Fisker Ocean 2.0 - 2 Little Too Late?

The Fisker Ocean was the worst car I've ever reviewed. Can the 2.0 software redeem it?

Shot on iPhone 15 Pro

[AutoFocus]

"The old cars had a bug where they couldn't receive software updates over the air. So unfortunately they're rolling out the .0 update in stages by sending technicians around to cars to update them. But that's fixed with 2.0"

Source: The Fisker employee in the parking lot while dropping off the car

[Reppnek]

"Sell a broken product and fix it later ... maybe"
Cars have reached videogame levels

[herranton]

_"Fisker had to send a technician out to each and every one of these cars to manually..."_

Wow. That must've taken the guy all week!

[cerdafiedDeveloper]

Fisker took a risk and sent MK to review the car again. I applaud them for that

[Gzus]

It's a shame that this company died due to bad software. Hopefully other companies will take notice of how important the UI/UX is for _all_ modern technologies, and not just adopt the "We'll fix it later" mentality; the first impression is the *ONLY* impression.

[CormacHolland]

Hold on officer, let me reach under my seat to retrieve my paperwork because this vehicle doesn’t have a glovebox.

[casisrealtyrealtyonegroup]

Great review! Decided to gamble a little and bought 1500 shares of Fisker. Am now a proud owner of $30 worth of Fisker stocks!

[HoopSomuah]

I'm a heartbroken Fisker Ocean Extreme owner and I agree with almost everything in this review. I also mostly agree with the previous one and I really don't want to. Also if Marques had spent more time with the car he would have found so many more UX issues.
1. My Ocean Extreme did receive its 2.0 Update over the air. It required me to manually accept it and consciously unplug and lock the vehicle while it updated.
Note: A Fisker engineer did come to look at it after the update for other issues I'd reported. IIRC there was also conversation about updating the key fob...
2. You can manually push the button on the left side of the steering wheel to turn the parking brake off even if your seatbelt is not on

⚠ - If you are stopped at a light and you shift too much in your seat, the car shifts into P and unlocks the doors.
⚠ - If you open the driver side door it shifts into park and unlock the other doors.
3. Bluetooth/Audio still has reliability bugs.
4. I still lose 4G connection for multiple hours in a downtown area. When I do, both clocks on the vehicle's screen get out of sync and are both wrong (minutes are always accurate though.🤔)
⚠ - What happens to the 4G connection if Fisker goes out of business?
5. It now supports multiple profiles but the profiles in the car don't seem to store much besides A/C settings 😞
6. Spending engineering resources on a screen that only rotates when I'm in park and on fancy things like California mode was not the best move considering the state of the core experiences in the car's software.
7. I did get locked in the car multiple times as did my wife. Hasn't happened since 2.0 update

I've said it before, the single most concerning thing for me was the promise of a "2.0" update to fix all the problems. Who even cares about version numbers today? How many folks know what version number of Chrome they are running? Nobody even notices when Chrome updates. IMHO celebrating numeric releases of software today is an anti-pattern. Continuous delivery, feature-flighting, A/B experimentation, these are not things you can easily build in after the fact. Shipping without all of them was a mistake and has impacted their engineering agility.

I'm a software guy at heart so I'm biased but I think one of the best moves Fisker could make would be to create a non-profit foundation to own and drive forward their vehicle OS stack by making it open source and leveraging the community of enthusiasts. Take 24 vehicles and give 2 a month to community voted top contributors over the next year. This would also bolster confidence for new buyers in the event of dissolution. If the Ocean could become an autonomous vehicle dev kit for companies like Wayve and it's competitors perhaps they could even move more inventory.

[kevinfoendoe]

The day this video came out, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has opened a third investigation against Fisker’s Ocean SUV for doors that won’t open.

[MohamedElkashef]

The company I work for makes hinges. When the owner started it, they messed up the design of a hinge, which made the cabinet door not close to the end. A disaster given that the company was selling pretty much internationally. The owner decided to own the mistake and sent out technicians to fix and replace all the hinges, almost bankrupting the company in the process. But it passed. And because of that experience, he vowed to focus on quality and design, aiming to be the best. Years later, the company is now the leading cabinet hardware and hinge manufacturer worldwide, known for its quality!

Good for Fisker for owning it and trying. Hoping it works out for them.

[reddcube]

I like the 10 second silence at the start.
"Are we doing this? ... Yep, I guess we're doing this."

[lizzfrmhon]

THANK YOU. As customers we shouldn’t accept the “we will fix it later” argument. You took my money now. Give me a complete working product NOW.

[Dankturboz]

Unfortunately fisker seems to be another cautionary tale. They really did SO much right here. Solid looks, materials, and build quality. Unfortunately they really tried to over-deliver on the tech. If they had stopped at good looks and build quality, used android auto and CarPlay, and kept it affordable, they would have had a genuinely compelling product. But instead they messed with solar panels, custom software, and new safety features. It’s honestly such a shame and is a direct result of salespeople getting their way instead of engineers.

[bdlii]

'California Mode' has worked since day 1 on my 2006 Saab 9-3. This is not even a new feature. Since I'm still driving my 2006 Saab and have over 214k miles it feels like I now have this new California Mode feature. Yay!

[relaxedpenny]

I feel so bad for the employees of this company like the engineers who actually made a some good aspects of the car but cant see their work come to fruition

[norbertsangano]

00:12 Fisker Ocean 2.0 improves software
01:57 Original Fisker Ocean had issues with software updates
03:47 Fisker Ocean 2.0 features improved design and functionality
05:32 Fisker Ocean 2.0 has boot-up delay and seatbelt dependency for driving
07:20 Solar roof energy generation and driving experience improvements
09:14 Issues with regen and drive modes need improvement.
11:00 Fisker Ocean 2.0 software issues need improvement
12:48 Real improvements seen in the Fisker Ocean 2.0

Thanks Markes. Just keep on doing what you do best than others: reviewing with objectivity not being subjective. Your honest are realistic approach on any product is our treasure.

[jackwen]

Fisker might be going out of business? I guess that's fisker's karma

[PhillyDashcam]

Maybe because I'm used to having older cars... the thought of buying a car and it not being fully correct and ready and waiting for an update to solve said shortcomings is an absurd thought. Even the worst automakers still at least finished their cars to a point where they were usable by the time the customer bought it? Weird times.

[godbasi]

Fisker has got big balls for sending another review unit. Kudos to them. Continuous improvement is the soul of any organisation.

[TheRastari]

December 2011,  Fisker Automotive recalled the first 239 Karmas delivered to the U.S. due to a risk of battery fire caused by coolant leak. Of the 239 cars, less than fifty had been delivered to customers, the rest were in dealerships. In the report filed by Fisker Automotive with the NHTSA, the carmaker said some hose clamps were not properly positioned, which could allow a coolant leak and an electrical short could possibly occur if coolant enters the battery compartment, causing a thermal event within the battery, including a possible fire. In May 2012 a Fisker Karma was involved in a home fire that also burnt two other cars in Fort Bend County, Texas. The chief fire investigator said the Karma was the origin of the fire that spread to the house, but the exact cause is still unknown