Possible iOS Mobile Key work-around

[OCDC]

I may have stumbled onto a way to make the Mobile Key work more reliably. If you wave/place your iOS device near the RFID area on the drivers side B-pillar, it will wake the phone enough to start the handshake for the mobile key. It's not communicating via the RFID per se, but it does get it past the power saving Apple has implemented for Bluetooth, and it brings the 2.4GHz antennas closer, possibly without the metal of the doors between them.

Some background: The Mobile Key has been wildly inconsistent for me. With the phone in my pocket, I can stand next to the drivers side door for a minute or more without the car responding to my proximity. Even pressing in the door handle will not unlock the door consistently, sometimes leaving me hanging with passengers waiting. One day I happened to have the phone in my hand when I approached and passed it near the B-pillar. It woke the phone up and it presented the Apple Pay prompts, and coincidentally the door unlocked. I've been using this method since and it has be far more consistent for me. It may take a wave or two (or maybe deliberately placing the phone over the sensor area), but it hasn't taken more than a few seconds to unlock the car with this process.

Can some other iOS users on the forum who have had Mobile Key issues try this method out and let us know if it works for you? It would be nice to have a bigger sample of users verify or debunk this theory.

 

[koflo]

For me, just tapping the screen to wake the device does it. Does your car not unlock if you wake your device?

 

[OCDC]

For me, just tapping the screen to wake the device does it. Does your car not unlock if you wake your device?

Tapping the screen to wake the phone often won't wake the car quickly until it's in an 18-24" bubble around the B-pillar. That seems to be the butter zone for me. I'll continue to experiment though.

 

[hydbob]

Shaking the phone in your pocket like you are having a wank seems to work just fine.

 

[OCDC]

Shaking the phone in your pocket like you are having a wank seems to work just fine.

I have a little dance I do in front of the door like I'm praising to the gods of locks. I raise my arms in the air and spin around, phone in hand, and yell in unintelligible words to open the gates for me. Sometimes that works, but that's as far as I go with my public, um, displays.

 

[momo3605]

Mine's not consistent either. No idea. I've tried opening the phone, opening the app, dancing around, pushing in the door handle, and if the gods are happy it'll randomly open. But sometimes it doesn't doing all the above lol. But sometimes it opens immediately

 

[OCDC]

@koflo and @momo3605, you bring up an interesting thought. Do you have Raise to Wake enabled on your phone? Anyone else with Mobile Key issues?

 

[momo3605]

@koflo and @momo3605, you bring up an interesting thought. Do you have Raise to Wake enabled on your phone? Anyone else with Mobile Key issues?

Yes, I have raise to wake, and in the Lucid app settings, I have location to always and precise, and background refresh enabled as well. Not sure if there's anything else i should check

 

[thecodingart]

Their implementation seems to be faulty and the app doesn’t seem to properly wake in the background via BLE right now.

They should have an iBeacon like technology broadcasting and properly listen for those events on iOS in order to wake the app up.

Something noticeably broke in one of the rent updates in the past few months.

FYI — Paak on the FordPass app doesn’t have this issue right now

 

[OCDC]

I'm just excited that I have a way to get the mobile key to work consistently, even if it's not as intended. I tried again just now standing three feet away, phone awake and unlocked, no love. Move it inside that b-pillar bubble, and the doors unlocked right away.

 

[OCDC]

Yes, I have raise to wake, and in the Lucid app settings, I have location to always and precise, and background refresh enabled as well. Not sure if there's anything else i should check

Sounds right. That particular dead horse has been well and truly pummeled.

 

[Lucken]

Shaking the phone in your pocket like you are having a wank seems to work just fine.

There’s a mental image guaranteed to cause a loss of sleep.

 

[borski]

There’s a mental image guaranteed to cause a loss of sleep.

Because it wakes up the phone from its sleep?

 

[koflo]

Sounds right. That particular dead horse has been well and truly pummeled.

Unfortunately as more and more new owners come aboard, we will continue seeing questions around the unlocking situation. Unless lucid fixes it but I don’t think that’s going to happen. At least not fully with software.

It’s a double edged sword because I want lucid to succeed and sell a million cars but at the same time, I’m worried about the bugs and hiccups that we deal with won’t be as widely accepted.

 

[Teuk]

Its not the issue with the car. If the car is taking a long time to unlock, it is because the phone is not yet paired (connected) with the car. Tap the lucid car in the Bluetooth menu and the car instantly unlocks after connection is successful!

 

[skywaterbanjo]

One of my gremlins has been the mobile key. I hate standing in the rain with my arms full having to find my phone to wake it up to open my door. For some reason, after the .52 update, my mobile key stopped working. I had to enter my PIN to drive the car. So, I deleted my profile, deleted the app on the phone, removed the phone from the car, deleted the mobile key and reinstalled everything. That was 2 days ago. Since then, my mobile key has worked flawlessly. We'll see how long it lasts.

 

[Bus Driver]

Shaking the phone in your pocket like you are having a wank seems to work just fine.

“Pocket billiards”.

 

[Bus Driver]

One of my gremlins has been the mobile key. I hate standing in the rain with my arms full having to find my phone to wake it up to open my door. For some reason, after the .52 update, my mobile key stopped working. I had to enter my PIN to drive the car. So, I deleted my profile, deleted the app on the phone, removed the phone from the car, deleted the mobile key and reinstalled everything. That was 2 days ago. Since then, my mobile key has worked flawlessly. We'll see how long it lasts.

That’s a lot of work, just to get your mobile phone to be your car key. I think I’ll just keep carrying the key fob in my front pocket…

 

[Bus Driver]

@OCDC Thanks so very much for playing photographer at our meet up last Sunday! Very good of you do that, and I appreciated it.

 

[skywaterbanjo]

That’s a lot of work, just to get your mobile phone to be your car key. I think I’ll just keep carrying the key fob in my front pocket…

Took less than 10 minutes and relieved a lot of frustration - so far.