Phone As A Key Edge Cases?

[dliunatic]

Tapping into the brain trust for your collective wisdom to see if I'm doing something dumb or if I'm facing valid bugs with Phone as a Key. To start off, just gotta say that I've largely been loving the PaaK functionality (or at least the concept). Helps to not have to carry around another bulky fob. I definitely had some issues the first week with it not recognizing my phone as I came near it, but I've noticed that it's been getting better over the last month in terms of responsiveness / recognizing me approach the car.

That being said, curious if anyone else is running into some of the more edge case issues I've been facing recently which have been super annoying. As some background, my wife and I have PaaK set up on each of our Android phones. Usually on the weekends we're in the same car together with our newborn.

Issue 1: The car seems to reliably know who's in the driver seat, but the issue arises when I have to run in to the store while the wife is hanging out with the baby in the car. Since she has PaaK, I would have thought that the car would notice that and stay unlocked even though I'm leaving. However, that doesn't seem like that's been the case as it'll typically lock and then the car alarm motion sensor will trigger (even if I explicitly tell it not to when turning the car off) as she's still inside with the baby. Super annoying and the baby has not been pleased ?. Just wondering if anyone else experiences this regularly and has found a solution, or if it's just us? I suspect the MME somehow just recognizes that the primary PaaK has stepped away and triggers the lock and doesn't look for secondary PaaK in proximity...

Issue 2: Been noticing a weird issue recently where I'll head to the car while it's parked in the garage and my wife is in the doorway to the house. I can press the unlock button on the car and it opens the door, but then the car alarm immediately goes off! So weird as my phone is usually in my pocket when this happens, and it takes some button mashing to get PaaK to be recognized to stop the alarm. I was suspecting that somehow it may be seeing my wife's PaaK rather than mine in those scenarios, but still doesn't explain why it would allow the MME to unlock the door yet still set the alarm off. Guessing there's some race condition coming into play here?

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[macchiaz-o]

Issue 1: no good advice other than to maybe leave your phone in the car, sorry.

Issue 2: I suspect a race condition as well. Next time this happens, use the b pillar pin code to stop the alarm. I found this to be much faster than fumbling with my phone or running inside for the key fob.

I've only had this specific issue (alarm upon opening door) once or twice.

I've had several other occasions where I could open the door and get in, but it won't start (no key detected) or I'll get the NKD warning shortly after putting it "in gear."

Typically, unlocking my phone is all that's required. In at least one case, I had to restart my phone. I have a Pixel 3a. Sometimes the Bluetooth or audio amp/speaker drivers seem to go haywire for no good reason.

 

[dliunatic]

I've only had this specific issue (alarm upon opening door) once or twice.

I've had several other occasions where I could open the door and get in, but it won't start (no key detected) or I'll get the NKD warning shortly after putting it "in gear."

Typically, unlocking my phone is all that's required. In at least one case, I had to restart my phone. I have a Pixel 3a. Sometimes the Bluetooth or audio amp/speaker drivers seem to go haywire for no good reason.

Yep we had that NKD issue happening originally, but ever since I've just started putting my phone on the wireless charging pad, it's pretty much gone away. My wife and I both have Samsung's though (s10/s9).

 

[BMT1071]

Tapping into the brain trust for your collective wisdom to see if I'm doing something dumb or if I'm facing valid bugs with Phone as a Key. To start off, just gotta say that I've largely been loving the PaaK functionality (or at least the concept). Helps to not have to carry around another bulky fob. I definitely had some issues the first week with it not recognizing my phone as I came near it, but I've noticed that it's been getting better over the last month in terms of responsiveness / recognizing me approach the car.

That being said, curious if anyone else is running into some of the more edge case issues I've been facing recently which have been super annoying. As some background, my wife and I have PaaK set up on each of our Android phones. Usually on the weekends we're in the same car together with our newborn.

Issue 1: The car seems to reliably know who's in the driver seat, but the issue arises when I have to run in to the store while the wife is hanging out with the baby in the car. Since she has PaaK, I would have thought that the car would notice that and stay unlocked even though I'm leaving. However, that doesn't seem like that's been the case as it'll typically lock and then the car alarm motion sensor will trigger (even if I explicitly tell it not to when turning the car off) as she's still inside with the baby. Super annoying and the baby has not been pleased ?. Just wondering if anyone else experiences this regularly and has found a solution, or if it's just us? I suspect the MME somehow just recognizes that the primary PaaK has stepped away and triggers the lock and doesn't look for secondary PaaK in proximity...

Issue 2: Been noticing a weird issue recently where I'll head to the car while it's parked in the garage and my wife is in the doorway to the house. I can press the unlock button on the car and it opens the door, but then the car alarm immediately goes off! So weird as my phone is usually in my pocket when this happens, and it takes some button mashing to get PaaK to be recognized to stop the alarm. I was suspecting that somehow it may be seeing my wife's PaaK rather than mine in those scenarios, but still doesn't explain why it would allow the MME to unlock the door yet still set the alarm off. Guessing there's some race condition coming into play here?

For issue 1, have you been leaving the car on or shutting it off?

 

[dliunatic]

For issue 1, have you been leaving the car on or shutting it off?

When I park I turn it off then go into the store while my wife is still in the car with the kid. That's an interesting idea about leaving it on though... Wonder if it'll recognize the second PaaK in that case...

 

[BMT1071]

When I park I turn it off then go into the store while my wife is still in the car with the kid. That's an interesting idea about leaving it on though... Wonder if it'll recognize the second PaaK in that case...

I don't think it would have a reason to switch to the other phone, but IDK. Every keyless ignition car I've had will stay running when you leave the vehicle with the fob in your pocket. Most will let you lock the car using the button on the fob. Not sure if the interior lock buttons allow it.

 

[dliunatic]

I don't think it would have a reason to switch to the other phone, but IDK. Every keyless ignition car I've had will stay running when you leave the vehicle with the fob in your pocket. Most will let you lock the car using the button on the fob. Not sure if the interior lock buttons allow it.

I'll have to test that scenario, but I know with my Lincoln MKZ and MME it'll definitely honk at me and flash up alerts if I get out of the car and shut the door with the engine still running. That being said, I haven't just kept on walking away when that happens to see if it stays on and unlocked

 

[Ma9573]

My wife and I both have the FOBs for our X1 on our keychains, and we have a similar scenario. Anytime we're together, I drive, even if it's just for me to be dropped off at the airport, a meeting, a brewery, whatever. If I get out and she doesn't drive off right away, since the car is in park, the car shuts off and she has to restart it, so I assume the car doesn't automatically switch Fobs, similar to when you are walking into the store. My assumption for the cases where she drives off immediately and the car works, is that the car is still activated with my key, but won't just shut off while the car is in drive.

 

[BMT1071]

I'll have to test that scenario, but I know with my Lincoln MKZ and MME it'll definitely honk at me and flash up alerts if I get out of the car and shut the door with the engine still running. That being said, I haven't just kept on walking away when that happens to see if it stays on and unlocked

My wife and I both have the FOBs for our X1 on our keychains, and we have a similar scenario. Anytime we're together, I drive, even if it's just for me to be dropped off at the airport, a meeting, a brewery, whatever. If I get out and she doesn't drive off right away while the car is in park, the car shuts off and she has to restart it, so I assume the car doesn't automatically switch Fobs, similar to im when you are walking into the store. My assumption for the cases where she drives off immediately and the car works, is that the car is still activated with my key, but won't just shut off while the car is in drive.

Apparently BMW does things a little differently. I can personally verify that GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Nissan vehicles will continue to run indefinitely with the fob out of the car.

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