Proximity locking is annoying

[jwanderson88]

I'm going to take a chance and post about something that bothers me a lot. I received a lot of criticism for my last few posts. I don't get it because we're all in the same boat. Anyway, moving on. The proximity locking and unlocking is very annoying. It constantly locks and unlocks over and over when I'm just walking around the truck. I usually leave the door open so it won't lock and unlock over and over. Then when I just walk up to it and want to get in, I often have to stand for a minute looking dumb holding groceries while the truck is deciding to unlock. I'm wondering if my body or part of my body is blocking the signal. When my key fob is in my pocket, if I turn so my body isn't between the fob and the truck, it seems like it unlocks. Why is proximity locking so bad? I'd also like to take this opportunity to urge Rivian owners to be kind to each other because the support from other owners is very important when things aren't going well.

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[BigSkies]

I'm not a fan of it either. I'm glad Rivian took some design risks and did things different. Most of their design risks worked well. This one did not.

I'll turn proximity sensing off anytime I'm on a road trip or in a place where I'm walking around the truck a lot. Using the key FOB is a better experience in these situations. Proximity sensing is fine for my day-to-day.

I guess Gen 2 is somewhat better, but I'd still rather just have a handle I can touch to unlock the door. The current setup is needlessly complicated.

 

[Time2Roll]

I could skip the air conditioning coming on until I press the brake to "start" the vehicle.

Just want to grab or place something in the vehicle. Not going anywhere right now.

 

[Zoidz]

Proximity unlock uses Bluetooth, a radio frequency signal. It's relatively low power and subject to a myriad of environmental challenges when using signal strength to try detect distance. I had posted a link to detailed study of the problems of distance measurement using Bluetooth here a while back. Where you have your phone (front vs back pocket), the case on your phone if any, your weight, possibly your clothing, environmental surroundings (reflection or absorption of radio waves), other radio signals in the area, temperature, , etc. etc. etc. all affect the *apparent* signal strength rate of change as the Rivian module tries to detect if you are approaching. It's really not a very good technology for this type of use.

 

[VSG]

The proximity locking and unlocking is very annoying. It constantly locks and unlocks over and over when I'm just walking around the truck.

Then why do you keep using it? That's a serious question. If it annoys you more than it helps you, then stop using it. That's what I did more than 3 years ago, and I've been perfectly happy since.

I like to actively lock/unlock my vehicle by taking an action and seeing/hearing the response as positive feedback. Passive locking/unlocking means you're never sure if the vehicle is locked/unlocked, and there will always be ambiguity about whether the vehicle should or shouldn't lock/unlock when you approach or walk away - it doesn't know what you're thinking, so how do you expect it to guess that you're just, say, returning a shopping cart and will be right back so don't bother locking?

 

[RandomMcRandomFace]

I love it; 0 issues with it on my Gen 1, less issues with it on my Gen 2 - more accurate, more prompt, gives me haptic feedback on my watch if it locks/unlocks. Sure if I walk by it, it will lock and unlock (I have it off at home so this is rare). That doesn’t impact me in any way so I don’t care (I guess i hear the chime?). Walking up and doing nothing and having the handles present is great for me. I don’t understand the issues with it (I don’t doubt them, but I don’t get why I have not had to wait ever - it may have been wonky in the very very early days of my Gen 1, but not since then).

 

[ElGuano]

The proximity locking and unlocking is very annoying. It constantly locks and unlocks over and over when I'm just walking around the truck. I usually leave the door open so it won't lock and unlock over and over.

Yep, I gotta agree. And I don't really blame Proximity Unlock for that, the problem is that the truck is completely unable to read my mind, and know what I'm actually doing. If I'm washing the car, I probably don't want the doors to unlock, but when I'm done washing the car and want to get in, the car STILL doesn't know that.

It could probably try to be clever and do some kind of "stop unlocking for 5 minutes if nobody opens the door after 2 proximity unlocks, but I have a feeling the car will still mess up my secret intent.

Even with the significantly improved accuracy of UWB and digital key, in the end I still ended up changing Proximity Unlock to "Lock only" at home. I almost never have an issue when out and about.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

It's really not a very good technology for this type of use.

I dunno about that. I’ve used UWB on a few cars for PaaK and it works 99+% of the time. Never have a consistent issue, or one that really impacts the experience. Except for constant lock and unlock if you are walking by the car or walking around it.

 

[VSG]

I dunno about that. I’ve used UWB on a few cars...

@Zoidz was talking about Bluetooth, which is the technology used for proximity unlocking in a Gen 1 vehicle like the OP has.

Bluetooth was not designed for distance measurement, and does not work well for distance measurement.

UWB, used in Gen 2, was explicitly designed for distance measurement, and it does that pretty well.

 

[Hereforthesnacks]

@Zoidz was talking about Bluetooth, which is the technology used for proximity unlocking in a Gen 1 vehicle like the OP has.

Bluetooth was not designed for distance measurement, and does not work well for distance measurement.

UWB, used in Gen 2, was explicitly designed for distance measurement, and it does that pretty well.

Oh got it. UWB uses Bluetooth, so I lost the tread.

 

[onesoil]

I have posted many times in various places what I think would be a fairly simple fix that would very much improve proximity locking for me (and others, I’m sure): Rivian should add a “trusted locations” section where you can add places other than just your home—work, a job site, second home, friend/family home, etc. and then be able to disable locking: unlocking in these locations.

A lot of people seem to shoot this idea down as being unnecessary (especially when I posted this to Reddit, for whatever reason), but I don’t see the downside of offering it as an added feature. I don’t have a second home (as I imagine many Rivian owners do, probably to a disproportionately high extent compared to the average vehicle), but if I did, this omission would be particularly annoying to me!

The easiest way would be to allow
More than one “home” location, or to allow “work” to be a setting in the lock behavior menu (and ideally allow more than one of each).

Next level would be giving us the ability to draw a geofence for this and other behaviors (ride height, climate activation, and drive mode comes to mind, but I’m sure there are others) to be triggered when you enter a locale.

My job spans three sites over ~200 acres. I would like to be able to turn proximity lock off while I’m getting in and out of the truck while working (or grabbing tools etc.).

While we’re at it: I also really wish that we could set climate hold to the timer and choose to keep it active even after cycling from Park to Drive/Reverse and Park again… like idling an ICE vehicle but without the fumes and fossil fuels part. Especially in very cold and very hot climates it’s annoying that they finally added climate hold but kneecapped the feature. Just let us leave the truck “on” for an extended period of time, and they could even give an estimated battery usage for doing so if you were to run out your selected timer if that would help ease their fears of letting people suck down a battery running climate “unnecessarily” (I think they should leave that choice to us without having to enable each time you come to a stop and get out of your vehicle).

 

[Scottm]

I have a gen 1 and I don’t have any issues. I have it turned off at home so it doesn’t trigger in the garage, but when I’m out and about no problems (unless you consider standing by the door for one second a problem). If I’m camping I use camping mode to avoid those lock/unlock issues.

 

[Thedude]

My gen 1 was unreliably reliable, or maybe reliably unreliable, not sure which way to go with that. It worked enough times that I didn’t want to carry the fob also but failed to unlock enough while standing right next to the truck that I would be annoyed. It would have been better off failing all the time or just not being an option at all but it kept working just enough to keep the hope alive.

It’s one of many gen 1 features that seem great but wasn’t actually tested enough prior to release.

 

[beatle]

Proximity unlock uses Bluetooth, a radio frequency signal. It's relatively low power and subject to a myriad of environmental challenges when using signal strength to try detect distance.

...

It's really not a very good technology for this type of use.

Tesla uses BLE as well. My 2015 and 2019 Model S didn't have PaaK, but the fob was always reliable. It has limited range so the car wouldn't always unlock when you were trying to unplug, but if you were close to the doors or near the front of the vehicle, the doors always unlocked. It was very rare for me to approach the door and have to wait for the door handle to pop out.

Rivian is more of a "maybe it'll unlock." It's much worse with PaaK, but I've even had the truck sit around with the fob in my pocket sometimes. Its behavior is always worse at home.

Less about the technology itself and more about how it's implemented.

 

[Sgt Beavis]

For me, it’s only annoying at home. My kitchen is right next to the garage so everytime I walk into the kitchen, the truck unlocks, then locks back when I leave. So I’m always hearing it make the locking sound and my phone is buzzing when it locks and unlocks.

I’ve elected to disable unlocking when I’m home. It’s the only real solution. The downside is I either need to use my key fob or phone to manually unlock the car.

While proximity locking and unlocking is a neat parlor trick, it’s not really solving any problem. Touch entry solutions on the vast majority of cars works just fine and could still be used with PaaK. Same goes for deploying door handles. Another neat parlor trick but totally unneeded. There are other ways to make door handles that are aerodynamic. Deployed handles are just one more thing that can break and they announce to the world that your car is unlocked.

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