New 2023 Escape Hybrid software problems

[Cygnet2]

Twice now I have had a dead battery, preceded by weird instrument behavior on my 2023 Ford Escape Hybrid Platinum model.  I post this to see whether this is problem is unique to my vehicle.

The first time this happened, the connected navigation system showed a GPS icon with a diagonal line through it, and the system no longer indicated my correct location. This continued for a few days, after which I noticed a heavy electrical load on the battery, requiring the motor to stay on.  When I turned the car off overnight, the battery was dead.  After a jump, every worked fine, including the navigation.

The second time this happened, the navigation showed the same GPS icon with a line through it, but it was still able to track my location.  However, the sound system was dead.  After a few days like this, one night the battery was dead.  After jumping it the next morning, everything worked fine, and the sound system came back to life.

I suspect some kind of software problem.

 

[Rob Lewis]

Hi

My daughter has the same make and year and has this problem happen to her twice now. She has the car 400 miles away at her college. The local dealer there said it was just a bad battery and replaced it. Now, 2 months later it’s happening again. 
The experience with her local dealer was horrible and I very skeptical it was just a battery. Have you had any luck finding out what’s wrong with yours? 
 

Thanks!

[Cygnet2]

Not really.  The second time it happened, when the audio system was dead, I took it into the dealer.  This was something tangible that I thought they could diagnose.  However, they kept it at the dealership for about a week, without giving me any updates about it.  I finally told them I needed the vehicle back.  I drove it back home and parked it in my garage,  The next morning it was dead, as I mentioned.  After the jump, the sound system worked normally.  A few weeks after that incident, the Ford dealership left a message with me that the part needed to fix the sound system had just come in, and they were ready to replace it.  However, I felt that that part was no longer needed, since everything was working fine.  I never took the car back to be "repaired." 

 

Right now I'm resigned to suffer an occasional software glitch which may, if left unattended, lead to a dead battery.  One way to reset the system is to disconnect the 12-volt battery and then reconnect it.  This should make everything work again.  Production of the 2023 Escape was held up for a whole month in March because of a software issue that affected the instrument panel.  The engineers were under a lot of pressure to come up with a fix.  I wonder if they really had enough time to test everything out before they released the software.

 

[EricB21]

I have an AGM battery (760 CCA) in my 2021 Escape which is a big plus up over my old regular battery in my old car. I thought I read that the 2023 Escapes discontinued installing AGM batteries from the factory and went back to regular batteries. I don't know why they would do that. I still got a notice on my Ford Pass app that my battery went into power saving mode after not having been in the car after 5 days during autumn weather. I expect that might get cut down to 3 days when winter weather comes, but I don't know yet. My old car battery used to die after 5 days on non-use and would require a jump. I've got jumper stuff in the car in case but I might have to use the mechanical key to get in the door if it comes to that. I have to use a USB drive to update the car software since the wi-fi is too weak to download a gigabyte from the parking lot. Maybe I could use my phone's hotspot to get the software. I'll drive 20 miles to recharge the battery if I get a battery in energy saving mode alert. If the battery is dead, I'll drive 100 miles to recharge it after a jump.

Edited November 10 by EricB21