Ford Focus Electric and the Gamification of Driving

Here's a column I wrote about the gamification features of the Ford Focus Electric. Drivers that are familiar with achievements, scores, and leaderboards from PlayStation and Xbox consoles will enjoy what Ford has done with the Ford Focus Electric and MyFordMobile.com. For the nerdy set, it enhances the experience.

I'd love to hear if you enjoy these features or if you just ignore them. As a gamer, I'm all about nerding up the driving experience.

RPadTV said:

Here's a column I wrote about the gamification features of the Ford Focus Electric. Drivers that are familiar with achievements, scores, and leaderboards from PlayStation and Xbox consoles will enjoy what Ford has done with the Ford Focus Electric and MyFordMobile.com. For the nerdy set, it enhances the experience.

I'd love to hear if you enjoy these features or if you just ignore them. As a gamer, I'm all about nerding up the driving experience.

Click to expand...

When I click the link I get a "this page cannot be displayed" error. I am a numbers guy so I like the data the car provides.

Not all "Achievement whores" will enjoy driving the FFE simply because not all of those features work for all people. It really is a crap shoot as to what you get on the MFM website.
I see from your posting that you are one of the lucky ones: It would appear everything has worked for you.

Nice idea for a post!

I've been blogging about the FFE for almost a year now..wow time flies when you're having fun:
http://jamiegeek.myevblog.com/

RPadTV said:

Here's a column I wrote about the gamification features of the Ford Focus Electric. Drivers that are familiar with achievements, scores, and leaderboards from PlayStation and Xbox consoles will enjoy what Ford has done with the Ford Focus Electric and MyFordMobile.com. For the nerdy set, it enhances the experience.

I'd love to hear if you enjoy these features or if you just ignore them. As a gamer, I'm all about nerding up the driving experience.

Click to expand...

Now the link worked. Does your MFM My Driving section always show your Trip Wh/mi info? Ours has shown it exactly twice in 1000 miles of driving so far and only shows brake scores about 50% of the time and driving scores about 67% of the time.

hybridbear said:

Now the link worked. Does your MFM My Driving section always show your Trip Wh/mi info? Ours has shown it exactly twice in 1000 miles of driving so far and only shows brake scores about 50% of the time and driving scores about 67% of the time.

Click to expand...

So far, yes. Keep in mind that I've only been driving it for eight days, but Wh/mi and brake score are there for every trip that has been logged.

RPadTV said:

hybridbear said:

Now the link worked. Does your MFM My Driving section always show your Trip Wh/mi info? Ours has shown it exactly twice in 1000 miles of driving so far and only shows brake scores about 50% of the time and driving scores about 67% of the time.

Click to expand...

So far, yes. Keep in mind that I've only been driving it for eight days, but Wh/mi and brake score are there for every trip that has been logged.

Click to expand...

Wow!! That's incredible! I hope it keeps working for you!

These all work for me but in the Zen Master ranking of NY NJ PA the top 10 cars use 0Wh/mi and I'm 26th at 218 Wh/mi for the life of my car. How the heck do you drive a car and consume 0Wh/mi. Something's got to be wrong there Fjord! or please let me in on the secret. :evil:

Sunday my brother drove my focus. AC was on when we started the car. Turn off AC gained 12+ miles on Budget, so effectively started with 71 Miles range no AC, on a ~15 mile trip, he ended with 75 miles range!! we drove 15 miles and gained 4 miles range in Blue bar. Never seen it correct itself that much. :lol:
H

Saw your post in the Ford MFM forum. Or should we call it the Ford Hybrid Energi forum?

It's great that you enjoy the achievements. They really don't work for me at all. I got really excited the first few months. Then they were impossible to get. And then Ford completely trashed the Electric website. The rebuild was painful and mostly didn't work. And now they have something that might just work. Except I'm tired and don't trust the calculations, achievements, or rank in the competitions. The competitions are made worse by the pile of 0's that are in the top 10. And I have no idea how to move up in those ranks - nothing we do works.

So I'm a little frustrated. A lot disappointed with what Ford did in the combining of the two sites.

The way you get 0wh/mi - don't drive the car, or there is a software issue (likely the latter).

get 0Wh/mi by being towed... LOL

I realized in the last few days that the leader boards were too much to try for. It would take some serious effort to focus on getting the most from every drop of energy. A big part of that is having to go without AC, and that's not realistic in Dallas, for me. I'd rather be comfortable and smug just knowing that my relatively carefree driving style is still way greener and quieter than 99.9% of the rest of traffic.