When I got my '22 EV6, the lack of auto-locking doors was mildly surprising. I did a little bit of digging at the time, and found that there was an active patent, and the claims pretty well covered the functionality I'd expect so it would be hard to design around. I figured most likely Kia did not want to pay to license the patent. I do think it was close to expiring, so maybe that will be added at some future point?
That said, our Mazda CX-9 has auto-locking doors, and find them to be annoying, in several very frequent cases:
- Arriving at home, the kids are usually very slow to get out of the car, while my wife or I go into the house. The car doors will not lock if any door is open at the time the fob goes out of range, so they remain unlocked. I usually still have to go back and manually lock the doors, but just as often the car will be unlocked overnight.
- It has the touch button on the door handle to lock/unlock, which seems handy. But if the car was not locked, it will lock as I attempt to open the door.
- Contrastingly, If I'm running errands by myself, I will often park, get out, and walk around to the passenger side to get something from the seat. The car WILL auto-lock in this case, so I then need to unlock the car again.
Honestly, I'd rather just reach into my pocket and push a button on the fob when I want to lock or unlock the car...
(Edit: formatting)
