Hi everyone,

I have a quick question with regards to the Ford Sync 3 live traffic updates.

My Fiesta is a 2020 model and I am currently still able to use the 2 year live map updates that came with the vehicle when new.

What I'm not quiet sure of is how the live traffic works. I Don't use the vehicles internet in the car Vodaphone hotspot as tbh it's expensive and have never bothered to sign up to it.

So how does the live traffic data etc download, is it via the vehicles 4G modem & free 2 year subscription? and if so when my subscription expires in May 2020 will this cease & do I have to subscribe.

Also my phone connects to the car as a hotspot & shows the WIFI  icon on the screen, what is the purpose of tethering your phones WIFI to the vehicle? I'm guessing for software updates only, or when the subscription expires can my phone hotspot be used for live traffic data?

I do apologise if I sound a little dumb, but I'm not too clued up on the tech side of things.

 

As far as I know with my 2021 Fiesta you get 1 years trial of live traffic and local hazard information. After that unless you subscribe you get the basic traffic via RDS function. 

Map updates are for as long as your version of Sync is supported.

As far as I can remember you have to sign up to activate the vehicles onboard 4G connectivity. This also allows the onboard telematics to receive OTA updates too. You don’t have to use the vehicles WiFi hotspot unless you want to. After your trial period the subscription costs around £3 per month.

The Sync3 WiFi connection is for Sync3 firmware and map updates. So most people would connect to their home WiFi when parked on the driveway or in the garage. Connecting to your phone would do a similar thing, just bear in mind that while firmware updates aren’t huge, map updates can be around 30Gb. The car needs to be parked for updates via WiFi. If you don’t have WiFi reaching where your car is parked then update via USB would be preferable.

4 hours ago, Aldridge Andy said:

As far as I know with my 2021 Fiesta you get 1 years trial of live traffic and local hazard information. After that unless you subscribe you get the basic traffic via RDS function. 

Map updates are for as long as your version of Sync is supported.

As far as I can remember you have to sign up to activate the vehicles onboard 4G connectivity. This also allows the onboard telematics to receive OTA updates too. You don’t have to use the vehicles WiFi hotspot unless you want to. After your trial period the subscription costs around £3 per month.

The Sync3 WiFi connection is for Sync3 firmware and map updates. So most people would connect to their home WiFi when parked on the driveway or in the garage. Connecting to your phone would do a similar thing, just bear in mind that while firmware updates aren’t huge, map updates can be around 30Gb. The car needs to be parked for updates via WiFi. If you don’t have WiFi reaching where your car is parked then update via USB would be preferable.

Thanks Andy, much appreciated.

I have found the live traffic function to be of limited value together with the fact that even the latest Ford maps are still significantly out of date. I use Android Auto with Google Maps or Waze for 99% of my routing as the maps and traffic/hazards are very much up to date. I only use the in-built system on the rare occasion that I cannot get a phone signal and then only use it until I get a signal and revert back to Android Auto. There are parts of Norfolk  that are very sketchy for phone signals!