I Spent Months Hating My Rivian's Auto-Unlock Feature, The Entire Time It Was My Fault

You stride up to your six-figure, high-tech electric truck, arms full of oat-milk lattes and other signs of modern indulgence, only to find yourself locked out. You wave your phone around, and nothing happens. You think to call Rivian, then you check Reddit to see if there are any workarounds, and you think to yourself if you should order a tow truck.

How a New iPhone Can Lock You Out

This situation is exactly what happened to one Reddit user on the r/Rivian Subreddit.

“Accidentally figured out why the Rivian App software SUCKED at unlocking my Rivian when I walk up to it. It’s not the truck, the Rivian software or my phone. It’s because I got a new phone and Apple’s data transfer did NOT pair/activate all of the Rivian Bluetooth sensors. Fix was easy.” 

Turns out, when he upgraded his iPhone, Apple’s data migration tool copied over all his apps and settings but didn’t re-pair the Rivian’s Bluetooth sensors. The truck wasn’t ignoring him—it simply didn’t recognize him anymore. The fix? Manually re-pair the sensors. A two-minute job. Months of frustration, all because of a minor digital oversight.

This isn’t a one-off issue… ​in 2025, Lucid Air owners reported delays when using their phones as keys, leading to frustrations similar to those experienced by other EV drivers, according to earlier stories.
 

Safer Calls, Seamless Music Streaming & Real-Time Navigation

• Bluetooth enables drivers to make and receive phone calls without physically handling their phones, promoting safer driving by reducing distractions. ​
• Drivers and passengers can stream music, podcasts, and other audio content directly from their devices to the car's sound system, eliminating the need for auxiliary cables. ​
• By connecting smartphones to the car's infotainment system via Bluetooth, real-time navigation updates and voice-guided directions become accessible, improving route accuracy and convenience.

This is the price we pay for trading physical keys for digital access. Once upon a time, unlocking a car required a simple, mechanical interaction: metal key meets tumbler, door opens. No software updates, no Bluetooth dependencies, no “forgotten” digital handshakes. 

But traditional keys were easy to lose, easy to copy, and increasingly vulnerable to old-school car thieves. So we embraced keyless entry, and then app-based access, believing it to be the next evolution of convenience. Instead, we’ve created a system where our ability to enter our own vehicles now depends on flawless digital ecosystems, and when those ecosystems falter, we’re left stranded, swearing at our phones.

The Digital Dilemma Behind Car Access

It’s the classic open-source vs. closed-source debate, just with cars. With open-source systems, if something breaks, you can at least diagnose the problem. But modern vehicles are increasingly closed-source, locked behind proprietary software and dealer-only diagnostics. If your Rivian won’t unlock, if your Tesla app stops working, if your Lucid Air forgets your fob, you can’t just pop the hood and fix it. You’re at the mercy of the automaker’s servers, their app updates, and their software patches. The trade-off? A system that’s more secure until it isn’t.

Uncovering the Hidden Risks of Software-Dependent Car Access

We’ve made peace with this reality. We embrace the convenience, the seamless integration, the notion that our cars and phones and homes should all be connected. But when it fails, we’re left powerless. Instead of a straightforward mechanical key, we now rely on a delicate balance of software, Bluetooth signals, and backend servers—any of which can throw us into an existential crisis in a grocery store parking lot. The answer to our frustration is often deceptively simple, hidden in a settings menu or a forgotten pairing process. But unless you know where to look, you might as well be trying to decode the Voynich manuscript.

Embracing the Digital Age of Automotive Ownership

So, what’s the takeaway? Modern cars are as much software as they are machines, and owning one means accepting a new responsibility, you are now part sysadmin, part driver. Treat your car like the smartphone it has become, troubleshoot it, update it, and don’t assume every problem is an engineering failure. Automakers, for their part, need to do better. Clearer onboarding, better diagnostics, and more intuitive interfaces would prevent these headaches. But as technology continues to replace mechanics, the burden is on us to learn how it all works. Welcome to the future—it’s locked, and your phone forgot the password.

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.