Car honked once, and unlocked. I did nothing?

[Camera-Cruiser]

I have my office about 25' away and 8' below from my garage where I park my 3 and S. I am working away in the garage and I hear the clunk of the contractors (or whatever randomly makes the clunk) and then 10 seconds later the car honks and the mirrors unfold and the car is unlocked. Car honks again and locks.

Neither I nor my wife, has touched the app?

Called Tesla and they see that something happened, but don't know what.

Anyone else?

 

[JeffK]

Using any third party apps?

 

[Camera-Cruiser]

Using any third party apps?

Not at this time. My wife never uses the app at all.

 

[JeffK]

Do you have honk on lock/unlock? The only thing I can think of is if it received a forced update or if your proximity triggered the locks.

 

[Silicon Desert]

Oh boy, my hacking attempt worked ! Seriously though, I guess it is always possible for something strange like this to occur without user interaction, yet I am having a really hard time thinking what that might be. I was also curious about 3rd party apps until you mentioned you are not using any. puzzled but curious.

 

[lolder]

You do not necessarily have to be using 3rd party apps at the time for them to do something. If they are installed, they may do something at any time.

 

[Silicon Desert]

You do not necessarily have to be using 3rd party apps at the time for them to do something. If they are installed, they may do something at any time.

Wondering if you can give an example of that theory? I'm having a really hard time of understanding that an app can do something on its own like unlocking the doors and honking the horn simply by being installed.

 

[JeffK]

You do not necessarily have to be using 3rd party apps at the time for them to do something. If they are installed, they may do something at any time.

When we say "using a third party app" we meant that they were installed/authorized on the account. We don't typically mean they were interacting with it at that very moment. haha

 

[Camera-Cruiser]

It has been quiet sense 9:53 am PST. It is weird that when I called Tesla that they could see activity at the time that it happened, but they could not tell me what created it. I am guessing that it would take a 2nd level internal tech to look at the logs.

Tesla saw that the car finished charging to 90% showing 282 rated miles at about 7:30 this morning, then nothing until this phantom event at 9:47, then me opening the car door at 9:53 (hey, I had to wait and watch the show, and I am glad that it didn't magically summon its way through the garage door) and rebooting the car. I got out, and watched it go back to sleep a couple minutes later. I captured everything on my phone, but of course this is after the anomaly.

It feels very sci-fi when you think about it. I called my wife who is thousands of miles a way now and asked her if she was showing someone the Tesla app, and it was "what Tesla app?" So that is not a factor.

You have to wonder if in the world of all the Tesla VINs and apps out there, if somehow, for the briefest moment, someone told their car to honk and unlock and we were briefly cross-linked.

Yeah, I don't write scripts, but the above is copyrighted to me!

 

[derotam]

Wondering if you can give an example of that theory? I'm having a really hard time of understanding that an app can do something on its own like unlocking the doors and honking the horn simply by being installed.

An app in general, allowed to run in the background with permissions could do all sorts of things on it's own.

 

[Silicon Desert]

An app in general, allowed to run in the background with permissions could do all sorts of things on it's own.

Maybe so, but not any app I have ever created. I'd say that is a bad design if it happens on its own.

 

[bbell]

I am working away in the garage and I hear the clunk of the contractors (or whatever randomly makes the clunk) and then 10 seconds later the car honks and the mirrors unfold and the car is unlocked. Car honks again and locks.

Anyone else?

Is it possible one of the computers in the car rebooted? I know when my car is installing updates and rebooting things I get lots of clunks and headlights lights going on etc.

 

[TW14 9LF]

On Saturday night my car honked three times in the garage, once, then a short pause, then two honks back to back. They were the kind of honks you get when you activate the horn from the app. Neither my wife or I had our phones with us. Both of my kids have the app on their phones so they can drive the car so I immediately suspected one of them was messing with me (the youngest was at a friend's house, the older lives in Colorado). Both denied doing anything. We just concluded the car was possessed.

 

[lolder]

More likely the youngest at a friends house was "possessed" with an urge to show his friend how he could mess with his parent.

 

[TW14 9LF]

More likely the youngest at a friends house was "possessed" with an urge to show his friend how he could mess with his parent.

My initial thoughts, but he swore he didn't. Hasn't happened again since, so you may be right.

 

[yyzbig6]

As an engineer working with RF signals all day, I think OP had phone near the edge of the proximity range threshold -- at this distance, phone can be physically stationary but RF signal strength can fluctuate between strong and weak to cross the range threshold randomly. (Outside of a RF chamber in a lab, signal strength easily fluctuates due to almost endless stimuli -- it really makes range detection based on signal strength difficult.)

Secondly, contractors doing work are causing vibrations. I think these vibrations cause door/trunk handles to sense false "open" events,

Combine the 2 factors, and when phone signal is strong enough plus an random false "open" event happens, it causes car to unlock. When phone signal gets weaker and goes out of proximity range, car locks and beeps. Repeat randomly.

 

[derotam]

Maybe so, but not any app I have ever created. I'd say that is a bad design if it happens on its own.

All kinds of apps check for updates in the background, car insurance apps when monitoring your driving are engaging and disengaging in the background based on speed/location/other data, Cell site/wifi detection/monitoring apps can turn your phones airplane mode on and off automatically without your express every time consent...there are a plethora of good reasons to have an app do things in the background on their own without you having to expressly allow it every time.

 

[Camera-Cruiser]

As an engineer working with RF signals all day, I think OP had phone near the edge of the proximity range threshold -- at this distance, phone can be physically stationary but RF signal strength can fluctuate between strong and weak to cross the range threshold randomly. (Outside of a RF chamber in a lab, signal strength easily fluctuates due to almost endless stimuli -- it really makes range detection based on signal strength difficult.)

Secondly, contractors doing work are causing vibrations. I think these vibrations cause door/trunk handles to sense false "open" events,

Combine the 2 factors, and when phone signal is strong enough plus an random false "open" event happens, it causes car to unlock. When phone signal gets weaker and goes out of proximity range, car locks and beeps. Repeat randomly.

I could see being on the edge of Bluetooth, but the car does not present mirrors unless door handle is pressed, at mine doesn’t. No vibrations, micro, or large. My home office is in a rural setting. My wife is the only other person in the family with the app, and as I said before, her attitude is “what app?”

I think my P3D doesn’t like me complaining about her loud and whining personality, and just wanted me to take her outside.

 

[Silicon Desert]

All kinds of apps check for updates in the background, car insurance apps when monitoring your driving are engaging and disengaging in the background based on speed/location/other data, Cell site/wifi detection/monitoring apps can turn your phones airplane mode on and off automatically without your express every time consent...there are a plethora of good reasons to have an app do things in the background on their own without you having to expressly allow it every time.

yes, I agree on some of these things. I've done apps and understand how they are designed and work. Just saying I would never design an app to allow something like this to activate car features in the background without user interaction. Other types of actions, sure, but not something like this. And yup, the app designer has control as to whether that happens or not.

 

[Silicon Desert]

I am working away in the garage and I hear the clunk of the contractors (or whatever randomly makes the clunk) and then 10 seconds later the car honks and the mirrors unfold and the car is unlocked. Car honks again and locks.

I'll send over my priest to perform an exorcism
Does' its headlights spin around in circles?