Unlocking through the app requires server and phone cell signal. Phone (Blutooth) unlocking and key card unlocking do NOT require connectivity. That would be dumb, phone cell signal doesn't work everywhere.
Source: I have a Model 3, and frequently park in locations with 0 cell coverage.
Do not leave your keycard at home. Every Tesla owner should have a keycard in their wallet (You don't go driving without your wallet, do you?). You never know if your phone will die.
It's the same with cars that use keyless start. In my wife's Honda CRV, the fob has a physical key that can be removed to open the door, and the Start button can read the RFID in the fob if the fob battery is dead.
And before somebody says “aha what if the car battery is dead!!” (Which is what I thought)… if the car battery is dead, you ain’t going anywhere. Can’t start the car without the battery unless it is a manual transmission.
Of course the doors… well, shouldn’t there be a backup physical key?
Yeah, this just doesn't jive with the way these devices have always worked. That said, do keep your key card on your person somewhere. I haven't been locked out of my car by a dead phone battery, but at some point it's going to happen I'm sure.
I've been driving my car several times during the outage today with no problems. 99+% of unlocks don't require connectivity, unless you're always unlocking the car for someone else who doesn't have a key...?
In general: always carry the key with you; it's a slim card that goes in your wallet. Or use your phone's Bluetooth. I've only used the remote unlock once and that was to let a family member in where I couldn't go with them. I've also only had to use the card once, and that was when my phone's BT was having trouble.
If anyone is really stranded because of this (and is able to post on a forum about it), that must be some really bad luck: no fob, no Bluetooth despite a working phone, and no key.
I always assumed unlocking your Tesla with the phone would use Bluetooth, NFC, even ad-hoc but I never expected it to be dependent on a round-trip to a internet-connected server. That seems like a really crap design and ripe for security issues, especially since it seems the Tesla customer support team has the ability to unlock cars remotely too.
The first commenter that says they can't enter their car also said their keyfob died that morning.
Bluetooth keys work but not all Tesla cars have those. Some cars unlock by phone via the app through an internet connection, it seems.
I'm surprised remote unlocking is as easy as calling a number and convincing an operator that you're the owner. Another reason to avoid the brand, I suppose.
I have been locked out of my car before. I would be very pleased with the service where remote unlocking is as easy as calling a phone number and convincing the operator that you're the owner. Of course, that comes with one important condition: Tesla would have to be the one who absorbed the risk that the authentication was false and the car gets stolen.
> I'm surprised remote unlocking is as easy as calling a number and convincing an operator that you're the owner
I've consulted on on stolen luxury vehicle cases and I can tell you this isn't unique to Tesla. If you know what to say and can say it convincingly you can locate, disable, and unlock a higher end car pretty easily.
> I'm surprised remote unlocking is as easy as calling a number and convincing an operator that you're the owner. Another reason to avoid the brand, I suppose.
You probably want to avoid cars altogether if this bothers you. For basically all cars, there are far easier and less time consuming methods to unlock the doors.
Yes, you can unlock your car with the NFC keycards (or app via NFC), the bluetooth fobs or bluetooth phone, with no connectivity for either.
The problem that happened last time was that people opened the app to do something and logged out to try and fix it, thus clearing their credentials, and then can't log back in, and cant log back in to reauthenticate their device.
No, the keys are fixed to the car, not managed by the app. You can delete them only AFAIK from within the car UI. And IIRC it requires you have at least two active at all times.
If you read through the posts, some are saying they cannot get into their car at all. Others are saying you can call Roadside Assistance for a remote unlock, but I wonder what the hold times are there right now...
I'm totally not up to speed on Tesla details, but weren't those only added later for the higher-end models, so people that bought before might not have those? (+ of course you can bet that a pile of people doesn't carry them because the phone method "always" worked)
* Via Bluetooth from your phone. Model 3 and Y used this as the primary way of unlocking. This does not require a Tesla server. It's just local communication between the car and the phone. The car and the phone are paired.
* Via a key card. Model 3 and Y use this as the method when you get the car until you pair it with the phone and what you use if you want to give someone temporary access to the car (e.g service, valets).
* Via a key fob. Model S and X used this in the past (not sure if the latest refresh changed this but older S and X vehicles didn't support Bluetooth or Key cards) as the primary method.
* Remotely via the phone app. As in you make an API call to Tesla with your Tesla credentials and Tesla sends a remote command to the car. This requires Internet access for the device making the request and to the car in order to receive the command. This last bit is what's broken. Given the requirements this has never been very reliable and nobody would want to use this on a day to day basis.
So I seriously doubt very many people are locked out of their cars. I am able to get into my 2015 Model S via the key fob and my 2018 Model 3 via Bluetooth from my phone.
Could be. I don't believe the old fobs were bluetooth.
For what it's worth I also didn't mention that at least the old fobs also had an RFID in them that if the battery was dead you could just hold them up to certain spots on the car to open/drive it.
It sounds like from the forum that some people rely on only the app, and Tesla markets this as an option. Seems like a big issue to push that feature and then for it to be down for hours.
Some people are just like that. I have a friend who drives a different brand that has a similar feature, and he uses the app almost exclusively, even though getting to it and waiting for it to go through takes far longer than me using my fob. He just really likes doing it the "high tech" way and only using one gadget for everything.
Who makes an app to unlock the car when you're carrying the key? You could also run out of car charge, but youre not worried about that, both you can just look at the gauge.
My phone battery lasts all day, and the internet is rarely down; but servers on the other hand...
I can't imagine anyone using the app to unlock their car on a normal basis. Normally, you just walk up to it with your phone with bluetooth enabled, and it unlocks for you(you don't need to proactively take an action on the app like clicking an unlock button)
So, you carry the keycard in your wallet in case your phone dies or it is stolen or whatever, you can still get in and start your car. But 99.999% of times you just walk up to your car and start driving without unlocking, or turning a key, or anything like that.
The keycard is just a back-up that you can keep in your wallet. Unlocking with the app (phone) happens automatically with bluetooth when you are near the car, no internet required.
The main reason to use the app is if you want to unlock remotely for someone else using your car.
It took me long as heck to find a quality non-smart TV because I didn't want the lack of control, programmed obsolescence and shitty-ness of smart TV software.
I wonder if I won't be able to have a proper quality car really owned and controlled by me in the future.
EDIT: Ok, so it seems it supports a Keyfob. Then all is good.
It does not require a remote connection to work. To unlock the car with your mobile app does though.
I am curious what you mean by a proper quality car since all cars have governors which limit your speed or have computers in them that prevent you from fixing things yourself. Though I do agree with you that I wish these restrictions were lifted, I doubt it will ever happen. Only way is either building your own car or buying an old one without these "features"
I'm not a radical. I'm totally ok with embedded software, or with the legal restrictions you mention. I'm also ok with software that is optional or uninstallable too.
What I dislike is companies putting unnecessary, unsafe, crappy software that's full of tracking/spyware in their products. This is common with SmartTVs and lots of things in the smart/IoT space. I've seen the damage done and I just dislike the lack of choice and want to vote with my wallet.
Just voting with my wallet. I simply don't want to pay for wasteful, insecure, low-quality software that I consider detrimental to me (and for the hardware needed to run such software). I would be ok with optional/uninstallable software.
Source: I have a Model 3, and frequently park in locations with 0 cell coverage.