Nissan LEAF app- rants and raves

Given the limited range of EV's and very few practical charging stations (420v and 220v fast charge only) means pure EV are literally driving on the edge. Anything to increase the "margin of comfort" is gold.

Nissan's idea of an smartphone App to monitor and even control aspects of the car is an bit of genius on part of Nissan to do.

But is falls far short what is should do.
And for me it does impact my decision on buying a Leaf.

The two features that stand out in the LEAF App is remote charge activate (to charge when rates lowest), and biggest of all, remote control of climate!

It does have some other good support features, and that its (not that much at all)


The rants are long, and dismaying, especially since the "MyFordMobile" (F) does have many of these features. Put it bluntly, the Ford app is what I consider the minimum features a car app should have.

The LEAF App has:
*No remote door open (Ford has)
*No programing setting for charging at low cost time (F)
*No trip history and analysis, know how far you can go and better driving habits (F)
*No UNLOCK of door (F)
*iPhone cannot take place of key fob to start car(!!) (F)
*No climate condition/ temp in car (F)
*"Find My Car" / vehicle locator (F)
*No schedule to turn on climate control (F)
*Well designed intuitive and clean interface (Ford better, still)
*List of nearby charge stations (F).
*Maintenance schedule and tire inflation (F)
*List a personal best.
*Itemize business miles vs. personal miles (not in Ford)

*Best of all a competition between drivers to challenge each other for best day, something the Ford app has!


Yes, the MyFordMobile has a lot of great features to help improve driving habits and control certain functions. The interface is not all great, the maps display has lots of issues, but it shows advantages to a close app/EV connection.

Does it influence my car buying decision?
Yes.

I know people will say its the CAR, not a silly app.
It's really BOTH.
Again, EV driving options are tight, having all these advantages makes driving EV even better!

I am sure others will say they don't need/us it with gas cars.
I actually do. Every time I fill up I have a log on miles and gas (and gas price), and calculate my MPG occasionally. I know what my MPG is typically. I also log when I do maintenance by mile and date, and yes, their are apps for tracking this too.

A better app will make Leaf a better experience, and I hope Nissan will regain the lead.

Cheers!

I think there have been other threads discussing enhancements. I know that when I went to the meet and greet with Nissan at the Google campus I provided copious amounts of feedback on comment sheet. My top additions would be:

-Remotely STOP charging! We can start charging remotely but for some reason we can't stop charging remotely? Why? I would find it VERY convenient to be able to choose one of 3 stop methods: (1) Immediate Stop. (2) Stop at Time. (3) Stop at %. This would eliminate the need for updating charging timers in public. I could override timer, plug in, then set the Stop when I'm in the movie, at the restaurant, doing whatever.
-Remotely set charge timers! It would be SOOO much nicer to plug the car in, eat dinner and then say "oh wait, I'm actually driving further tomorrow at a different time - I'll update the timer accordingly." Without having to go out, turn on the car, etc, etc.
-Current inside and outside temperatures at your LEAF. Great to know what the weather is like to know if you need to turn on the climate control (or if you even need climate control).
-SOC % would be nice, but that goes back to the fact that Nissan doesn't even give us that in the car.

Personally, I don't really care about remote lock/unlock. I can understand wanting to remotely lock the car if you can't remember if you locked it. But I'd never use an unlock feature. If I left my keys in the car, I can still unlock it. And if I lost my keys, unlocking won't do much to get me home.

Also not interested in "find my car" as I never lose my car.

Using the phone to replace your key fob would be interesting. I've never lost my key while out and about, but my wife has taken both car's keys from home leaving me carless before.

HoustonFlier said:

Does it influence my car buying decision?
Yes.

Click to expand...

But, according to your profile, you are taking delivery of a LEAF today?

Why not get a Ford?

My biggest gripe about the app is that it shows you obsolete information when you open it. No big deal, you hit update. But then it tells you your session is timed-out. So then it asks you to log-in again. Of course, it has your credentials already stored there, so why did it need to bring you to this step? So then you get logged in again, only to sit there and wait on a screen with obsolete information. After a few minutes you realize the app totally forgot that you wanted an update to begin with so you have to hit the update button again. After a minute or so, finally you'll get your update.

I think that is the most irritating design for an app. Whoever came up with it is probably the same person who wants you to CLICK OK every time you start the car, and also have two clocks that are out of sync with each other.

To get an update in the Leaf iPhone app I have to click 8 times:

1. open app.
2. click update
3. click OK
4. "idle too long" OK
5. "next"
6. "join" .... "please wait"
7. click "update" again .... wait again
8. click "ok" again

Really, 8 times!!! I know this is what adric22 was complaining about above, but just to show how completely ridiculous the design of that app is.

EricBayArea said:

I think there have been other threads discussing enhancements. I know that when I went to the meet and greet with Nissan at the Google campus I provided copious amounts of feedback on comment sheet. My top additions would be:

Click to expand...

I did a search on this forum, found no topic specific.

Thanks for comments!

ebill3 said:

HoustonFlier said:

Does it influence my car buying decision?
Yes.

Click to expand...

But, according to your profile, you are taking delivery of a LEAF today?

Why not get a Ford?

Click to expand...

I might, except no Ford EV in my part of world :roll:
I am inclined to get EV, but need to convince my wife.

Also you can start but not stop charging remotely. So if you decide you need to override the charge timer and start charging right away there is no way to stop it when it gets to 80%. If your plans change again and it turns out you won't be needing the car, it's going to charge to 100% and then sit until you do drive it again. Maybe not that big a deal, but I try to avoid having the car sit at 100% SOC. It would also matter more if you were on TOU metering and you wanted to stop immediate charging if your plans changed.

ecoobsessive said:

To get an update in the Leaf iPhone app I have to click 8 times:

1. open app.
2. click update
3. click OK
4. "idle too long" OK
5. "next"
6. "join" .... "please wait"
7. click "update" again .... wait again
8. click "ok" again

Really, 8 times!!! I know this is what adric22 was complaining about above, but just to show how completely ridiculous the design of that app is.

Click to expand...

Strange, the Android app doesn't do this and can actually be set to automatically request an update when the app is launched.

On iOS, I also don't get the "idle too long", "join", etc. stuff as mentioned above. (I do have "update at startup" set to "on" in the app.)

If the app is already launched or suspended, all I need to do is switch to the app... pick "Update" at the bottom, and click "OK" to confirm I'm sure I want an update.

ecoobsessive said:

To get an update in the Leaf iPhone app I have to click 8 times:

1. open app.
2. click update
3. click OK
4. "idle too long" OK
5. "next"
6. "join" .... "please wait"
7. click "update" again .... wait again
8. click "ok" again

Really, 8 times!!! I know this is what adric22 was complaining about above, but just to show how completely ridiculous the design of that app is.

Click to expand...

Interesting, on mine steps 7 and 8 are not needed. As soon as I hit "Join" it logs in and initiates an update.

And given grommet's comment about not having to do any of this, I wonder if we all have different versions of the app? I have the latest version (1.0.4) which was released in February, a few weeks before I got my LEAF. Either that or grommet always comes back to the app before the login times out (seems to be either 30 or 60 minutes?).

At any rate, I'm working on fixing this problem. At the SoCal meetup this past weekend I demoed LEAF Link, an app I've been working on to replace the Nissan app and to easily send addresses to the LEAF's navigation system for routing. Unfortunately I can't address any of the issues in HoustonFlier's original post because those would either require a firmware update in the car (fat chance) or possibly a hardware change as well. But I can (and do) fix the ridiculous multi-step refresh problem, as well as several other operations that require more touches than necessary in Nissan's app.

I will post a dedicated thread when it's ready for public beta, hopefully in another week or two. Here's a screenshot (already a bit out of date):

I do often "hard close" the app when I'm done, so that's probably why I don't see the login/timeout... when it launches fresh, it always logs on automatically (no prompt) and forces a update, since I have the flag set.

baronvonshush said:

At any rate, I'm working on fixing this problem. At the SoCal meetup this past weekend I demoed LEAF Link, an app I've been working on to replace the Nissan app and to easily send addresses to the LEAF's navigation system for routing. Unfortunately I can't address any of the issues in HoustonFlier's original post because those would either require a firmware update in the car (fat chance) or possibly a hardware change as well. But I can (and do) fix the ridiculous multi-step refresh problem, as well as several other operations that require more touches than necessary in Nissan's app.

I will post a dedicated thread when it's ready for public beta, hopefully in another week or two. Here's a screenshot (already a bit out of date):

Click to expand...

You sir, deserve the Glowing Leaf prize!!

(OKOK, made up the prize name, but still!)

grommet said:

I do often "hard close" the app when I'm done, so that's probably why I don't see the login/timeout... when it launches fresh, it always logs on automatically (no prompt) and forces a update, since I have the flag set.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the tips. Will try - as well as getting latest version.

edit: I do have "update at startup" set to "on" and the latest version - oh well......

grommet said:

I do often "hard close" the app when I'm done, so that's probably why I don't see the login/timeout... when it launches fresh, it always logs on automatically (no prompt) and forces a update, since I have the flag set.

Click to expand...

Same here. The fact that force-quitting the app makes it behave more rationally than when kept active, is just mind-numbingly bad. The fact that they havent fixed it 18 months into the production cycle, beggars belief.

baronvonshush, I can't wait to try LEAF Link! I have completely given up on the official app. I have yet to get the climate control turned on before I make it all the way out, down three flights of stairs, out the building, and across the parking lot to my car on the way home from work. The official app is a complete embarrassment.

In fact the only reason I found this thread was that I was looking into writing an app myself. Mine would consist of one single, huge, red button: "TURN ON CLIMATE CONTROL".

For me, doing this with the official app requires:

1. Launch app
2. Switch to "Climate control" tab
3. Nope, the app thinks that climate control is already ON, and will only allow me to request turning it OFF. (Why would anyone ever use the app to turn climate control OFF?)
4. Switch to "Update" tab
5. Confirm that I want to "Update" (WHY? What possible reason would someone have for not pressing "OK"?)
6. Wait 30+ seconds
7. Confirm that the app has of course lost its mind and must be logged in again
8. Press "Next" and then "Join" to log in again (Really? "Join"?)
9. Wait 30+ seconds for the impossibly slow login to finish
10. Switch to the "Update" tab
11. This time it requests an update without requiring me to confirm.. tiny miracle!
12. Switch to the "Home" tab
13. Wait 30+ seconds for the popup informing me that it was updated.. which I must then confirm
14. Switch to the "Climate control" tab
15. Press "Turn on climate control"
16. Switch to the "Home" tab while idly waiting (30+ seconds again) for a merciful god to punish the app developer
17. FINALLY get a popup confirming that the climate control message was sent to the car!! CONFIRM! (and if I don't wait for this step and just place the phone in my pocket, the climate control does not come on!)

I count 14 taps, and probably 4 minutes to complete this process if I am not clicking every "confirm" button the second it pops up.

So I implore you, on your app, for my sanity, just place a single button to "turn on climate control" with no confirmations. I would happily pay $10 for that app.

HoustonFlier said:

The rants are long, and dismaying, especially since the "MyFordMobile" (F) does have many of these features. Put it bluntly, the Ford app is what I consider the minimum features a car app should have.

The LEAF App has:
*No remote door open (Ford has)
*No UNLOCK of door (F)
*iPhone cannot take place of key fob to start car(!!) (F)

Click to expand...

There are some basic security reasons I would NOT want to have these particular items in any app. While I think the implementation could be improved, I believe Nissan put a premium on security when designing what's basically a first generation telematics app.

I am looking forward to trying baronvonshush's 'Leaf Link' app!

I'll remind tomkludy, etc. that as long as you hard close when you are done (hold the app icon for 2 seconds in the "recent apps" bar, and press "-")... and set it to "update at startup" when you launch it... it's not too painful. It logs in automatically without prompt, and updates shortly. I can start up climate control in less than a minute.

Anyway, let's hope the "new" LEAF app (with the planned CARWINGS route range estimator features) fixes these stupid problems later this year... until then, feel free to try the use workaround above, or one of the 3rd party solutions.

Stanton said:

HoustonFlier said:

The rants are long, and dismaying, especially since the "MyFordMobile" (F) does have many of these features. Put it bluntly, the Ford app is what I consider the minimum features a car app should have.

The LEAF App has:
*No remote door open (Ford has)
*No UNLOCK of door (F)
*iPhone cannot take place of key fob to start car(!!) (F)

Click to expand...

There are some basic security reasons I would NOT want to have these particular items in any app. While I think the implementation could be improved, I believe Nissan put a premium on security when designing what's basically a first generation telematics app.

I am looking forward to trying baronvonshush's 'Leaf Link' app!

Click to expand...

I think your concerns, while amiable, are unfounded.

The GM service OnStar has been in use for, wow, over 10 years, and I never heard of it being compromised.
And with the key FOB and password in app and phone will make it much harder to compromise.

The aid is unlocking door (and accessories), not activating drive power, still need FOB for that.

A minor update to the LEAF app for iOS is available now, and should resolve the login issue if you don't hard close the app. Give it a swing...