Different take on the Key Fob saga - It's the car, not the fob

[brokebit4096]

We have a Gravity GT on 3.5.1, though we upgraded to 3.5.7 last night. Hopefully 3.5.7 resolves some of these issues.

I’ve got a different take on the ongoing key fob saga with dying batteries and delayed unlocks. I think the issue might be with the car's firmware and not the key fob. The key fob tech is well established, and Lucid is using a third-party (Marquardt Group) key that many automakers use.

We started storing our key fob in a Faraday box at home, which pretty much eliminated the battery drain issue. (No constant communication between the fob and the car). It’s been months since I had to replace the battery. So the box solved that. But we still have issues with delayed unlocking.

The fob continues to fail to open the car in a timely fashion when you approach it. It seems totally random. Sometimes the car opens right away, other times I have to stand there for 90 seconds. Pushing the lock or unlock buttons has no effect, nor does pushing the handle in.

Also, we always carry the key cards, and we’re seeing the same issue. Sometimes the key card opens the car right away, other times it takes up to 90 seconds for the car to wake up and unlock.
It also doesn’t seem to matter where we are. It could be in a parking lot or parked in the driveway at home. It’s totally random. I’d say the delay happens at least 50% of the time. We talked to the service a few times, and they have nothing to offer other than to swap the battery, reboot, or “the fix is in the next release.”

It’s starting to seem like the key and/or key card are communicating with the car, but the unlocking process is slow or hangs, which makes me think it’s an issue with the part of the car's firmware that handles unlocking or waking up.

 

[BS8899]

We have a Gravity GT on 3.5.1, though we upgraded to 3.5.7 last night. Hopefully 3.5.7 resolves some of these issues.

I’ve got a different take on the ongoing key fob saga with dying batteries and delayed unlocks. I think the issue might be with the car's firmware and not the key fob. The key fob tech is well established, and Lucid is using a third-party (Marquardt Group) key that many automakers use.

We started storing our key fob in a Faraday box at home, which pretty much eliminated the battery drain issue. (No constant communication between the fob and the car). It’s been months since I had to replace the battery. So the box solved that. But we still have issues with delayed unlocking.

The fob continues to fail to open the car in a timely fashion when you approach it. It seems totally random. Sometimes the car opens right away, other times I have to stand there for 90 seconds. Pushing the lock or unlock buttons has no effect, nor does pushing the handle in.

Also, we always carry the key cards, and we’re seeing the same issue. Sometimes the key card opens the car right away, other times it takes up to 90 seconds for the car to wake up and unlock.
It also doesn’t seem to matter where we are. It could be in a parking lot or parked in the driveway at home. It’s totally random. I’d say the delay happens at least 50% of the time. We talked to the service a few times, and they have nothing to offer other than to swap the battery, reboot, or “the fix is in the next release.”

It’s starting to seem like the key and/or key card are communicating with the car, but the unlocking process is slow or hangs, which makes me think it’s an issue with the part of the car's firmware that handles unlocking or waking up.

I agree with your train of thought., and I've made similar postulation before (regarding my 2022 AGT experience). I don't think it is the FOB (other than the FOB's poor battery life). I don't think it is the phone either. It is also not the WiFi. And it is not the cell signals.

To me, this feels like a classical validation problem that requires careful but tedious tracing (capturing the traces PRIOR {leading up to} to the unsuccessful unlocking events). It is a brute force approach. but probably necessary to pin-point the problem. Otherwise, all the theories and postulated solutions are nothing but shots in the dark.

To me, the agony of this problem is Lucid's posture of treating this (door unlocking) as a user convenience problem or just blaming the FAB manufacturer. I wish Lucid would acknowledge this as a real safety issue and put in the arduous tracing/validation effort to pin point the root cause(es).

 

[brokebit4096]

And ... it totally overshadows all the good things about the car if you have a crappy unlocking experience a majority of the time you go to drive it

 

[RandomDesign]

I've been saying for a while I think it's 100% a software issue for both the Air and Gravity at this point and Lucid just doesn't like to admit it. What are the chances that two different fobs and access control systems from two completely different companies (one of which is a very respected company in this field!) have had the exact same manufacturer problems?

That said, I've been lucky that my fob has worked fine locking/unlocking. I also keep my fob in a faraday box in the house and have only ever used the same brand of battery (RetailDigitals on Amazon). While I think it should have lasted longer I got 6 months on one before I had to replace it recently.

 

[legacy]

The key fob for me seems to work ok on auto unlock as you approach. But key fob presses have a lot of lag between key press and the car finally taking action, I need to spam the button a couple times to get it to register. Also, the range is terrible, as it wont register any key presses from more than 6-10 feet. Forget trying to use it in a parking lot from far away..

 

[ke2]

I agree there is probably a problem with the software on the Lucid car itself, but for the Gravity the key fob is software upgradable so there is a definite possibility that there is also a problem with the key fob software. One reason I think the key fob may be involved in the problem is removing and reinserting the battery on the Gravity key fob seems to clear up the problem for a time. I hypothesize that the key fob software is getting into a suboptimal state and removing the battery and reinserting the battery causes the key fob software to reset to a known good state. I do however think there's a problem with the Gravity car itself in that the car can seem to get into a state whereby it takes awhile to wake up.

 

[VeryPowerful]

That was my theory for some time too. But I'm aware that there are people with different experience so there might be a few different issues at play. But I can talk about my experience.

The issues with key fobs come in waves. A couple of weeks of key fobs working fine and then a couple of weeks of miserable mashing buttons. Soft reboot, hard reboot, key fob restart (remove battery, hold unlock for 1 minute, wipe the battery and put it back while holding unlock button), replacing key fob battery for a fresh one did not solve the issue. When issue appears it affects both of my key fobs. I have multiple videos recorded of me standing next to the car mashing buttons trying to unlock/lock/open the hood.

I'm probably going to talk gibberish here since I'm an ignorant and I never spent time learning how key fobs works. But considering that during problematic times the key fobs work in very short windows. I kept pressing the unlock multiple times and eventually it will work and will keep working for very short time. It feels like typical time desync for 2FA and certificates. Because there is time desync the "codes" do not match so the car ignores the requests most of the time, but then the time progresses and for the short time they end up in the same "bucket" of codes and it works. I'm probably wrong, but that's how it feels like to me with my experience.

I never use my card but I probably should consider it. What's interesting is that my app is 100% reliable. It never failed to connect to open the car.

 

[legacy]

I just got the latest fob update from July and it feels a lot better now combined with 3.6. Response time and range improved. Works like a normal new car now.

 

[LucidGravityMike]

I just got the latest fob update from July and it feels a lot better now combined with 3.6. Response time and range improved. Works like a normal new car now.

Great to hear! Especially as I’m taking delivery tomorrow. Question - I was told now only 1 single fob is provided is this correct? Would you anticipate issues with only carrying around the keycard and your phone with app?

 

[HC_79]

Great to hear! Especially as I’m taking delivery tomorrow. Question - I was told now only 1 single fob is provided is this correct? Would you anticipate issues with only carrying around the keycard and your phone with app?

3.6.0 and the fob firmware they recently released have made my key issues 100% solved. In fact, the software in general seems to be in a really good place stability wise.

Also, congrats on the purchase!

 

[DeaneG]

Great to hear! Especially as I’m taking delivery tomorrow. Question - I was told now only 1 single fob is provided is this correct? Would you anticipate issues with only carrying around the keycard and your phone with app?

The app isn't super-convenient, as you have to tale the phone out of your pocket every time you want to get in the car. But it works, at least if your phone and car both have cell reception. We'll have to wait for PAAK to make fobless driving easier.

I haven't used the keycard, so can't comment on that. The fob works very well. I'd swap in a fresh battery when you get a chance - just in case the fob sat on a shelf for a while before being paired to the car and delivered to you.

 

[ke2]

Great to hear! Especially as I’m taking delivery tomorrow. Question - I was told now only 1 single fob is provided is this correct? Would you anticipate issues with only carrying around the keycard and your phone with app?

Yes, you only get a single key FOB and two key cards. In the past I've had problems with the key fob, though no problems since software version 3.6.0. Even when the key fob was flakey the key card worked every time for me. I was never able to get the key card to work while the key card was in my wallet so I had to remove the key card from my wallet which was a pain in the rear but at least the key card worked every time. Also the key card does not rely on batteries so should work any time.