key fob problems with a poll

[jered]

Disregard my earlier post/question.
You're attempting to use auto unlock/lock.

It also would not start the car in this case, and yes -- my fallback is using the app (if I'm in a place that has mobile signal!), and I also have the key card in my wallet. Hopefully Apple PaaK will work reliably, whenever that happens.

This is still something that should just work. It's critical if someone else (e.g. a valet) is driving the car. It's something that every other car on the planet has gotten right, as far as I'm aware. I'm sure they'll never release it, but I'd love to read the final postmortem on this. Did they assign the access control system program to some executive's unqualified relative? It's been nearly a year, and the keys still don't work reliably!

 

[socktucker]

Ugh -- we were just in for service, they replaced one of our keys and both batteries, and yet today the key stopped working. No automatic unlock/lock, buttons unresponsive until the battery was taken out and replaced, still acting weird.

It's so frustrating to have a vehicle that is generally great but has keys less reliable than a Yugo. They should just recall and replace the entire key system -- it's clear that they're never going to make this one work. Such an embarrassment -- and zero explanations.

I had a Yugo and its entry was more reliable, yes.

 

[Saksak]

Why are you still using the key fobs instead of the app?

Phone app only works with a cell phone connection. Go to an area with no signal and you will be screwed without a fob or key card.

Also, I just keep my fob in my pocket and never have to touch it. With the app, I’d have to fiddle with the phone every time I want to lock/unlock - no thanks.

I don’t know why some cars have trouble, but my fob has been 100% reliable. I have a loaner Gravity for a week now and the fob has also been 100% reliable.

 

[hwy17er]

I am still figuring out why my car loves to go up to the highest suspension setting after I exit but as long as I can get me and my family into the car seamlessly, I don’t really care!

It goes to the Highest setting because in the Easy entry/exit section of the SW you may have Highest selected.
I like it cause then passengers don't scrape the bottom of the doors on curbs when entering the vehicle

 

[dbsb3233]

My Gravity fob seems to be getting consistently worse, no matter how often I change the battery (or just pop it out and back in). It always works eventually, but it's just too damn slow. I walk up to the car, and probably 75% of the time it won't open right away now. Sometimes takes 5 seconds of standing at the driver door looking like an idiot, sometimes 10 seconds. Doesn't seem to matter much whether I dig the fob out of my pocket and shake it like a madman or not. It's not only annoying, it's embarrassing standing there in the parking lot not being able to get into my expensive car. It's even more embarrassing if I have passengers trying to get in too.

I tried using the app button a few times (the one with the 2-minute timer to unlock and start the car). Seemed to work once yesterday, but when I tried it today everything came on like normal except the center screen. Stayed totally dark. I had to reboot the car. It's always something with this car.

Anyone else seeing the same problem using the 2-minute start button?

 

[dbsb3233]

Phone app only works with a cell phone connection. Go to an area with no signal and you will be screwed without a fob or key card.

Also, I just keep my fob in my pocket and never have to touch it. With the app, I’d have to fiddle with the phone every time I want to lock/unlock - no thanks.

I don’t know why some cars have trouble, but my fob has been 100% reliable. I have a loaner Gravity for a week now and the fob has also been 100% reliable.

Always reliable to unlock the car, or always reliable to unlock the car immediately upon approaching the door?

Mine is eventually reliable. It just has that maddening delay 3/4ths of the time where it takes 5-10 seconds of standing at the door before it kicks in. I don't get stranded, just annoyed.

 

[dbsb3233]

Hello! One discovery that might help many of you with key fob issues.
I found that turning off the driver attention alert and the drowsy driver features (for ALL profiles), gets the key fob to start working reliably.

Remember to do it for all the profiles as if any of the profiles have it on, there is something still running by the gravity computer that seem to just crash everything and getting the key fob detection issues (even the card didn't want to open the car) if the profile with these settings on was loaded recently.

Hope it helps

I just went out and checked mine. I've had both of those settings turned off for months. Still have a slow fob most of the time.

 

[nelslens]

Are these persistent fob problems primarily with the "proximity unlock" function, where it auto-unlocks as you approach? I never use this, as my key & fob storage drawer is right inside my house, 15 ft from the car in the garage.

I'm also coming from a Polestar which only had touch unlock / lock, and I'm used to this. On the Gravity I just walk up, poke the driver door handle, and 99.9% of the time it presents the handle on the first try & I climb in. I do the same when exiting: wait for all doors to close then bonk the handle in, and the car locks. Every time.

Once in a while I also use the Apple Watch app to unlock -- like when I'm paying our bar tab while my wife is on the way to the car in the parking lot. This also works pretty consistently.

I only recently turned off the drowsy & distracted driving alerts because I simply found them distracting. But I had no fob issues prior.

Am I one of the lucky few with a flawless fob? Feel like I should toggle on my proximity-unlock function just to find out if it is fickle.

 

[dbsb3233]

Are these persistent fob problems primarily with the "proximity unlock" function, where it auto-unlocks as you approach? I never use this, as my key & fob storage drawer is right inside my house, 15 ft from the car in the garage.

That, but more. When it's not working, even pulling the fob out and pressing the unlock button doesn't work right away either... until it all finally kicks in. Neither does pushing in the door handle. Seems to all be an effect of the same cause. At that point we're just shaking and pressing and pushing and being in proximity at the door so it's hard to know what trigger finally unlocked the doors and presented the handle. I don't think it matters though because the delay pattern seems the same for all methods. None of it works until it all finally does.

It just doesn't seem to be transmitting/receiving the authorization signal on a timely basis. Maybe it's the fob not "waking up" quickly (motion sensor) to transmit the signal?... maybe it's the car's receiver not receiving the signal consistently?... maybe it's a bug in the software or a processor bogging down and taking many seconds to respond? No one seems to know.

I started hanging my fob on the wall inside the house too (out of range), and I wondered if that might actually be exacerbating the problem by it not moving in my pocket thus not waking up fast enough. But I'm not seeing any improvement whether on the wall or in my pocket. It's pretty much the same pattern in my garage (where I grab the fob from the wall) or leaving the restaurant parking lot (where the fob is in my pocket).

 

[nelslens]

Yikes sorry to hear, that sucks.

I wonder if another explanation beyond inconsistent hardware / software could be RF interference? All the invisible WiFi / bluetooth & various signals we're awash in? I live in a low-density rural area so, other than sheer luck, that could be a factor for our experiences being so different.

 

[RajD]

That, but more. When it's not working, even pulling the fob out and pressing the unlock button doesn't work right away either... until it all finally kicks in. Neither does pushing in the door handle. Seems to all be an effect of the same cause. At that point we're just shaking and pressing and pushing and being in proximity at the door so it's hard to know what trigger finally unlocked the doors and presented the handle. I don't think it matters though because the delay pattern seems the same for all methods. None of it works until it all finally does.

It just doesn't seem to be transmitting/receiving the authorization signal on a timely basis. Maybe it's the fob not "waking up" quickly (motion sensor) to transmit the signal?... maybe it's the car's receiver not receiving the signal consistently?... maybe it's a bug in the software or a processor bogging down and taking many seconds to respond? No one seems to know.

I started hanging my fob on the wall inside the house too (out of range), and I wondered if that might actually be exacerbating the problem by it not moving in my pocket thus not waking up fast enough. But I'm not seeing any improvement whether on the wall or in my pocket. It's pretty much the same pattern in my garage (where I grab the fob from the wall) or leaving the restaurant parking lot (where the fob is in my pocket).

Did you have the fob replaced by SC? Mine was doing something similar. They checked both our fobs and mine was in the flagged batch they were replacing. Since then, my fob has been flawless truly.

 

[RajD]

It goes to the Highest setting because in the Easy entry/exit section of the SW you may have Highest selected.
I like it cause then passengers don't scrape the bottom of the doors on curbs when entering the vehicle

Except my easy entry and exit was toggled
Off and even when I toggled it back on, the Low height setting was selected. So doesn’t explain why it was moving to highest setting.

I tried to turn on easy entry with a low suspension setting and it worked. And then I turned the easy entry off again and the car is behaving normally now. Go figure.

 

[dbsb3233]

Did you have the fob replaced by SC? Mine was doing something similar. They checked both our fobs and mine was in the flagged batch they were replacing. Since then, my fob has been flawless truly.

Not yet, but I'm to that point now. I have my first service appointment in a month to upgrade my DD from standard to Premium, so I'll see if they can do that too.

 

[RajD]

Not yet, but I'm to that point now. I have my first service appointment in a month to upgrade my DD from standard to Premium, so I'll see if they can do that too.

There is supposed to be a service bulletin to check Gravity fobs at your next service visit (if you have two fobs, bring both). But i suggest you also call to make sure they add it to your list of items to address.

We got a second fob months after the original fob, and the newer fob was fine and actually also works well. So it was just that original fob that was defective I guess

 

[rrinaudo]

I just went out and checked mine. I've had both of those settings turned off for months. Still have a slow fob most of the time.

Sorry to hear that. I know how frustrating it is. For me turning off those settings solve all the key fob issues I had and works consistently. I had a ton of key fob issues pre-3.4, things worked better in 3.4 and back with a lot of issues in 3.5. After my experience, I would probably turn off as many features as possible, reboot the car and see if that makes things better. Probably a long shot but worthy to try it.

I saw that they just updated the iPhone App to 2.16 3 days ago, so the new update might be coming soon and hopefully they keep fixing these issues.