Sync 3.4 safety features

I’ve also got some questions about this upgrade, and some comments.

First - comments. This upgrade was way better than the stock process. Its amazing how much better this experience is, just even having a functional progress bar, something so dumb, can’t believe Ford doesn’t have something that simple during their updates. So thank you very much.

Next, some comments on the process. It went great, very smooth, and quite a it faster than the factory updates.

However, some issues I noticed right away, and unfortunately I noticed this during a 6 hour drive (this was incredibly frustrating during this long drive).

  • It appears that for some ridiculous reason, the ability search through media while driving has been disabled. That is, I have over 100GB of music on a USB stick and that used to work flawlessly, I could search through all of my folders and select new music and new albums to listen to, all the time. Now all of the sudden with this upgrade, it locks that out. That’s unacceptable, if I can use the display to turn on massaging seats, I can select a new album to listen to. Anyone have a way around this?

  • Now it looks like both bluetooth and android auto setup are blocked while driving. AA was blocked before but I know I was able to pair a bluetooth device before. Now I can’t. Any ideas? This does work while parked but again, had to wait 5+ hours.

  • It also appears that far more of the settings menus are greyed out now while driving. It practically makes this expensive thing only partially usable.

Otherwise everything seems to be working fine. appreciate some input.

Technically this is fords code still, its their “reformat tool” but its for factory/internal use only really.

This will be due to safety reasons and potentially legal issues. Not sure why you would be trying to mess with this while driving.

I personally don’t consider any of the above to be safe things to do while driving so i won’t be condoning solutions regarding these even if some do exist.

Other than this glad it is all working :slight_smile:

Wait, so you’re saying that when you used to have a compact disk player in your car, or a tape player, you never reached up to press fast forward, rewind, skip, etc? I can do this in my Acura, I could do it in my jeep, I can do it in a Tesla. And I could do it before 3.4. That’s the frustrating part.

Anyone know if this is still a limitation in 3.2? I may downgrade just for this very reason. That’s basic functionality of any head unit (specifically talking about the ability to browse the media folder structure).

None of those controls are restricted? You’re talking about using media folders. To use your analogy it would be like replacing 6 CDs in your CD changer.

If I were you, I’d re-evaluate what really is important while driving your vehicle. These restrictions aren’t put in place to annoy, they’re to stop you killing someone.

People fiddling with a cell phone is what causes accidents. technically, based on the placement of a head unit, my eyes are virtually still on the road while say, looking for a new album to play. When one is say in stop and go traffic, that may be a bit of an issue, and it’s up to every driver to make responsible decisions, but when I’m cruising at 80mph on an interstate for 6+ hours, it’s 100% likely someone would want to change albums. And yes, with a changer, I may look up at the dash and change from disk 1 to disk 3.

On the safety front, I would actually be more likely to get hit if I pulled over on an interstate to put it in park to change albums. How is that any different from say changing XM radio stations?

Any way, anyone know if these same limitations exist in 3.2?

I firmly disagree, and you can go and ask questions about circumventing these controls elsewhere. Topic closed.

1 Like