As a Zip Car user, it sure is a serious PITA...and sometimes worse than range anxiety...
Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
71–80 of 108 posts
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#72This is specifically a Zipcar (multiple vehicle vendors, less car infotainment integration) problem, even happens in urban garages. Similar article written about this a year or two ago. Reachnow (BMW based) when it was around solved the issue by having a pin code you enter, Car2Go (Mercedes based) probably also did I think. Here's the other hn post from 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20873234 , and…
Also, GIG Car Share will mail users an RFID card free of charge to solve this problem: https://gigcarshare.com/gig-card/
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#73Zipcar sent me a "zipcard" (a credit card sized card with an RFID chip) that I keep in my wallet. I find app unlock to be convenient but it doesn't work everywhere.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#74This reads like a hit-piece against ZipCar. The author doesn't give any advice, and merely retells a few anecdotes about people being stranded by parking a ZipCar in a place with poor cell service. This isn't a problem I'd thought of before, but with the title "How Not to Go Off the Grid", I some advice. (The author doesn't even seem to offer the somewhat-obvious conclusion of "don't park a ZipCar somewhere without a…
To be fair, this is a pretty bad issue. I've used two other car sharing services, and neither of them had this problem, only requiring cell service only when you picked up the car:
- One issued keys which worked independently once activated
- The other worked via bluetooth.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#75Zipcar sent me a "zipcard" (a credit card sized card with an RFID chip) that I keep in my wallet. I find app unlock to be convenient but it doesn't work everywhere.
The article mentions the cards wouldn’t work, either.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#76Zipcar sent me a "zipcard" (a credit card sized card with an RFID chip) that I keep in my wallet. I find app unlock to be convenient but it doesn't work everywhere.
I generally find using an app to unlock a car less convenient than a key.
I think the use cases where the reverse seems true are pretty subjective at best. Or maybe I just grew up before cell phones ruled the world...
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's DRM for you. Never trust it. Get a phone with expandable storage and fill your SD card(s) with GBs of non-DRM encumbered media and you can enjoy having it all instantly accessible to you whenever/wherever you want it for as long as you like. Control is what DRM takes from you, but we have the technology to take it back for ourselves.
VLC is available for both flavors of phone/tablet, you don't need an SD card, builtin storage is fine.
builtin storage is tiny (typically 128 or 256 GB) to force people into keeping all their data in the cloud, which doesn't help you when you're offline.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#78I don't know of a solution but ... it makes me think of all the quick rental bikes in the city. The moment they lose power/wifi no one can use any bikes. Maybe that's ok since you're likely only going a few km But it reminds me of vending machines in Japan. If I understand correctly they're set supposed to allow dispensing in the event of an earthquake. Of course Japanese society has less petty theft and vandalism wh…
Why would the solution be the physical key, stored in a lockbox (inside glovebox, perhaps). Initial unlock with phone, then use physical key, then use phone to lock at end of rental.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
The natural area around there had very bad cell service, plus I recognize the little store they made a call from in the article as the little store inside Salish lodge. Plus, it was 45 minutes from the trail where they got picked up by the couple, not 45 minutes from Seattle that they mentioned in the article?
There are many natural areas around Western WA with poor-to-non-existing cell coverage. It's pretty bad around the Lodge specifically, true - I live in North Bend (which is also near the Snoqualmie Falls and the Lodge), and coverage on the outskirts of the city is bad enough that when we moved here a few years ago, we had to get phones that could do GAN / WiFi Calling to have reliable service. But the article specifi…
Ah I see, yea I’m not from around there either, so maybe things got mixed up in the article because I totally missed that they were hiking in Olympic park. Hopefully the girls didn’t need to eat the unexpected hotel stay, wherever it was.
Re: Users without a cell connection find they can’t get back into their Zipcar
#80This is specifically a Zipcar (multiple vehicle vendors, less car infotainment integration) problem, even happens in urban garages. Similar article written about this a year or two ago. Reachnow (BMW based) when it was around solved the issue by having a pin code you enter, Car2Go (Mercedes based) probably also did I think. Here's the other hn post from 3 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20873234 , and…
The weird thing is I was told in the past that Zipcar's telematics module would retain the last 'active' card when it's out of cell coverage, plus has a fixed set of 'local' cards programmed to it (eg, for fleet service).
There is also typically a 'local' card available in situations like parking garages where the Zipcar is valeted up and away from the public. It'll always start the vehicle session, signal or no.