spr
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- April 29, 2013
- Messages
- 109
- Reaction score
- 0
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2013 Expl XLT 4WD
Thought I would put in my 2 cents....
I got the new 2013 explorer a few months ago, so I had the 5.3 version already loaded. I found it pretty good - and had a couple issues with it - nothing terribly tragic, more nusiances than anything... couple crashes, couple lockups, slow response & startup, erratic voice recognition and peformance - I think mostly due to slow system boot times.
Anyway the new release - seems to me, is a big improvement. I dont have any experience with the older versions of sync/mft, but this feels more stable and responsive than even 5.3.
* My biggest issue with the prior release was that if I tried to use voice commands within perhaps 2-3 minutes of starting the vehicle - there was a chance the system would simply not respond - or perhaps get stuck on something for several minutes or (once) crash entirely. This is much improved. I have not seriously challenged it yet - its only been a couple days - but it does seem much MUCH more responsive. My usb device (iPod classic) starts playing in seconds, and NAV and SYNC seems to come up and get stable much more quickly. Very pleased with this.
* Minor user interface changes are nice. Larger touch zones on home screen to switch panels (seems silly now to just have the little 'buttons' the only active zones right?), Both the song name and artist displayed on the Sirius panel in the home screen (Rather than the Sirius Channel Logo and Artist), and minor improvements to panel switching responsivenes are nice. Colored 'zones' in the backup camera panel I guess are helpfull though typically the audio (sonar beeping) feedback is more helpful for me when I am looking around the car and not at the screen.
* Voice Commands. Feels like they made some structural changes to voice command interface - the addition of the popup full screen display that guides what you are able to say is helpful - especially to passegers who may not be familiar with the system. Voice feedback from the system is more responsive and detailed... "I found multiple.... Please Choose.... *My Mistake*..." But more often than before I simply get a positive tone back that it found what I am asking for and the selection/function activates. Its better.
* I got locked out of the keypad entry maintenence screens in MFT within days after purchasing the vehicle since I believe I 'deleted' the factory code from MFT. (The code still worked on the keypad, but I could not get back into the MFT function to maintain code any longer reliably. inexplicably - once every 20 tries or so, it would work.). Anyway - the system reload has fixed it and I can now get ito the Entry Code screens as expected and it works fine - and repeatedly.
* The system upgrade wiped out all my wallpapers, so I had to upload them again. No big deal, but no warning that would happen either. All other presets were maintained besides a few system settings such as touchscreen tones and novice/advanced mode going back to system defaults. Also had to re-pair my iPhone 4.
* It reindexed my iPod and recreated commands (It says 'Creating Commands' now rather than 'Creating Voice Commands') and I have not timed how long it took - but my impression is that it happened more quickly. A big test will be repeated short trips and turning the vehicle off/on when I am doing things locally. Seems that this kind of short trip on/off of everything is one thing that would potentially send the system into a unstable state - maybe when turning the vehicle off before sync/MFT was really up and stable. I feel like this has been improved greatly as the system simply seems to get up and functional more quickly. Nice.
* I had been getting a 'Phone disconected' message popping up every few days (alays once shortly after starting the vehicle) even though all phone connectivity and functions seemed to be fine. I have not seen this since the upgrade - but as I said I would only get this every few days so I will keep an eye on this too. So far the lack of that popup message is encouraging.
* left the car running in the driveway - the upload and upgrade process (including about 5 (+/-) reboots of the system) took perhaps 45 minutes all together and then I reindexed the iPod which took maybe another 15 minutes (about 14,000 tracks on that iPod) - so a good hour for me. I bet if I timed the actual 'upgrade' with a stopwatch - it was closer to 25 minutes - but bottom line is the entire thing really took me about an hour.
All together - This just feels like a very significant improvement of the system even though it was only 3 months old. It just feels more responsive, and it seems like it has faster system boot times - which in my mind were a big contributor to the the kinds of issues I had previously - and the voice command recognion and feedback seems improved.
So - initial feedback: 9/10. I just have to deduct a point because this thing is brand new and I find myself having to 'UPDATE' the vehicle to make it work as intended while leaving it running in the driveway for an hour. Otherwise though - the results seem to speak for themselves.
Before - I would hesitate to recommend this kind of system to someone that wasn't as comfortable with a system that was a bit finicky and fickle and felt a little clunky on the external device interfaces. Now - I think it is so much improved - at least on my 2013 - that it feels much more like a production, consumer quality system - rather than a beta version of an overly complicated software/hardware that just felt like it was only 90% there.
Good Job Ford IVT Team - nicely done.
I got the new 2013 explorer a few months ago, so I had the 5.3 version already loaded. I found it pretty good - and had a couple issues with it - nothing terribly tragic, more nusiances than anything... couple crashes, couple lockups, slow response & startup, erratic voice recognition and peformance - I think mostly due to slow system boot times.
Anyway the new release - seems to me, is a big improvement. I dont have any experience with the older versions of sync/mft, but this feels more stable and responsive than even 5.3.
* My biggest issue with the prior release was that if I tried to use voice commands within perhaps 2-3 minutes of starting the vehicle - there was a chance the system would simply not respond - or perhaps get stuck on something for several minutes or (once) crash entirely. This is much improved. I have not seriously challenged it yet - its only been a couple days - but it does seem much MUCH more responsive. My usb device (iPod classic) starts playing in seconds, and NAV and SYNC seems to come up and get stable much more quickly. Very pleased with this.
* Minor user interface changes are nice. Larger touch zones on home screen to switch panels (seems silly now to just have the little 'buttons' the only active zones right?), Both the song name and artist displayed on the Sirius panel in the home screen (Rather than the Sirius Channel Logo and Artist), and minor improvements to panel switching responsivenes are nice. Colored 'zones' in the backup camera panel I guess are helpfull though typically the audio (sonar beeping) feedback is more helpful for me when I am looking around the car and not at the screen.
* Voice Commands. Feels like they made some structural changes to voice command interface - the addition of the popup full screen display that guides what you are able to say is helpful - especially to passegers who may not be familiar with the system. Voice feedback from the system is more responsive and detailed... "I found multiple.... Please Choose.... *My Mistake*..." But more often than before I simply get a positive tone back that it found what I am asking for and the selection/function activates. Its better.
* I got locked out of the keypad entry maintenence screens in MFT within days after purchasing the vehicle since I believe I 'deleted' the factory code from MFT. (The code still worked on the keypad, but I could not get back into the MFT function to maintain code any longer reliably. inexplicably - once every 20 tries or so, it would work.). Anyway - the system reload has fixed it and I can now get ito the Entry Code screens as expected and it works fine - and repeatedly.
* The system upgrade wiped out all my wallpapers, so I had to upload them again. No big deal, but no warning that would happen either. All other presets were maintained besides a few system settings such as touchscreen tones and novice/advanced mode going back to system defaults. Also had to re-pair my iPhone 4.
* It reindexed my iPod and recreated commands (It says 'Creating Commands' now rather than 'Creating Voice Commands') and I have not timed how long it took - but my impression is that it happened more quickly. A big test will be repeated short trips and turning the vehicle off/on when I am doing things locally. Seems that this kind of short trip on/off of everything is one thing that would potentially send the system into a unstable state - maybe when turning the vehicle off before sync/MFT was really up and stable. I feel like this has been improved greatly as the system simply seems to get up and functional more quickly. Nice.
* I had been getting a 'Phone disconected' message popping up every few days (alays once shortly after starting the vehicle) even though all phone connectivity and functions seemed to be fine. I have not seen this since the upgrade - but as I said I would only get this every few days so I will keep an eye on this too. So far the lack of that popup message is encouraging.
* left the car running in the driveway - the upload and upgrade process (including about 5 (+/-) reboots of the system) took perhaps 45 minutes all together and then I reindexed the iPod which took maybe another 15 minutes (about 14,000 tracks on that iPod) - so a good hour for me. I bet if I timed the actual 'upgrade' with a stopwatch - it was closer to 25 minutes - but bottom line is the entire thing really took me about an hour.
All together - This just feels like a very significant improvement of the system even though it was only 3 months old. It just feels more responsive, and it seems like it has faster system boot times - which in my mind were a big contributor to the the kinds of issues I had previously - and the voice command recognion and feedback seems improved.
So - initial feedback: 9/10. I just have to deduct a point because this thing is brand new and I find myself having to 'UPDATE' the vehicle to make it work as intended while leaving it running in the driveway for an hour. Otherwise though - the results seem to speak for themselves.
Before - I would hesitate to recommend this kind of system to someone that wasn't as comfortable with a system that was a bit finicky and fickle and felt a little clunky on the external device interfaces. Now - I think it is so much improved - at least on my 2013 - that it feels much more like a production, consumer quality system - rather than a beta version of an overly complicated software/hardware that just felt like it was only 90% there.
Good Job Ford IVT Team - nicely done.
