It seems these days everyone has a cellphone on hand at all times. So, it isn’t surprising that auto manufacturers have worked to find ways to integrate the technology in your car with your cellphone, and for Kia, that means the UVO Link. While the UVO link application has proved handy for many Kia owners, the past several days, there has been an outage among a variety of models, and we don’t quite know when things will get back to normal or if any data will be deleted in the interim.

What is the UVO link?

If you aren’t a Kia owner, chances are you haven’t heard of the UVO ink. The application serves to connect your tech devices, such as your cellphone or tablet, to your car, and it allows you to do a number of things. From a security standpoint, you can use the UVO link to find your vehicle in a parking lot, lock and unlock the vehicle remotely, or receive notices of rear seat occupants after the car has been shut off.

Besides safety, the UVO link can connect to your Amazon Alexa account and lets you use other Amazon Alexa devices to operate all of those nifty safety features. Did your child forget their textbook in the car but you’re busy cooking dinner? This feature means all you need is an Alexa device in your kitchen to hear you give the command to unlock the car and you’re good to go — completely hands free. With all of the convenience that the UVO link offers, it is easy to see why owners would feel irritated that the system is down — and has been, for several days.

System failures

The Kia UVO link is a pretty nifty feature, and while it’s a luxury that might sound a bit over the top, it is easy to imagine how something so simple could prove to be a significant improvement in our day-to-day lives. Several days ago, Kia owners began voicing problems in the Telluride Forum regarding the disrupted access, and apparently, this isn’t the first time that the problem has occurred. We have reached out to Kia for commentary on when owners can expect the system to go back online, and if owners should be concerned with any data loss while the UVO link has been unavailable but have not yet received a response.

A few glitches in newer tech

While we’ve become pretty accustomed to all of the fancy features and high-tech touches in our modern-day cars, the technology is still relatively recent. It is easy for many drivers, some of which even grew up without cell phones or technology, to be annoyed with the inconvenience of losing their ability to use the UVO link with their Kia vehicles, it will likely be back online in no time.

Until then, owners have voiced concerns with loss of data that may occur while the UVO link is unavailable, and with no response from Kia on the subject it is not particularly comforting for owners to wait and see if and when the system will be back online.

Update: As of today, Kia owners have reported that the UVO link app is back up. Hopefully, whatever issue caused this problem has been resolved by Kia and owners will not continue to have problems with the system going forward.