Introducing Ford AI Assistant in the Ford App 📱

[MaverickDragon]

I would love walk away door locking! I miss that from my Honda Ridgeline.

What if your passenger has the fob and gets into the vanpool you dropped her/him off for, and as you walk back to the Maverick, after saying bu-bye you discover it has conveniently locked itself with your phone inside...

Probably not something you would miss.

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[TNFurb]

What if your passenger has the fob and gets into the vanpool you dropped her/him off for, and as you walk back to the Maverick, after saying bu-bye you discover it has conveniently locked itself with your phone inside...

Probably not something you would miss.

That would suck for sure. But through 4 years of owning a Ridgeline, that scenario never happened to me. Nor did I ever once get locked out of the truck. I just wish Ford had it as an option for those who want it like Honda did. I found it to be very convenient and meant I pretty much never had to take the fob out of my pocket whenever I was out and about. But the feature could be turned off in settings for those who were not interested in it for whatever reason.

 

[edmc]

Also, the chat bots takes virtually nothing in resources to train and run. Can actually be really good when used correctly to get people straight to the relevant information. It's the agentic workloads that are the big driver of why are there suddenly all these datacenters vaporizing our power and water.

If it was an old school, dumb chat bot yes. Those are fairly simple and are preprogrammed for a handful of paths/tasks that it can help you with.

That does not seem to be what this is though. Ask it off topic questions and see how it responds. There are a ton of things that happen before your input even reaches the LLM. Has to be checked for harmful intent, prompt injection, and so on. Then when it does generate something to send back to you, LLM A checks the output of LLM B to try and make sure it doesn't tell you that you are a transcendent being and taking meth is a good thing.

There is ALOT of compute happening. Water and electricity resources are pretty much doomed with the direction we are heading.

See this post that confirms this is your typical AI slop, seems great until it isn't.
https://www.mavericktruckclub.com/forum/threads/ford-pass-ai-button.84989/post-1415339

 

[zen_]

There is ALOT of compute happening. Water and electricity resources are pretty much doomed with the direction we are heading.

It's a drop in the bucket compared to the token usage of agents running 24/7 doing deep data analysis, code review, etc. I can't imagine owners actually needing to use this much anyway, but it's nice to have the answers in your pocket if you're doing something like changing wiper blades in an Autozone parking lot.

I get the environmental angle as well, as it's infuriating to see these datacenters being built as quickly as we can build gas turbines to power them with no regard to the cost, but again these little chat bots are not driving the usage.

 

[edmc]

Drop in the bucket argument sucks. It's still bad. And when every single company is adding this BS to their websites and apps it adds up and contributes to the problem.

Also it is such a typical AI use case, solving a problem that does not exist.

 

[zen_]

Drop in the bucket argument sucks. It's still bad. And when every single company is adding this BS to their websites and apps it adds up and contributes to the problem.

Also it is such a typical AI use case, solving a problem that does not exist.

I get that, but what do you think the compute cost of the old method of searching on your phone, then opening a bunch of web pages full of adds and text is?

 

[MaverickDragon]

That would suck for sure. But through 4 years of owning a Ridgeline, that scenario never happened to me. Nor did I ever once get locked out of the truck. I just wish Ford had it as an option for those who want it like Honda did. I found it to be very convenient and meant I pretty much never had to take the fob out of my pocket whenever I was out and about. But the feature could be turned off in settings for those who were not interested in it for whatever reason.

My point was there could be a downside with potential legal consequences in an extreme case.
Not saying it's likely to happen, but it could.
There was a similar scenario on another forum where it turned into a royal pain.

Myself, I liked keyed ignitions, and I would not want the car to lock itself.
At worst, with RKE it's a button push, so not exactly a major inconvenience.

 

[Traegorn]

Maybe I should uninstall the ford app.

 

[JazznSF]

What if your passenger has the fob and gets into the vanpool you dropped her/him off for, and as you walk back to the Maverick, after saying bu-bye you discover it has conveniently locked itself with your phone inside...

Probably not something you would miss.

That's why I have a phone - albeit much smaller - in the hollow heel of my shoe, just like Maxwell Smart.

 

[MaverickDragon]

Don Adams as secret agent 86.. What a guy.
After capture by his nemesis, 86 said:
"Would you believe that forces from the US Army, Navy, Marines and Air Force are coming to my rescue?"
"No Mr. Smart"
"How about the Coast Guard?"
"I don't think so".
"How about 2 cops in a rowboat?"

 

[Thoron99]

Well, another check mark in the "I should get a Slate" box.

 

[MaverickDragon]

I just got the AI assistant when I got the "you have to update the app to use it" message.
That was painless... Everything works as before but the little blue AI icon on the header showed up.

I wasn't expecting much, but the bot is actually pretty good and has some available commentary beyond the confines of the owner's manual.

There was a thread on this site about how to stop the AC coming on when the vehicle was started.
I asked that question and got the response that the environment settings are remembered, so if you want the vehicle to start without AC, turn off the AUTO, and AC settings and the vehicle will start up that way.

I asked about how to eliminate the seat belt warnings in the rear seat when heavy items are stored there and was informed that there is no capability for that, but buckling the seat belts in the rear will solve the problem, and it provided the method for disabling the seat belt warnings for the front seats, which was something I did not know was possible...

 

[HeyBales]

I just got the AI assistant when I got the "you have to update the app to use it" message.
That was painless... Everything works as before but the little blue AI icon on the header showed up.

I wasn't expecting much, but the bot is actually pretty good and has some available commentary beyond the confines of the owner's manual.

There was a thread on this site about how to stop the AC coming on when the vehicle was started.
I asked that question and got the response that the environment settings are remembered, so if you want the vehicle to start without AC, turn off the AUTO, and AC settings and the vehicle will start up that way.

I asked about how to eliminate the seat belt warnings in the rear seat when heavy items are stored there and was informed that there is no capability for that, but buckling the seat belts in the rear will solve the problem, and it provided the method for disabling the seat belt warnings for the front seats, which was something I did not know was possible...

Good test questions.
Interesting failures though, so I guess no extra info beyond what the manual states either.
Or, points not specifically mentioned in the manual, and it's trying to AI some info and happens to get it wrong.

 

[TNFurb]

Good test questions.
Interesting failures though, so I guess no extra info beyond what the manual states either.
Or, points not specifically mentioned in the manual, and it's trying to AI some info and happens to get it wrong.

What was wrong? The AC answer is accurate for my 2024 Lariat. That’s exactly what I do. The front seatbelt warning is something I’d be interested in seeing what the answer was since he said it gave him the procedure to turn that off.

 

[HeyBales]

What was wrong? The AC answer is accurate for my 2024 Lariat. That’s exactly what I do. The front seatbelt warning is something I’d be interested in seeing what the answer was since he said it gave him the procedure to turn that off.

For our MY yes that is correct if HVAC is turned off then truck, but not the 25MY being asked about.

And actually, even ours, when you turn the HVAC on - can actually have the AC button lit when you did NOT leave it that way when you turned the HVAC off.

ETA - the backseat question about weight sensor fooled the AI - there are none. But it was correct that clicking the rear seat belts would prevent the always displaying warning on startup.

Hopefully the AI displayed the manual.

SWITCHING THE SEATBELT REMINDER ON AND OFF

WARNING: While the system allows you to deactivate it, this system is designed to improve your chances of being safely belted and surviving an accident. We recommend you leave the system activated for yourself and others who may use the vehicle.

Note: The driver and front passenger warnings switch off independently. When you perform this procedure for one seating position and the other seat is occupied, fasten the other seat.
Read Steps 1 - 4 before proceeding with the programming procedure.
Make sure that:

• You set the parking brake.
• The transmission is in park (P).
• The ignition is off.
• You close all vehicle doors.
• You unfasten the driver and front passenger seatbelts.

1. Start the engine.
2. Wait 8 seconds until warning tone has finished. Once you start Step 3, complete the procedure within 30 seconds.
3. For the seating position you are switching off, fasten then unfasten the seatbelt four times at a moderate speed, ending in the unfastened state. After each unfasten, the seatbelt warning light switches on and off with each fasten.
4. The seatbelt warning light flashes for confirmation.

This switches the feature off for that seating position if it is currently on.
This switches the feature on for that seating position if it is currently off.

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