My Encounter with Fisker Torrets Syndrome: A Cautionary Tale

[Fabulist]

I had my first encounter with random and mystifying errors in my Fisker. After working like a champ all week, my Karma was the vehicle of choice for our Friday night dinner run to our favorite local seafood place just two miles from our home. Unfortunately, after a week of smooth sailing, I had gotten a bit cocky and decided to load up a 4G USB stick with music and plug it into the USB port in the console -- that proved to be a big mistake.

The first alarm came as soon as I started backing out of my garage and the car started to tell me that parking sensors were faulty. When I got the car out and put it in D, that warning went away, but the general red alert warning ("!" in a Red Triangle") was flashing on the center display and a bong kept sounding. We ignored the warning and pressed on to the restaurant with the warning and the sound bonging away all the way, which gets pretty irritating pretty quick.

Once we got there, I parked the car without incident and we went to dinner. When we got back to the car, things got stranger. The car started up in Stealth mode with 47 miles left to go but the ICE came on and was actually running pretty hard. As we drove to the store to pick up some dessert the "Gas Cap Open" warning light came on and the ICE kept on racing as we drove. I tried cycling into and out of Sport mode to see if that makes the engine shut down, to no avail.

When we stopped, I checked the gas cap and it was definitely NOT open but I opened and resealed it anyway.

On the way back home, Stealth mode worked briefly but then the ICE came on again and the gas cap open warning came on at the same time.

When we got home, I plugged in the car to the charger and removed the USB stick from the console.

This morning we went out for breakfast and some chores and a pleasure drive along the ocean. The car was back to its old self. Stealth and Sport modes worked exactly as they were supposed to, there were no warnings, bongs or any other indication of anything amiss.

Sorry about the long-winded narrative, The executive summary is that the prohibition on plugging in an I-Device into the USB port in the console extends to memory sticks and, just like other areas of life, size matters here. I drove home on Thursday with a 256MB (yes, it is very very old) stick and there was no drama, but Fiskers Bamboo 4G stick basically drove the car to distraction.

And while I was alarmed by the fact that the strange behavior extended to core engine control functions (ICE running in Stealth mode), at least the car behaved well enough that we were never in danger of being stranded.

Take away: DO NOT use a USB stick for music. Stick with the BT for now until these bugs are fixed.

-- Fab.

[Karma 2012]

I had similar episode a few weeks ago while backing up my car from the garage. The Karma actually stuttered followed by "Parking Brake Malfunction" and "!" in a red triangle in the center display. I did not have any USB device hooked up at that time. The episode happened again one more time, but the dealer attributed to the software. "Software" is like the default culprit to any Karma problem and glitches now ;-)

[kabalah70]

Was the USB device plugged in before starting the car? I know many computers have issues with USB memory devices plugged in from the get go. I would suggest plugging it in after starting the car and see if it causes issues.

[siliconkiwi]

My dealer said "don't use the USB audio", that Fisker was aware it could totally confuse the command center, and Fisker even installed a plug blocking that USB socket to emphasize it. I think anyone who uses it right now is tempting fate. I'd rather use BT than deal with another set of bugs.

[SoCalGuy]

So the Karma is basically Windows 95 (pre SP2) - any problems, IT (aka Fisker/dealers) will tell you to just reboot.

[AnOutsider]

OT: A lot of windows hate around these parts

[SoCalGuy]

(02-05-2012 02:02 PM)AnOutsider Wrote:  OT: A lot of windows hate around these parts

I'm bi - windows at work, mac at home =)

[Sigurd]

I have a MacBook Air and I must say there are times I have to get on my Vaio to get things done quickly. One example is checking my Yahoo email. For some reason, my MacBook takes forever to get there.

[SoCalGuy]

(02-05-2012 02:20 PM)Sigurd Wrote:  I have a MacBook Air and I must say there are times I have to get on my Vaio to get things done quickly. One example is checking my Yahoo email. For some reason, my MacBook takes forever to get there.

Bizarre - I'm writing this on my Macbook Air - Yahoo loads fine for me (bigger question - Yahoo mail? Really? Sigurd, I want to introduce you to a new service called Gmail... http://www.gmail.com)

[Sigurd]

I have migrated my email address from Flashnet and haven't changed it in over 13 years. I'd hate to lose it. I wish I could merge it with my gmail.