Aptera App

[michael-may]

I haven’t seen any discussion about if there will be any kind of companion smart phone application available. This (non-Aptera) guy has come up with some ideas that I think are pretty decent. I’d also like to see this tied into the Aptera ‘Sentry Mode’ if they end up having the equivalent. https://youtu.be/RqV8-C3BN4g\

[jonah-jorgenson]

Thanks for this.

This question was asked and answered in the previous forum. One is planned and at this point, since Aptera is at Beta stage, a prototype is probably being tested. Of course it is tightly coupled/integrated with the vehicle software and UI as it must support the features of the engineered vehicle. The engineers are pretty astute and creative and do a good of research to include desirable features from other EV implementations. At this point there is no information on “Sentry mode” for the Aptera. We will have to wait for future announcements for that information.

If you are a reservation holder, I am sure you will be pleased with the result of their app development

This submittal is probably a little late for this iteration of Aptera but maybe added to the list of potential enhancements considered for the next version of the vehicle.

[daniel-crotty]

I was just watching the old Jason Hill webinar. He mentioned an app being used to open and close the door and there was not a mention of a FOB.

I rarely use a cell phone and almost never have it with me in the car. Even if I do, what if the battery goes dead, or I lose it. Is carrying a smartphone a requirement to drive an Aptera!

What does the app do? I can’t imagine that there is no FOB, but I searched for FOB and don’t find anything. Without one, the app is a good thing to have, assuming you can start the car and open the door with it. For some reason, I seem to recall that Aptera does not come with a navigation system, so it may not be capable of doing this even with a phone.

Personally, I liked the way my Corvette did it. Walk up to the car and it opened automatically, away it locked. There is no worry about “did I remember to lock the car.”

[john-trotter]

My FOB-less Tesla Y works fine for me with the app, although I always carry the key-card as well. FOB are available for $. All cars nowadays need a mechanical way to open the door as well. I’d like the same suite of options for Aptera.

[len]

In the most recent Leno’s Garage video with Aptera… Chris mentioned a key FOB in your pocket? About 18 minutes into that video

[kerbe2705]

A cell phone will be mandatory equipment if you wish to play your own music through the audio system and not rely upon streaming services. It will also be required if you want to be able to make or receive hands-free phone calls using the Aptera’s audio system.

Some EV fobs allow you to activate cabin preconditioning (heat or AC) while others do not, requiring the use of a smartphone app. Some EVs have Amazon Echo or Android Assistant integration for voice activation but they actually send a command to the smartphone app, which then completes the task.

[joshua-rosen]

I hope they do it like Tesla. Your phone is the primary key, when you walk up to the car with your phone in your pocket the car flashes it’s light as a hello and you can just get into the car or unplug the charging cable. As a backup Tesla provides an RFID card which you keep in your wallet so that you always have it with you. RFID cards are more reliable than key fobs because they don’t require a battery. Tesla also sells a key fob for those who want one. I don’t have a fob and feel no need for one but for people who don’t want a smartphone I can see the appeal.

[kerbe2705]

Those abilities (cabin preconditioning, checking on charging and mileage) are pretty much part of every EV and PHEV app out there: It would be strange if Aptera DIDN’T offer them!

[Ben]

I am sure that most everyone here has some ideas of what they want to see in their smartphone app that accompany their Aptera, after seeing a link to this youtube channel on some other discussion, I figured it would be a good idea for it to have its own discussion. To get a complete idea of the whole concept watch the 3 of them.

here are the links to the 3 videos posted so far

1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqV8-C3BN4g

2- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GIXTSr6Sr0

3- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kx_Sg3bhcwg

Companion app demo ver 1 https://www.figma.com/proto/zWcLgJvFORV9QZPjnMjBUv/Aptera-Companion-App?node-id=4%3A2

• This reply was modified 1 year, 8 months ago by  Bernard Dubuc. Reason: links did not work
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by  Gabriel Kemeny.

[Elzo]

For those of you who are not aware: Blazetech Studios four days ago presented the latest 2.0 Aptera companion app design( as the creator likes to call it) It is a mighty fine project in progress which looks extremely promising as it comes to user friendliness and intuitivity as far as I am concerned.

https://www.figma.com/proto/zWcLgJvFORV9QZPjnMjBUv/Aptera-Companion-App?page-id=589%3A4765&node-id=589%3A8295&viewport=241%2C48%2C0.17&scaling=scale-down&starting-point-node-id=1529%3A13522&show-proto-sidebar=1

on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/__syPHSxLh0

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Elzo Stubbe. Reason: type error
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Elzo Stubbe.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Elzo Stubbe. Reason: url add
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Elzo Stubbe. Reason: type error
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Elzo Stubbe.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by  Gabriel Kemeny.

[Markus]

That looks really good, and it is also kind of a relief to see every once in a while another bit of progress.

Thank you for bringing this news to the forum, Elzo and @Bernard Dubuc

[curtis-cibinel]

Amazing amount of time and effort into these designs; this seems like more of an elaborate job application.

I expect the initial app which we get will be minimum viable product (MVP) and will improve over time. Don’t expect Tesla class software day-1; that takes years. Constant improvement is how you get good software.

[Markus]

BlazeTech announces joining Aptera now as a contracted UIUX designer.

Congrats!

[konijntje]

First of all, my compliments to the progress already made. It looks quite awesome, especially for first looks!

Let’s use this thread to give feedback to Aptera and Blaze Tech to improve the mobile app.

Please use as little discussion in this topic as possible, so no quote’s or reactions, to make it clear for everyone.

In a reply, simply state the things that are wrong/buggy and feature or changing requests.

You can find the mobile Aptera App here:

https://www.figma.com/proto/zWcLgJvFORV9QZPjnMjBUv/Aptera-Companion-App

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Konijnerd the Great.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by  Gabriel Kemeny.

[konijntje]

UI Improvements:
– Make it simpler to see the current status of the vehicle. When clicking the lock/unlock button it should be showing “Your aptera is locked” or something else. Coloring it or showing “lock/unlock” makes it not 100% clear what the current status is.

I’m thinking a design where icons are organised in a better menu and then the status are displayed somewhere else.

Feature requests:
Showing how much the solar panels are being of use for charging the car. Miles/km and of course watts being added. Perhaps with a intensity of sunlight on the roof effect.

Bugs:

At least on my desktop, when i go from home to a other menu, a white block slides down from top and stays in all menu’s except when i go back to the home screen.

Thanks!

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Konijnerd the Great.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Konijnerd the Great.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 2 months ago by  Gabriel Kemeny.

[joshua-rosen]

I’ve also posted this on his Youtube video.

Happy to see your announcement. Here is my list of critical features,

Phone is the key, just like Tesla. That’s up to Aptera but please encourage them to support that.

Preconditioning. This is critical in winter, not only does it save battery by heating the car with wall current but it has a couple of other important implications. Regen braking doesn’t work when the battery is cold, preheating before you leave means that you have regen immediately. This next function might not matter with the Aptera but on a Tesla the windows freeze shut which means you can’t open the door, preconditioning melts the ice which frees the doors. Aptera has fixed upper windows so that won’t happen but the door frame itself might stick (nobody knows yet) so this helps to fix it.

Transfer Google Calendar events to the car. The calendar events contain the address and the time. Tesla does this through their app which reads the events from the calendar and then sends them to the car’s calendar. The car’s calendar link’s to the cars nav system. I use this to enter all of my destinations for every trip I do. We do weekly road trips which we are looking forward to doing in the Aptera. I enter the entire itinerary into my Google Calendar which makes it easy to route the trips. A secondary benefit is that it’s a work around for shortcoming’s of Tesla’s nav system. Tesla rolled their own nav and Aptera is doing the same so I wouldn’t be surprised if they have the same weaknesses. Google Maps has routing options and a choice of routes, Tesla doesn’t. On Google Maps I can tell it to avoid highways and I can pick the most scenic route, Tesla tries to force you onto highways no matter how undesirable that is. My workaround is to add stops on my itinerary that are on the route that I prefer, that forces the nav system to take the route I want.

Android Support

—————————————————-
Non critical features that I would like to have at some point.
Have a record of trips and energy usage for each trip. I use Tezlab for this function for my Tesla. I want to know my miles/KWh, total KWh used, and cost if possible. On a Tesla that’s easy because the car records which Supercharger you used, how much energy you took and the rate for each Supercharger is known. This might be harder with CCS but if it’s at all possible please provide it.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 5 months ago by  Joshua Rosen.

[tim-dean]

The app is needed to monitor & set up the Aptera when the driver is not present.

*Pre-heating/cooling (time & temps with pet & camping modes.

*Monitor Sentry mode with individual camera feed access & event recording/playback.

*Door & hatch unlock/open. Power open/close would be nice but not expected.

*Battery temp & charge state w/leveled solar input.

*Tire pressures.

[joe-lyddon]

It would be nice to see some videos showing how Apps are loaded and used…

ie: Android phone… GPS… etc.

How does the Aplera system use the Phone Apps… Or any APP?

Brief procedures… not the nitty-gritty… Can ANY App be used?

Thank you.

[ray-holan]

Hi, Joe. To the best of my knowledge, Aptera has not demonstrated app usage yet. It will probably have to wait for another couple of months until a final production model with all the bells and whistles is released.

[colen-thomas]

Will there be a fob for unlocking/opening doors, hatch and other features? I find that to be more convenient than accessing an app on my phone. While the knock knock feature is kind of cool, a fob is sometimes easier to use.

[Biker]

As of now no, only an RFID card is the alternate unlocking method to the phone app.

[Gozer]

What if I go surfing or snorkeling, how do I lock/unlock my Aptera?

RFID card, fob, and phone won’t work when they get wet and there is no key. Knock knock is not implemented, will there be a thumb biometric unlock?

[Riley]

Out of curiosity how would an RFID card not work? Wouldn’t it be fine if it got wet, I’ve never worn a wetsuit so maybe its not possible to have a credit card shaped item on you.

[Biker]

@glenn-langit like your contactless credit card, the RFID fob is sealed and will work just fine after being wet. BTW, the knock-knock feature is planned in production.

[ROMAD]

Would be nice if we could program a custom knock sequence.

[paul-kirchner]

Not quite sure exactly how Blaze Studios was involved but he’s no longer “developing” the app. Not sure if this is old news to some.

Apparently he was only doing research for it. At 6:40 of this video he says there’s a report of the research that’s available somehow from Aptera.

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by  Paul Kirchner.

[Mangoat]

I’ve seen people discussing that the Aptera might have a card, rather than physical keys. Haven’t seen anything confirmed, unless I missed it.

Recently I saw this:

https://www.macrumors.com/2023/02/21/apple-releases-car-keys-tests-app/

Wondering if Aptera could jump in on that, letting us unlock/lock and start the Aptera just having our phone on us. Which would operate the same way any keyless entry and push-start cars operate, simply having the keys on you.

I also assume other smartphones may have similar apps to this one. BMW and a few others, with a select few models, have already started using this app.

[curtis-cibinel]

I think the idea that Aptera would adopt the proprietary apple key system is very unlikely. Aptera is a pro right to repair company so why would they embrace an access technology which is specific to one vendor which has one of the strongest anti right to repair stances. I think it’s likely we will have an RFID card with a phone app also able to serve the same function (same as tesla)

[Biker]

This is a screen grab of the proposed app look from the Jason Hill interview posted today.

[daniel-crotty]

What if they make a “Dummy” test version that can be downloaded to a NOT IPhone 🤓

Obviously, not the final app, but the functions can be faked. Start getting some feedback now instead of waiting till delivery.

What about people who don’t use a SmartPhone! What then! Seems like you will be required to provide one as an accessory. And the monthly phone fees!

And! While the “Card” initially sounds like a good idea, what about taking the magnetic encoding on the card, enclose it into some plastic, and you got a FOB, no battery required. Especially since I have a house key. Put it on the same key ring. One does not have to tote along their wallet or purse.

[Biker]

Assuming Aptera will use a key card like Tesla, those are RFID based (not magnetic) and can’t really be repackaged. That’s the only thing you’ll need to operate your Aptera – no smart phone needed. A smart phone will be a nicety, not a requirement.

[john-malcom]

I am sure that the software group has a schedule for the development of an Aptera app for both iPhone (Yes!) and that other type of phone and a plan for user testing. My guess, that is sometime in the future as software related to vehicle control and operation, and the large screen user interface takes precedence as it should. Worst case, can be provided after production starts. The card, as pointed out, is all that is needed to enter and operate the vehicle so development and testing must be complete NLT the time delivery starts.