If I lock the doors with my RFID key or equivalent, why doesn’t this “release” a station-based vehicle?

admin

The main reason can be summed up in one word: reservation! Station-based vehicles must be reserved in advance, whereas FLEX vehicles are accessible spontaneously, or in other words, “without reservation.”

When you reserve a station-based vehicle, you specify a time slot that includes an end time. Using your RFID key or equivalent to lock the doors does not change the end time of the trip. Therefore, no one else can reserve this vehicle until the end of the time slot you originally entered. Only the action of releasing the vehicle by selecting “End Trip” in the app will make it available to other users for reservation.

Some context

We chose this mode of operation to avoid penalizing members who might end their trip unintentionally. In the past, members had to use their RFID key or equivalent after each engine stop to disarm the vehicle before restarting their journey. This mode of operation still exists for vehicles based at stations with no network coverage. Therefore, there is a risk that some users might accidentally end their trip with the key fob, even out of habit.

We are currently working to harmonize the trip experience across our entire network. Once this is done, there will be less risk of confusion. It will then only be a matter of time before we modify the end-of-trip process for station-based vehicles to mirror the FLEX experience, where it is already possible to release the vehicle using the RFID key or equivalent.