Having forgotten, misplaced, loaned out and damaged my iPhone, I am reluctant to have my ability to drive erased so easily. Can’t Aptera just let us use a key? ...or number pad? ..or some alternate entry? I don’t want to have to pull my phone out and fiddle around every time I get in or out. And having to leave Bluetooth on continuously burns up the phone batteries and it goes out periodically.
I understand this phone entry requirement might work most of the time, but even a broken screen could throw a wrench in the works.
so you’re out hiking and a fall causes phone loss or damage. How would you get home? Or get into the car for warmth or shelter?
At work, we have RFID which are very bad because the RFID reader has a very small antenna. It would be nice if Aptera design a good antenna in the reader of the car so that you don't have to take the card out of the wallet and even better if you don't have to take the wallet out of the pocket. Then have 3 readers, one for each door.
Depends on how many other RFID cards are in your wallet. I'm pretty sure the Tesla one will work in your wallet although I usually take it out just to be sure, I have a bunch of RFID cards, the one for an office always works inside of the wallet, Chargepoint, which is a miniature card, doesn't.
I mean, do you need to take the card out of the wallet to open the car (without phone) or can it stay inside the wallet and still able to lock/unlock the door? This would be the main way to lock/unlock the door, not the phone as I don't have a phone with me very often.
Can you keep the card in the wallet?
Tesla uses an RFID card as the backup, works great. It fits in you wallet so you can't lose it, doesn't require any power so there is no battery to wear out and it's absolutely reliable. I've had hardly any problems using my phone as my key but on the rare occasions when it didn't automatically detect the Bluetooth the app itself works and if the phone is dead the RFID card always works.
On my Ioniq I don't have to take the fob out of the pocket. I push a button on the car door handle and the car is opened/closed. This is very nice. I hope that we won't need a phone or to put a card near some places on the car to open/close it.
Also I don't have the phone with me all of the time.
The early Tesla Model 3s had a problem using BlueTooth via cell phone to unlock the cars. If you were using your phone for anything else it wouldn’t work and you usually had to open the Tesla App to get the locks to recognize the phone.
small details can easily lead to big problems. Aptera won't have an external lock cylinder and relying on a cell phone/credit card key could cause a locked out situation. I always have well hidden hide a key on all my cars which Aptera doesn't have a viable way to that. Might tape an extra card key to back of license plate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR8RrmEizVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFUdQJkKsLU hacking issues with these wireless things. i think normal keys and chips in the key are cheaper than developing more secure wireless stuff
From Aptera's most recent FAQ Spreadsheet update (Ctrl+F to search it): "During the design webinar, 'app as key' was mentioned; what happens when your phone is dead or you don't carry one most of the time? I like my Bolt fob with its' analogue back-up key for example." "We believe there will be both- and RFID 'credit card' and also an app that's easier to use daily and a worse-case emergency key location in one of the doors."