Despite the fact that I've gotten the Digital Key to work for me, I'm surprised the lawyers have not jumped all over this for Class Action. Especially if Lexus put out a memo asking their dealers to tell customers not to rely on it.

And I share the sentiment of other posters here that Lexus has dropped the "relentless pursuit of perfection" ball with regard to the two connected issues of only one key FOB and Digital Key glitchiness.

 

Saw this also: To use the Digital Key after setup, log into your Lexus app and ensure your smartphone Bluetooth is turned ON and has a network connection.

 

I just tested it and it does work without Wi-Fi or mobile data. You only need Bluetooth once it’s provisioned. Now I don’t know how often it needs to “phone home” to refresh a token…. So this may not work over several days of no data. But it seems resilient against intermittent loss of data such as areas of poor cell coverage.

Approximately 100 feet from my vehicle, notice no data and app can’t see vehicle over Bluetooth:




And when I get closer to the vehicle it sees it over Bluetooth:




When I grabbed the door handle it unlocked and engine started when I pushed the button.

I did this test without having a key fob on me.

 

That's great. Thanks for the confirmation test.

 

I see that "Download" button in the middle of my app all the time. But I never hit it, and the lock/unlock/start functions work even when the "Download" button under Digital Key appears. What exactly does that download? The app functions work anyway, even without hitting Download, so what is Download supposed to do?

 

Without downloading the phone key you can still manually tap the lock/unlock buttons in the app and they will work. The "download" enables the phone to work like the fob where you can just leave it in your pocket and walk up to the vehicle and it will automatically unlock when you grab the handle.

 

OK. I don't recall at delivery whether Download was appearing even at that time. I guess I could try to Download it and see if it persists, or has to be redone again and again as others are reporting here.

 

This is on Lexus's site: Note: Please have the Smart Key/Key Fob or Key Card as a backup for vehicle access. If you always have key fob with you that would negate any need for digital key and would never know if digital key is working or not.

 

Where did you find that on the Lexus site? We have an RX350h coming in that has the digital key, and I'd like to show that to the salesman.

 

https://support.lexus.com/s/article/What-is-Digital-Key

 

@CommodoreAmiga Thank you.

 

I am wondering now, maybe the periodic "Download" button appearing is a legitimate part of the digital key? Maybe that's what you need to do periodically to force an access code roll, re-download the key. Maybe that's why it periodically re-appears in the app and forces you to redo it if you want the proximity features.

 

It should do it automatically, imo. But it doesn't.

I downloaded the key this morning and by 7pm I had to download it again. It isn't even lasting a day!

I've owned other vehicles where Phone-as-a-Key was the primary key mechanism and none of them required daily manual downloads.

 

If that is the case, you would think Lexus would spell that out in the OM

 

Its not in the manual because it isn't supposed to work that way, but maybe they have some big gap in the software that forces the re-download. It's a security issue, perhaps even related to someone being able to intercept and clone the key through the app, so they don't want to admit it, and the temporary "fix" is just to force the key download very frequently to stay ahead of any potential problems. Its way better than a news headline "Lexus RX owners see vehicle thefts from improper security coding in digital key app".

Based on what I read here, I'm not even going to download the key again (and again). I don't need the proximity features, I can just hit the buttons on the app when I want to use the digital key.