I'm having an issue that the dealership said they fixed for me at my first service. Unless I open the driver's side door, I cannot open the rear hatch on my 2017 NX 200t. So I'm parked and waiting for my partner to bring something to the car from the store. When he arrives and is waiting at the back of the NX I try opening the hatch using the button on the dash. This is either with the engine running or off, I press the button and I hear two beeps from the car and the rear hatch doesn't open. I can try multiple times and nothing happens other than the two beeps. If I open the driver's side door then press the rear hatch button then I get a single beep and the hatch will open.

Is the normal behaviour? The dealership didn't think it was normal but my 2011 RX used to do the same thing. They said it was fixed and when I tried to open it with the driver's door closed and engine off it worked at the dealership, but today it didn't work at home.

Any ideas?

Had a loaner from the dealer for a while. When I first took delivery of it, it exhibited this same behaviour, but after restarting the car a few times, it kinda self corrected and performed as expected for the rest of the two weeks. Really not sure what was happening. Sorry, wish I could have been more help.

Go into vehicle settings and check if it's not set up that way. May be simple safety feature. Also, is your gear shifter in D when you trying to open tailgate? Vehicle may believe that you are driving and gate won't open if you are driving. Safety.

The same thing happened to me a few times...would hear the "beep" but nothing would happen. I never figured out the issue but thankfully hasn't reoccured in awhile. Ukrkoz has some good thoughts on it for the next time this occurs. Off subject but one of the safety features is to turn the power door when going through a car wash. That would be awkward to have that tripped mid cycle.

To change the way this works, go into the customization settings, the car has to be in acc mode, but not turned on. Under door lock settings, make sure its set to all doors open when shifting into park. This will open all doors (including the rear hatch) after you put the car in park and then you will be able to open the rear hatch with the dash button without first hitting unlock on the driver side door.

I believe these are the settings on my NX currently, but I will check this when I get home to confirm.

I noticed if I don't have all the doors unlocked the hatch won't open with the button. So for example today I opened the drivers side door with my hand, which left all other doors locked, the hatch wouldn't open with the button just beeped twice. Once I unlocked all doors the hatch opened.

If this is the actual fix, did Toyota ever consider a manual operation like the doors? It may be time to start shopping for a different vehicle.

Kinda? Sorta? Mighta? Woulda? Could've? Should've? I smell a recall with installation of manual handles.

a manual handle isn't necessary since the car does not have an enclosed trunk. Having the doors unlocked before allowing the trunk to unlock is probably a safety feature, same reason the windows roll down with key fob but won't roll back up.