Be careful parking near a radio tower

[TR5642]

I had an interesting experience this weekend. I parked my S adjacent to the radio towers on Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Had a lovely stroll, took some picture. Came back to car... Handles don't present. Grab fob, push roof, still nothing. Oops.

Could not get car to open conventionally. Tried app to unlock but phone was having difficulty connecting too. Walked away a bit and finally connected (thank goodness the car did) and unlocked to go home.

I have since looked up the strong spots for the fob (passenger wiper and base of rear window) But it sure would be nice to have a more reliable backup.

 

[DonL]

Happened to me at Mt. Soledad in La Jolla. The TV transmitters for local stations are nearby. I did get through using my app.

 

[Max*]

I've had a similar problem in my old jobs parking garage. There was one spot where the key fob almost did not work. I have no idea what they were doing, if it was just multipath or if something was emitting in that specific parking spot. Couldn't get car to unlock, then when it finally did, kept getting "no key inside car" message, and when it finally showed up, I quickly drove off and never parked there again.

It would be nice to have a backup, but with every "backup"/backdoor, that's a way to hack/break into the car. So it's always a tradeoff.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Yep, I ran into this in the first 12 hours of owning the car. LOL

 

[Derek Kessler]

Yep. Made a visit to a local TV station co-located with their broadcast tower and the car wouldn't respond to the key fob once I returned to the car. App still worked, thankfully.

 

[Nosken]

When this has happened, has anyone tried to manually open the trunk. I have had periodic issues with my fob not presenting handles on walk up, but almost always allows trunk manual opening. Then the handles present fine.

 

[slipnslider]

Example #14325 of awesome new technology being inferior to old simpler technology.

Yes tesla we want electric cars. But I fail to see why tesla thinks reinventing the powertrain means reinventing everything else too. This forum is filled with posts of quirky electronic bugs and errors. Problems that aren't caused by the cars having electric motors, rather caused by the cars being crammed with a bunch of cutting edge new unnecessary technology.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

Example #14325 of awesome new technology being inferior to old simpler technology.

Yes tesla we want electric cars. But I fail to see why tesla thinks reinventing the powertrain means reinventing everything else too. This forum is filled with posts of quirky electronic bugs and errors. Problems that aren't caused by the cars having electric motors, rather caused by the cars being crammed with a bunch of cutting edge new unnecessary technology.

Yep! Here is what I REALLY want,

A smaller car, AC/Heat, and yes, EV please with supercharger access. 200 mile range.

Screw all of the below,
1. Fancy door handles,
2. Automatic keyfob that sort of works,
3. Sunroof that rattles and creaks,
4. Car seat that likes to turn itself off when I look behind the car,
5. or the need to put a watermelon in the driver seat to keep the wife cool when I run into the grocery store.
6. Those auto-opening doors on X, and those karate kid doors too while you are at it.
7. keep the headlights, make 'em better.
8. And yes, screw that 17" screen too. Just give me a place for me to dock my iPad because frankly its got better nav and media and voice control, and oh a much better browser too.

.. and keep autopilot

 

[David29]

I have had what I assume is radio or TV interference, on at least two occasions. I have twice been to a local electronics store (U-Do-It Electronics in Needham, MA) and found I could not open the car when leaving. The store is near not just one by three major TV towers that have multiple antennas. Plus it sells ham radio gear and may have operating transmitters inside the store. In both cases I was finally able to get into the car, but I have forgotten exactly what I did. I know for sure that my cellphone would also not work the first time. i think it turned out that I had to wait and keep trying, and eventually the key fob worked. But the first time was scary since I also could not call.
Similarly, I always have trouble at my local touchless car wash (RoJo in Norwood, MA). You have to pay at a kiosk, which has a reader for contact-less cards (like the Mobil Speed Pass cards). The phone has not worked there, either (or else was in my car). So now I know to leave a door open or a window down while I am making my payment (it is too difficult to reach the kiosk from the Model S -- the seat is too low, so I get out). So radio interference is definitely a risk.

 

[Shock-On-T]

Yep! Here is what I REALLY want,

A smaller car, AC/Heat, and yes, EV please with supercharger access. 200 mile range.

Screw all of the below,
1. Fancy door handles,
2. Automatic keyfob that sort of works,
3. Sunroof that rattles and creaks,
4. Car seat that likes to turn itself off when I look behind the car,
5. or the need to put a watermelon in the driver seat to keep the wife cool when I run into the grocery store.
6. Those auto-opening doors on X, and those karate kid doors too while you are at it.
7. keep the headlights, make 'em better.
8. And yes, screw that 17" screen too. Just give me a place for me to dock my iPad because frankly its got better nav and media and voice control, and oh a much better browser too.

.. and keep autopilot

You're in luck, Chevy makes just such a car! (Minus the AP)

 

[Doug_G]

On occasion the Roadster's fob has been balky. The antenna "system" in the car is rather weak. Never any trouble with the S but I'm sure parking beside an FM radio transmitter would be inadvisable.

 

[David99]

Other than keeping the key fob in the same pocket with my phone (which is known to interfere) never had that issue.

 

[Sir Guacamolaf]

You're in luck, Chevy makes just such a car! (Minus the AP)

Except - you can't buy it anywhere (not around me at least). I agree though, that and the new upcoming leaf are what I REALLY want, and Tesla service ain't makin' Sir G very happy lately.

 

[Frankman60]

+1

Happened to me at Mt. Soledad in La Jolla. The TV transmitters for local stations are nearby. I did get through using my app.

 

[K-MTG]

I took my X to Twin Peaks last August, other than the doors swinging wide open (due to wind). I didn't have any issues.

 

[brkaus]

I had this problem with my Toyota many years back. It did have a key backup (had to listen to the alarm). Dealer didn't believe me.

 

[nowtleft]

Yep! Here is what I REALLY want,

A smaller car, AC/Heat, and yes, EV please with supercharger access. 200 mile range.

Screw all of the below,
1. Fancy door handles,
2. Automatic keyfob that sort of works,
3. Sunroof that rattles and creaks,
4. Car seat that likes to turn itself off when I look behind the car,
5. or the need to put a watermelon in the driver seat to keep the wife cool when I run into the grocery store.
6. Those auto-opening doors on X, and those karate kid doors too while you are at it.
7. keep the headlights, make 'em better.
8. And yes, screw that 17" screen too. Just give me a place for me to dock my iPad because frankly its got better nav and media and voice control, and oh a much better browser too.

.. and keep autopilot

Do you think you should buy a BMW in future if you dont like Tesla?

 

[Shock-On-T]

Except - you can't buy it anywhere (not around me at least). I agree though, that and the new upcoming leaf are what I REALLY want, and Tesla service ain't makin' Sir G very happy lately.

For me the M3 has the potential to be the perfect car, mainly due to the supercharger network.
I love my S but it's a bit big, and it's about twice what I usually spend on a car

 

[nowtleft]

For me the M3 has the potential to be the perfect car, mainly due to the supercharger network.
I love my S but it's a bit big, and it's about twice what I usually spend on a car

...but is an M3 exciting and a focus for peoples interest?

 

[jelloslug]

I have had metallic objects in my pocket block the signal before.