Another Model 3 owner was able to unlock mine

[repoman100]

I work in a building where they have chargers for electric cars in the parking lot and my black model 3 was parked, charging. There was another model 3 a few meters away parked, not charging.

I was on a phone call on the second floor of my office building looking by the window where I could see my car. Someone just walked up to my car and opened the door!

I ran downstairs and as I approached, she stepped out of my car confusedly said, that's not my car?!

She then apologized walk over to the other model 3, unlocked it, and drove off.

Has anyone heard anything like this before?

I almost had a heart attack

 

[silentcorp]

Are you sure you locked your doors?

 

[355rockit]

It may be that when you were at the window with your phone, the phone as key was close enough to allow unlock. You could turn off walk-up unlock or ?

 

[repoman100]

Are you sure you locked your doors?

They always lock automatically when I step away from the car

 

[Mrcarcrazy]

They always lock automatically when I step away from the car

If any door is not completely latched the car won’t lock. That’s likely why he’s asking. You wouldn’t be the first.

 

[Tam]

...Has anyone heard anything like this before?...

It happens with traditional car locks to minimize costs so there are only about 3,500 different combinations then they'll reuse a prior used combination.

However, there should be many more combinations electronically with your car.

You could call Service Center to get a car log to see whether your car was locked prior to your phone call and unlocked during your phone call or was it always unlocked prior and during your phone call.

 

[Occar]

However, there should be many more combinations electronically with your car.
.

This is is quite the understatement. There is absolutely nothing to fear.

Either the car wasn't locked, or he was close enough that the car unlocked via his phone.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I would try additional experimentation.

Like try placing your phone close to the car, but on the 2nd story. That would be to test if the phone proximity is close enough that it unlocks.

I would also try checking the app to make sure its locked after walking away. Or use confirmation like setting it so the light blinks to confirm when it's locking.

 

[elf9]

If you're sure the car is locked, when you get to your office turn off Bluetooth to prevent your phone being used as a key if the car is closeby.

 

[joebruin77]

I was at a supercharger a few weeks ago. The Model 3 driver next to me walked away. When they came back, they were surprised to find their car unlocked even though the doors were closed. I suggested he check his trunk. Sure enough the trunk was open and prevented the car from locking. Like others suggested, maybe you accidentally left a door or the trunk open.

 

[GregRF]

If you have a service like TeslaFi you can look at the raw data feed and see if your car was indeed locked.

 

[Wennfred]

Do you have the new 2019.28 with the Key profile?

Fred

 

[Bill Foster]

If you have a service like TeslaFi you can look at the raw data feed and see if your car was indeed locked.

Really...... didn’t know that. Nice

 

[KenC]

I work in a building where they have chargers for electric cars in the parking lot and my black model 3 was parked, charging. There was another model 3 a few meters away parked, not charging.

I was on a phone call on the second floor of my office building looking by the window where I could see my car. Someone just walked up to my car and opened the door!

I ran downstairs and as I approached, she stepped out of my car confusedly said, that's not my car?!

She then apologized walk over to the other model 3, unlocked it, and drove off.

Has anyone heard anything like this before?

I almost had a heart attack

Uhm, the next time you see that Model 3, leave a note asking if she'd like to do some testing to make sure your keycards can't open each other's doors.

 

[silentcorp]

If any door is not completely latched the car won’t lock. That’s likely why he’s asking. You wouldn’t be the first.

Or even turning off bluetooth. I've done that before and forgot to turn it back on, got to my car and was like.... ummm the mirrors are out still. Didn't notice it not beeping when I walked away.

 

[srs5694]

It happens with traditional car locks to minimize costs so there are only about 3,500 different combinations then they'll reuse a prior used combination.

First, a couple of anecdotes....

Years ago, I owned a 1992 Saturn SL, and one day at the mall, I walked up to what I believed was my car, unlocked the trunk, and was shocked to see it filled with stuff I didn't recognize. I looked around and realized that my car was parked a few spots down; I'd opened a stranger's car by accident. I had noticed that the key seemed a little rough in the lock, so perhaps it wasn't an exact match, but it was close enough to open the trunk. This was the one and only time I ever put my car's key in another car's lock.

My grandmother used to like to tell the story of a friend of hers who drove the wrong car home before realizing it wasn't her car. Again, the key must have matched, or at least been close enough to turn the ignition.

Back to the main point....

As I understand it, Tesla's phone-as-key system works off the Bluetooth unique identifier, which is a 48-bit address, so in theory there should be 2^48 (or about 28,000,000,000) Bluetooth addresses, which are assigned systematically in such a way that there should be no duplicates. (I don't know about Bluetooth specifically, but I know that sometimes duplicates do happen with Ethernet MAC addresses, which are also 48-bit, because of manufacturer errors.) I don't know offhand if Tesla's phone-as-key functionality relies on any handshaking beyond matching the Bluetooth address; if it does, that would further reduce the odds of this sort of thing happening. Thus, I see three possibilities for what happened to @repoman100 (an ironic username, given the nature of this incident):

• You've stumbled across a serious Tesla bug
• You and the person who accessed your car have phones with identical Bluetooth addresses, against all odds
• The car was actually unlocked, for reasons others have articulated or for some other reason

Personally, I'd try to track down the woman who got into your car and do some experiments -- put your phone into airplane mode and see if she can unlock your car, and also check both your phones' Bluetooth addresses. (I don't see an obvious way to do this in Android, but there's got to be an app that'll reveal the information.) As @GregRF said, if you use TeslaFi, then it can show you whether your car is locked at any given moment, too; although that's not displayed by default in the raw data screen, you can add it as a header.

 

[srs5694]

Oh, one more point: Before I bought my Model 3, I was concerned that the phone-as-key function would have too great a range, but it doesn't. I normally leave my phone in my kitchen, at a location that's between 3 feet and 40 feet from my car, depending on where I park, albeit with at least one wall between the two. (I park outside in a driveway, but I have no garage.) Even when the car is parked as close as possible to my phone, it's not close enough to unlock the car; I need to be more-or-less within touching distance of the car for my phone to work as a key. Thus, I'm skeptical that a phone would work as a key from the interior second floor of a building, although I can't rule out the possibility that your phone's Bluetooth signal is stronger than mine and might therefore work, or that the Model 3's antenna is oriented such that it's more sensitive to a phone above it than one at roughly hip height. FWIW, here's a YouTube video that tests how far away a phone can be and still function as a key (albeit with a sample size of one, which limits the strength of conclusions to be drawn):

 

[stonelance]

so in theory there should be 2^48 (or about 28,000,000,000) Bluetooth addresses

Pretty sure you are missing like four 0s on that number

 

[apodbdrsM3]

Add a PIN requirement to drive the car!

 

[apodbdrsM3]

Add a PIN requirement to drive the car!

It is possible you both had the same password, therefore change your password.

 

[ewoodrick]

Look at your app and see if it says Phone Key Connected. If you can easily see the car, odd are that it was connected.

It's indeed an issue, but there hasn't seemed to be a huge backlash. It's a big problem for people who park on the streets and the car still sees the key.

I do wish that there was some ability to easily mitigate the issue.