a shot in the dark : )

 

[TaxmanHog]

A bureaucrat was involved!

 

[sd25]

Poor software programming, plain and simple. And if if was intentional, then that was a really dumb choice.

There's no reason the truck should shutoff after unplugging the charge port.

The truck shutting off along with the AC shutting off is a frustrating one to keep dealing with when fast charging on hot days with passengers in the vehicle.

 

[Jim Lewis]

What annoys me is that the RECIRCULATE setting on the AC tends to go off when you turn the truck off and let it sit for a good while. Also, if you've turned on an overhead "courtesy" light, then you turn the truck off and realize you left the light on, you have to turn the truck back on to turn the light off. This seems particularly ridiculous when the truck core electronics run for ~30 min after you turn the truck off, why doesn't that allow you to turn a courtesy light off with the truck "off"?

I guess the theory on RECIRCULATE going off is when you get into a hot truck, you're going to want to exhaust the hot interior air and let the coolant get cold before you start RECIRCULATE. OTH, with such an electronic truck that can automatically switch between DRIVER-FOCUSED cooling and more uniform all-around cooling depending on what seats are occupied, the truck could at least offer a setting to stay in recirculate mode or not or even switch to recirculate xx minutes after turning the truck on. My loose observation is that running in RECIRCULATE mode really helps your miles/kWh in summertime hot-as-H--- Texas and I'm always forgetting to turn RECIRCULATE back on when it goes off. There ought to at least be an idiot light that could be made to show at the bottom of the SYNC screen to show whether RECIRCULATE is on or not as there is for most other climate control display panels in other makes of vehicle.

 

[Runaway Tractor]

Guys, stop hurting your brain looking for some logical reason for any of these things. There isn't any. This is nothing more than stupidly designed software written without any planning or testing, which nobody at Ford is being allowed to fix. There's no reason other than someone fucked it up and nobody is fixing it.

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