Discovered new way to unlock! Tap phone on door handle

[mpshizzle]

Context for my story - I have my R1S set to "Lock Only" at home. So in the morning I have to use the touch sensor on the door handle to unlock. It works like 50% of the time. The rest of the time I have to push the unlock button on the app. One morning when the touch sensor decided it was too sleepy to register, I just randomly tapped my phone on the door handle and VOILA! It opened right up! I tried it again over the course of the next few days and it worked every time!

What I thought was happening was my phone was waking the vehicle with NFC, and then it was recognizing my bluetooth key and unlocking. But last night just for fun I tried turning off my bluetooth and tapping my phone. And again it opened right up! So it was indeed unlocking with my phone's NFC.

I knew that the Tesla app had the same undocumented NFC functionality, but I had no idea Rivian did too. Pretty cool!

A little disclaimer with this, though...
Up until recently, this was an Android exclusive feature. I don't know the details, but apple previously didn't allow the NFC chip to be used outside of Apple Wallet. From what I've heard, this has changed (with iOS 18?). But the Tesla app still only does NFC unlock on Android. Not sure if Rivian has implemented it on iPhone, but worth a try!

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[rutiger]

I discovered this as well a day or so after picking up my Tri two weeks back. iPhone 15 pro max running latest iOS 18 dev beta.

 

[HaveBlue]

Wait what! Is this for Gen 2 only? I'll have to try just in case it works for Gen 1. Door sensor as well?

 

[mpshizzle]

Wait what! Is this for Gen 2 only? I'll have to try just in case it works for Gen 1. Door sensor as well?

Yeah let us know what you find! NFC (theoretically) is unchanged between generations so I'd think it should work!

 

[HaveBlue]

Seems android phones/Rivian app uses the sensors such as accelerometer and orientation to wake up. Sometimes the act of pulling my phone out of my pocket and inverting it upright wakes it up and instantly unlocks the car. That could also be what's happening to everyone but I'll test.

 

[mpshizzle]

Seems android phones/Rivian app uses the sensors such as accelerometer and orientation to wake up. Sometimes the act of pulling my phone out of my pocket and inverting it upright wakes it up and instantly unlocks the car. That could also be what's happening to everyone but I'll test.

Interesting - I'll have to play around with that to see if pulling it out of my pocket triggers an unlock. But I DO know for sure that NFC will also work, given that my bluetooth was turned off

 

[mikehmb]

I have noticed similar behavior on my Gen1, but I cannot give you enough data to say it is true or simply coincidental in timing. Would love to hear something more definitive.

 

[mpshizzle]

@HaveBlue - digging a little further into this I looked at the complete permissions list on the Google Play store. Interestingly I do not see anything about NFC on the permissions list. But I DO see digital key related permissions. I'm not sure if that includes NFC in that umbrella, but I know UWB is the primary focus of that permission.


Odd given that:
1) Rivian never said UWB would be available on Samsung Phones.
2) AFAIK that feature hasn't been released yet (or so I thought)

So... unclear if UWB or NFC is doing the work here. But I at least know it's not bluetooth...

 

[godfodder0901]

@HaveBlue - digging a little further into this I looked at the complete permissions list on the Google Play store. Interestingly I do not see anything about NFC on the permissions list. But I DO see digital key related permissions. I'm not sure if that includes NFC in that umbrella, but I know UWB is the primary focus of that permission.


Odd given that:
1) Rivian never said UWB would be available on Samsung Phones.
2) AFAIK that feature hasn't been released yet (or so I thought)

So... unclear if UWB or NFC is doing the work here. But I at least know it's not bluetooth...

Turn off NFC in the settings and try again.

Also, not all Samsung phones support UWB. What phone do you have?

 

[mpshizzle]

Turn off NFC in the settings and try again.

Also, not all Samsung phones support UWB. What phone do you have?

S23 + It DOES have UWB - but when Rivian announced the feature they said "Pixel and iPhone"

 

[iamnid]

An easier way to see if it's really the NFC locking the vehicle. Get out of the vehicle, tap the phone to the driver's handle and see if it locks the car.

 

[HapticWagon]

doesn’t work with my latest public ios and iphone 16.

I do think Rivian mentioned that UWB will be enabled in future update, for iPhone and Apple Watch. Hopefully soon.

 

[UhOh]

I have long noticed that my iPhone PAAK only works when I take the phone out of my pocket (or move it from its sleeping state). Most of the time, I walk up to my car and nothing happens. Then I remove my phone from my pocket and all the doors open. This happens 99% of the time.

 

[DeanB1452]

I also have “lock only” while at home. It does not work on my ‘22 R1T with an iPhone 14 Pro. Tried with and without the phone case and could not get it to unlock the door while phone was locked or unlocked.

 

[Taco Corp]

Working for me on Gen2 R1S, this is a great find and hopefully they get a watch app out soon.

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