(Bloomberg) -- With everything from coffee makers to garage door openers now connected to the internet, smartphone apps are the de facto remote control for modern life. So what happens when the companies behind the software go out of business?
That’s the dilemma faced by customers of EV maker Fisker Inc. and solar giant SunPower Corp., which filed for bankruptcy in June and August, respectively. Richmond, California-based SunPower has installed more than 500,000 residential solar systems over the past two decades, while Manhattan Beach, California-based Fisker delivered some 7,000 of its Ocean SUV before abruptly shuttering.
Software controls everything from the Ocean’s air conditioning to its braking system, and social media forums are flooded with owners complaining about glitches that have in some cases rendered undrivable cars costing as much as $70,000. The Fisker app, which includes functions such as allowing drivers to unlock their car, crashed soon after the company filed for Chapter 11. That’s proven particularly nerve-wracking for Ocean owners, who only received a single key fob with no option to purchase additional copies.
“That means if you lost your key fob or it was broken and the app is down, essentially your car is a very expensive paperweight with no way to access it or drive it,” says Brian Layden, an Ocean driver in North Carolina and spokesperson for the nonprofit Fisker Owners Association, which counts more than half of the company’s customers as members.
It’s not clear what recourse there will be for those customers. Fisker did not respond to a request for comment, but the Fisker Owners Association is working with the carmaker to ensure they’re informed of software updates and other developments. The group, which hired an attorney to represent it at bankruptcy hearings, also compiled a list of service centers that can repair the Ocean.
Consumer advocates point to the safety issues that could arise from a lack of software support, whether as hazardous as faulty braking or as inconvenient as getting locked out of your car. “If a company builds a connected device, they need to allocate capital to support it over the expected life of the product,” says Stacey Higginbotham, a policy fellow at Consumer Reports. “That means if you’re in bankruptcy, you should have funds in escrow for it.”
SunPower customers are also in limbo. Many depend on the mySunPower app to manage home energy systems that often include batteries and can cost $25,000 and up.
One such customer is Fuat Celik, an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey, who relies on mySunPower to monitor the 6-kilowatt solar array he had installed in 2021. To earn credits for the electricity his system supplies to the grid, Celik must report the panels’ monthly output. “I have to use the SunPower website or the app to record my production so I do use it frequently,” he says.
Alix Langone, a senior research analyst at Boston-based EnergySage, which operates an online solar marketplace for consumers, notes that solar apps like mySunPower contain not only historical data on power production but diagnostic information that installers need to detect problems and make repairs. “I think one of the biggest risks in a bankruptcy is the homeowners’ loss of that data,” she says.
SunPower on Tuesday won bankruptcy court approval to sell its solar panel business — including its new home business and direct-to-consumer unit, Blue Raven — to rival Complete Solaria Inc. Separately, Enphase Energy Inc., which has supplied microinverters for SunPower panels since 2018, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the company to assume management and monitoring of residential installations.
But what will become of the app is still an open question. “SunPower intends to provide relevant updates to customers as it becomes available through the Chapter 11 process,” says spokesperson Sanah Sadaruddin. This month, app users were notified that mySunPower would stop providing customer support.
An Enphase spokesperson referred inquiries to the company’s website, which states that, “Whether your SunPower system is powered by Enphase or not, it can be modified to communicate with the Enphase Monitoring Platform and the Enphase App.”
In the Southern California city of Menifee, SunPower’s fate is affecting entire neighborhoods. Each of 219 houses in two developments built by KB Home feature SunPower solar panels and batteries, as well as heat pumps and other electric devices. The homes are connected in two self-contained microgrids that can operate independent of California’s power grid if it fails. They also supply electricity to the local utility.
Energy use in both developments is managed via SunPower software, and homeowners use the mySunPower app to control their individual residences. KB Home spokesperson Craig LeMessurier says the company “like many other homebuilders affected by the situation, is working to understand the impact, if any, on the mySunPower app.”
Langone at EnergySage recommends that SunPower customers contact a certified installer to discuss their options for managing and monitoring their solar array. Celik, who hasn’t heard from SunPower directly, says his installer already reached out to say that it could provide alternatives if the app does stop working.
The future is murkier for Fisker owners, who are figuring out how to make do without the app that unlocks their doors, locates their car and monitors its charge. Clint Bagley, an Ocean owner in California who works with the Fisker Owners Association, says he still likes the car, despite being stranded several times when a battery failed. “I’d love to have the app back,” he says. “That’d be nice.”
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