Apple Carplay / Android Auto expand display

[jflottawa]

Unfortunately a lot of tech's are just warm bodies and barely understand their job with no interest in being good at it.

It's a Ford thing more than it is a tech thing. Often he'll look at a truck coming in (for a service let's say) and see that it requires software updates, none however that affect driveability or that are part of any TSBs. Who pays for his time to run a 2, 4 or 8hr update on the vehicle? Is the customer waiting in the room next door to get their vehicle back?

Techs aren't told not to update the software, but they're also not told they should update it. I think it's unfair to pin it all on the techs.

If Ford improves their OTA process (and frequency), we wouldn't be having this conversation

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[Porpoise Hork]

If Ford improves their OTA process (and frequency), we wouldn't be having this conversation

That's a BIG if...

From what I have seen so far Ford follows the same rolling update strategy as many software vendors like Microsoft. Upload the latest versions to servers and then roll out the update in stages to reduce the bandwidth requirements to push them out. Bigger issue is with many these OTA updates may require WiFi connectivity and if the truck is not connected to a WiFi source when it's update cycle is active then it gets skipped until the next round. This can and does lead to some being 2-3 or more updates behind. What makes it more confusing/irritating is it seems like they link the updates available to the owner accounts so if the truck misses it the website also states no update is available as well.

 

[Chili]

It's a Ford thing more than it is a tech thing. Often he'll look at a truck coming in (for a service let's say) and see that it requires software updates, none however that affect driveability or that are part of any TSBs. Who pays for his time to run a 2, 4 or 8hr update on the vehicle? Is the customer waiting in the room next door to get their vehicle back?

Techs aren't told not to update the software, but they're also not told they should update it. I think it's unfair to pin it all on the techs.

If Ford improves their OTA process (and frequency), we wouldn't be having this conversation

That's fair. Some of my own personal experience with techs in general came into play. There are good ones and ehhhhhhh ones.

 

[FrankThompson]

That's a BIG if...

From what I have seen so far Ford follows the same rolling update strategy as many software vendors like Microsoft. Upload the latest versions to servers and then roll out the update in stages to reduce the bandwidth requirements to push them out. Bigger issue is with many these OTA updates may require WiFi connectivity and if the truck is not connected to a WiFi source when it's update cycle is active then it gets skipped until the next round. This can and does lead to some being 2-3 or more updates behind. What makes it more confusing/irritating is it seems like they link the updates available to the owner accounts so if the truck misses it the website also states no update is available as well.

Just a note that there are more benefits to rolling updates besides saving on bandwidth. There is the benefit that if there is an issue you haven't infected your whole user base (hopefully) and you can stop the rollout.

I.E. in the MSFT systems I deal with they actually roll out all updates to places like Africa first (lower use regions) months in advance of when we get them here in the US (higher use regions). Allows them to find bugs missed in QA that could be really bad if the majority of their user base is affected.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Just a note that there are more benefits to rolling updates besides saving on bandwidth. There is the benefit that if there is an issue you haven't infected your whole user base (hopefully) and you can stop the rollout.

I.E. in the MSFT systems I deal with they actually roll out all updates to places like Africa first (lower use regions) months in advance of when we get them here in the US (higher use regions). Allows them to find bugs missed in QA that could be really bad if the majority of their user base is affected.

Man.. Just love being open beta testers for Ford and M$FT...

 

[Snakebitten]

That's a BIG if...

From what I have seen so far Ford follows the same rolling update strategy as many software vendors like Microsoft. Upload the latest versions to servers and then roll out the update in stages to reduce the bandwidth requirements to push them out. Bigger issue is with many these OTA updates may require WiFi connectivity and if the truck is not connected to a WiFi source when it's update cycle is active then it gets skipped until the next round. This can and does lead to some being 2-3 or more updates behind. What makes it more confusing/irritating is it seems like they link the updates available to the owner accounts so if the truck misses it the website also states no update is available as well.

I am very curious about this aspect of OTA.
I don't dispute that Ford equipped the trucks with the ability to leverage the bandwidth advantage of WiFi over the AT&T LTE native connection in the truck, but I have yet to see any confirmation that Ford has delivered OTA updates using Wi-Fi.

Of course I very well could have missed the posts confirming such.

 

[FrankThompson]

Man.. Just love being open beta testers for Ford and M$FT...

There is a lot of benefit to "beta testers" or in my world a "Canary environment", but with cars I'm sure that works different. Lives are potentially at stake for some of this stuff. It's not a position that as a previous software developer I would be envious of. When I was a developer at my current company (a recruiting/staffing firm), the worse that could happen was we couldn't bill a client and would have to pay a consultant out of our own pockets. Not great to the bottom line, but lives aren't lost.

That said, I don't drive much, if they had a way to revert from a "beta" version to a "production" version, I would be all over being a beta tester

 

[Porpoise Hork]

I am very curious about this aspect of OTA.
I don't dispute that Ford equipped the trucks with the ability to leverage the bandwidth advantage of WiFi over the AT&T LTE native connection in the truck, but I have yet to see any confirmation that Ford has delivered OTA updates using Wi-Fi.

Of course I very well could have missed the posts confirming such.

Mostly anecdotal. Knew a guy with a 2020 Ranger who's vin was 6 away from mine. He never bothered to connect it to his WiFi where I did. I received several Sync updates including the first NA map update. He never received any of them. Only after connecting to WiFi did his truck start getting updates applied to it. There were others on the Ranger forums who also saw similar behavior. Now this may all be different now but that's what we saw a couple years ago.

 

[22SpaceWhiteXLT]

Full disclosure I work at a ford dealership. 2022 XLT we updated my apim today and got the full CarPlay ??

 

[zacko11288]

Full disclosure I work at a ford dealership. 2022 XLT we updated my apim today and got the full CarPlay ??

Thanks for sharing, it looks so good ?. I'll get really excited when I start seeing pics of 21's lol

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

Full disclosure I work at a ford dealership. 2022 XLT we updated my apim today and got the full CarPlay ??

That’s a good update for the non nav trucks like that one

 

[tcp]

I am very curious about this aspect of OTA.
I don't dispute that Ford equipped the trucks with the ability to leverage the bandwidth advantage of WiFi over the AT&T LTE native connection in the truck, but I have yet to see any confirmation that Ford has delivered OTA updates using Wi-Fi.

Of course I very well could have missed the posts confirming such.

Also internet access is internet access makes no difference if its a wifi connection or LTE or satellite.... IF some are only for wifi only..... what about those trucks that never knows what wifi is? Or what if someone has crappy wifi signal or LTE signal... the bits will come when it comes. Probably best Ford didn't put a progress bar like how MS does it with file transfers.... a 10 minute transfer jumps to 10 days... Ford would go bankrupt from their 800# fees alone with all of us calling in.

 

[graves1907]

Thanks for sharing, it looks so good ?. I'll get really excited when I start seeing pics of 21's lol

Agreed! I got so excited to do this myself via FDRS and then saw the comment its not available for the 21s yet...

 

[22SpaceWhiteXLT]

Agreed! I got so excited to do this myself via FDRS and then saw the comment its not available for the 21s yet...

Yea I’m not sure if the 21s get it yet. I’ll keep my eyes open next time they do an apim update on a 21.

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

Yea I’m not sure if the 21s get it yet. I’ll keep my eyes open next time they do an apim update on a 21.

Nope Only 22 as of now. Some 22 will have 21355 first. Then 22228 possibly

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