Global closure

[NeilRS]

Hi- used global closure the other day and noticed it didn't close the sun roof-which kind of defeated the object. Is that normal? I'm sure on previous cars fitted with an electric roof and global closure it closed everything?

[Edge of Reason]

It probably doesn't. It doesn't close my tailgate, which again seems a bit silly,  but hopefully somebody will know for sure. 

[NeilRS]

No, but at least you can shut the boot via the key fob from the comfort of your home. 

[Edge of Reason]

True. Plus I don't have a sunroof !! 😄

[NeilRS]

However, I should have learnt my lesson as birds don't check for open sunrooves before 'releasing their load'. 

[Edge of Reason]

How dare they !😂

[xn85]

On my previous Kuga the global closure didn't operate on the panoramic roof. The first time I needed it was on a hot, sunny day when it suddenly turned to rain. I closed all the windows but forgot about the roof being open. The following day was spent sitting on a supermarket carrier bag to avoid a wet bum...

[bluepeter]

My sister in laws Ford mondeo s roof closed with the global opening and closing.  Ford seem to go 1 step forward on certain things the 2 backwards.

[pash43uk]

How simple would it be to use the rain sensor on the windscreen to close the sunroof , few key presses on a laptop to save my wet seats :) 

[simonb65]

In my experience, in design/development of the electronic systems in 'off road' vehicle development, there are probably a few reasons for not closing the roof when the windows shut ...

1) There is no anti-trap detection on the roof close (safety consideration dictates a functions operation).

2) To close the roof as well as the windows (at the same time) there would be a big power demand on the battery (at a time when there is no charge available).

3) To globally open the roof, you have to open the sun shade first ... again more power required and a much longer overall sequence!

I know to most these might seem trivial points, but when your dealing with complex electronic systems that all consume power and ECU's have different levels of functionality, power management is extremely important to managing the batteries health, especially on vehicles with stop/start and when you do features like stop charging the battery when you are accelerating, just to put that small amount of energy into the transmission instead of the battery, you are really in the realms of very intricate power strategies.

To top all that, the battery capacity, the days, tends to be much smaller than it used to be (saving weight, space and cost!)

All-in-all, a lot of compromises are made during the design stage to ensure that the car still starts (when you need it to!), is efficient and yet responsive (i.e. delayed sleep on some EUC's, etc. and lots of development is done each year on LCD clusters and infotainment displays to improve the user perception that its responsive ... but they have a long way to go yet!)