I just got my EV9 Land about two days ago. Beautiful vehicle, but let me tell you about the absolute cutting-edge, 21st-century experience I’m currently having with Kia’s "smart" ecosystem and their highly trained service department.
I brought the car in for a minor hiccup—the rearview mirror camera kept disconnecting intermittently. Should be an easy fix, right?
Well, apparently, the service department's standard operating procedure for a connected vehicle is to just leave it completely unlocked overnight. I know this because my phone was absolutely blown up with continuous alerts about my doors being unsecured. Naturally, being a responsible owner, I used the app to lock the vehicle remotely so it wouldn't sit open all night.
Fast forward to the next morning. My phone rings. It’s the dealership. They can’t get into the car because—wait for it—they left the key inside the vehicle.
"No problem," I thought, "I have the app. I'll just use Kia Connect to unlock it for them."
Oh, how naive of me. Right at that exact moment (9 AM today), the entire Kia Connect infrastructure decided to take a nap. Downdetector confirmed I wasn't the only one suffering a global outage. After repeatedly fighting with the app and the website, I finally managed to log in. I hit the remote unlock button. Fail. I try again. Fail. So, what is the ultimate, high-tech workaround for Kia's state-of-the-art connected services? Me getting in a car and driving all the way down to the service department with my second key just to unlock the vehicle for the technicians.
Here is a free piece of advice for Kia: If you want to be a serious contender in the EV race, it takes a lot more than a massive battery and good range. It requires the software features EV owners actually expect, and a service department that has adapted to the times.
- Give us a Service Mode. (Like Tesla). When the car is in the shop, I shouldn't be getting pinged every time a technician breathes on the door handle or leaves the trunk open.
- Train your service crews. You don't leave a connected vehicle unlocked overnight to spam the owner with alerts, and you definitely don't leave the physical keys inside a car that can be locked via the cloud.
- Fix your servers. Kia Connect isn't just a fun little accessory; it is fundamentally part of the user experience. When your servers go down, the "smart" features become useless.
Rant over. Has anyone else had to play AAA for their own dealership?