Phone Key Phun Facts

[CoachTy6]

Hey all-
Since Rivian "forced" (they didn't, but it felt like it) the Gen 2 owners to the digital key in Apple/Samsung/Google Wallet, I've had intermittent issues with my 25 R1S Tri not recognizing the presence of my phone in the car, even when I put it on the charging pad. Sometimes it'd take over 30 seconds for it to recognize the digital key and let me start the truck. Once I had to pull my key card out. After having service walk me through deleting and re-adding the key over the phone, then doing it at a SC, they sent mobile to me today and they finally removed my digital key and let me go back to Phone Key. It works from farther away and my wife, whose phone automatically "downgraded" a couple of days after the digital key upgrade never upgraded again. Our experience has been that the phone key in the app is far better than the digital key in wallet. The mobile tech did have to get support on the line, and they had to "backdoor" the digital key out of my account, but I am back to the original phone key, and I couldn't be happier. If y'all are having issues, and the tech said I'm not the first from the Council Bluffs SC with this issue, there is a fix.

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[Greg Chick]

The key issues exist in so many different ways. I have had a couple, "brick moments" or lock out, but over all I'm not going to complain. That is not to say the other peoples experiences are not as stated. my question is why is it so different with everyone? Isn't this a protocol in the central system? Or, my guess is every cell phone is different and that is part of this. Additionally, all these different phones get updated by the cell service. So I want to suggest that the IT is the main cause and that my friends is everyones monster not created by Rivian. We are all in a digital quicksand and sinking at different rates in different ways the WWW has a big spider in it and we are its food.
Or do I need to take my Meds? Cheers! 🫣

 

[BTOR]

Funny, I have a 2025 RS1 and never switched to the Apple Wallet Key. I didn’t want to deal with any issues like you just described. I figure why “fix/change” what isn’t broken. Sorry you had to deal with all that nonsense. What a hassle.

Subsequently my phone key works just fine. Sometimes it’s a little slow to respond but those events are infrequent. And the phone dead battery argument? In the 25+ years I’ve owned a cell phone, this has never happened to me. It seems inconceivable that this would ever happen given all the different methods and opportunities to keep a cell phone charged.

 

[iamnid]

I've had the opposite experience. It failed quite often with the old method and it works 99.9% of the time with the key in my Google Wallet on my phone. I think the variation has to do with different phones etc. Does your cell phone support ultrawide band (UWB)? I think phones that have that capability benefit greatly from using the new digital key.

 

[DMcD]

Hey all-
Since Rivian "forced" (they didn't, but it felt like it) the Gen 2 owners to the digital key in Apple/Samsung/Google Wallet, I've had intermittent issues with my 25 R1S Tri not recognizing the presence of my phone in the car, even when I put it on the charging pad. Sometimes it'd take over 30 seconds for it to recognize the digital key and let me start the truck. Once I had to pull my key card out. After having service walk me through deleting and re-adding the key over the phone, then doing it at a SC, they sent mobile to me today and they finally removed my digital key and let me go back to Phone Key. It works from farther away and my wife, whose phone automatically "downgraded" a couple of days after the digital key upgrade never upgraded again. Our experience has been that the phone key in the app is far better than the digital key in wallet. The mobile tech did have to get support on the line, and they had to "backdoor" the digital key out of my account, but I am back to the original phone key, and I couldn't be happier. If y'all are having issues, and the tech said I'm not the first from the Council Bluffs SC with this issue, there is a fix.

I have been having the same issues with mine. Thanks for the info. I will have to have that removed. I wait outside my 26 R1T Quad for 20 sec. every time I try to unlock it.

 

[TheTrivRiv]

I’m not exactly sure what Tesla does differently, but in my model 3, I literally never have an issue. I walk up, pull on the handle and the door opens. I shift into drive and go. I walk away, and it locks, every time with no thoughts about it.

Early on, 2019’ish when I first got into Tesla, there were a lot of hiccups similar to what we are experiencing in our Rivians. Hopefully, with time, feedback, testing, and updates, everything smooths out, and it just works reliably every time.

Also, I have not had a legacy car in several years. How are they implementing these things, or are they still stuck with key fobs and remotes? I can’t imagine that passive entry type tech is unique to EV’s in this day and age.

 

[CoachTy6]

I have been having the same issues with mine. Thanks for the info. I will have to have that removed. I wait outside my 26 R1T Quad for 20 sec. every time I try to unlock it.

The Phone Key works from farther away than the Digital Key ever did. Overall it's been much smoother. My wife has never had issues and she never went to the Digital Key. It is possible, my mobile tech did it.

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