Different driver profiles

[Benjamin163]

Hello,
I'm just getting used to my new Model 3 Tesla and there's something baffling me.
My wife is going to drive the car as much as I do but I can't seem to create two different profiles for things like navigation and media.
I imagined that whoever is driving the car would automatically have their setting inputted on all apps etc. Does anyone know if this is possible?
eg can I have a different favourites list in navigation mode? Can I have different favourites in radio mode?
On the same subject, is there a way of having two separate phone apps for two different users? My wife was encouraged by Tesla to use my login for the app. I imagined that we could have separate apps so that when we open the car, everything is set up for the one who opened it. Is that possible?
Another question about the app. It seems to stay active on my phone all the time. Does it sleep? Should we sign out when not using it? Do we just keep it going all the time? Or should I simply turn off bluetooth when I'm not going to be using it?
Yet another question. Why is there an option not to have the car lock automatically on walking away when you're at home? Why does that exist?
Any help gratefully received

 

[Benjamin163]

Yet another question!
My wife got out of the car while I was in the passenger seat. Everything turned off. I wasn't able to switch things back on again. How do we stop the car shutting off when the driver gets out leaving the other in the car? I would like to be able to listen to the radio or scroll through some stuff on screen whilst being a passenger.

 

[Dilly]

I can answer some of your questions. I’ve only had mine for 14 months
Use only one Tesla account and set up your own profiles on each smartphone using the same login credentials.
if you both have your phones in the car, the passenger’s should prevent shutdown if the driver leaves
there are no personal settings for navigation that I’m aware of. Radio favourites, I’m not sure. Seat, mirrors, wheel can be configured as can easy entry which is the default exit/entry setting for all drivers.
My app doesn’t keep the car awake but it may be that the settings need looking a.
I assume that the option to not lock at home is for personal circumstances. I let mine lock even though it’s garaged.
hope that helps a bit

 

[Adopado]

Why is there an option not to have the car lock automatically on walking away when you're at home? Why does that exist?
Any help gratefully received

I suppose when you live in a "gated community" and your car is parked inside an enormous locked garage with direct access into the house ... you know, like most of us have!

 

[Benjamin163]

tha

I can answer some of your questions. I’ve only had mine for 14 months
Use only one Tesla account and set up your own profiles on each smartphone using the same login credentials.
if you both have your phones in the car, the passenger’s should prevent shutdown if the driver leaves
there are no personal settings for navigation that I’m aware of. Radio favourites, I’m not sure. Seat, mirrors, wheel can be configured as can easy entry which is the default exit/entry setting for all drivers.
My app doesn’t keep the car awake but it may be that the settings need looking a.
I assume that the option to not lock at home is for personal circumstances. I let mine lock even though it’s garaged.
hope that helps a bit

thanks for taking the time to reply.
I'll have a look at my missus setting her own profile on the app. What will that do though? Sounds like not much.
I was in the passenger seat and when my wife left the car, it all turned off. I don't know why.
Yes I've set the seat and mirrors. It's no great hardship just pressing my name on the screen to get my settings, I just thought that if we had specific keys/apps, it would do it all as soon as you opened the car door. first world problems!
No the app doesn't keep the car awake but it's always awake on my phone. Just wondering if that's all good.
Yes your answers helped a lot, thank you

 

[Adopado]

No the app doesn't keep the car awake but it's always awake on my phone. Just wondering if that's all good.

It's no problem leaving it open in the background. It also means that it's ready to pass on notifications ... alarm triggered, charging started, charging stopped, charging problem needs to be resolved ... and quicker to wake the car when you do actually want to do something like pre-condition/warm the car... track your wife's location and if she's keeping to the speed limit (and her to track you of course!) It shouldn't be a significant drain on resources just sitting in the background.

 

[GRiLLA]

tha

thanks for taking the time to reply.
I'll have a look at my missus setting her own profile on the app. What will that do though? Sounds like not much.
I was in the passenger seat and when my wife left the car, it all turned off. I don't know why.
Yes I've set the seat and mirrors. It's no great hardship just pressing my name on the screen to get my settings, I just thought that if we had specific keys/apps, it would do it all as soon as you opened the car door. first world problems!
No the app doesn't keep the car awake but it's always awake on my phone. Just wondering if that's all good.
Yes your answers helped a lot, thank you

In the locks section in the car you can map a particular key to a driver profile. It's not foolproof though, if you are both there using phone key it can fail to realise which of you is driving.

If you are a passenger and want to keep AC etc on while no one is in the drivers seat go into climate and camp mode.

 

[doats1]

If you are a passenger and want to keep AC etc on while no one is in the drivers seat go into climate and camp mode.

I don’t know if this is a recent feature update, but I left the car with the family still in the other day and my wife tapped the screen (while in the passenger seat), and it just switched back on. She could control everything from that point.

 

[Dilly]

tha

thanks for taking the time to reply.
I'll have a look at my missus setting her own profile on the app. What will that do though? Sounds like not much.
I was in the passenger seat and when my wife left the car, it all turned off. I don't know why.
Yes I've set the seat and mirrors. It's no great hardship just pressing my name on the screen to get my settings, I just thought that if we had specific keys/apps, it would do it all as soon as you opened the car door. first world problems!
No the app doesn't keep the car awake but it's always awake on my phone. Just wondering if that's all good.
Yes your answers helped a lot, thank you

The app on both phones will be the same. Set each phone as a key; one for each of you and set profiles in the car against your phones. Ours work OK. When I get in, I enter the number in pin to drive (be sure to set one up), put my foot on the brake and everything adjusts to me. Same for my wife.

 

[Cardo]

If you have access to manage the car on your Tesla account (not a lease?), you can grant access to the car to another account. My wife has her own Tesla account and I granted her access from my account. Means she won’t get left high and dry if her phone logs her out as she can sign straight back in.

 

[Mattallica]

If you have access to manage the car on your Tesla account (not a lease?), you can grant access to the car to another account. My wife has her own Tesla account and I granted her access from my account. Means she won’t get left high and dry if her phone logs her out as she can sign straight back in.

... and if it is on lease? Can only one device be activated?

 

[Alic01]

... and if it is on lease? Can only one device be activated?

Had a good chat with the guy at the SC the other day on this topic, usually on lease they will only register one account to have access but you can log in with that account on multiple devices and they all work individually and can be assigned to different profiles.

He actually said that is how they recommend it is run regardless, reduces chances of the app becoming unresponsive and helps with keeping the car active if one person leaves as noted above, apparently that does not work if they are signed in on different accounts.

As we know with these conversations a big pinch of salt is required with any info received but it seemed sensible advice on the face of it.

 

[Dilly]

Had a good chat with the guy at the SC the other day on this topic, usually on lease they will only register one account to have access but you can log in with that account on multiple devices and they all work individually and can be assigned to different profiles.

He actually said that is how they recommend it is run regardless, reduces chances of the app becoming unresponsive and helps with keeping the car active if one person leaves as noted above, apparently that does not work if they are signed in on different accounts.

As we know with these conversations a big pinch of salt is required with any info received but it seemed sensible advice on the face of it.

Ours isn’t leased but we use one account and two phones. Works without issue.

 

[OddJob83]

I have a lease (Tusker) and they happly setup an account for my wife. If you have an iPhone and add the Tesla widget you can see when the car is sleeping but I dont think it is 100% all the time as I have entered the car without opening the app to grab things but when checking the widget it still says the car is sleeping. But that maybe normal if you dont drive the car.

 

[Mrklaw]

my wife won't drive very often. So I'm thinking she can just press her name to switch to her profile when she drives, to avoid situations where she might be getting into the car (passenger side) before me and the key messes things up. Can I add the app to her phone so it will keep the car awake if she is in there but I'm not, without it being a 'key' - or do I set up as a key but not assign to a profile?

 

[dobbers]

Related to this topic is question about profiles set up for 2 drivers who have Tesla app loaded on their own phones and registered with the car - lets call them him and her. Him gets into the car by himself and goes for a drive with the car recognising him as the only occupant. Next day both him and her get into the car with their phones. At this point which phone does the car choose - my experience suggests it was whoever drove the car last.

I would like a setting whereby in the event both him and her are in the car then the priority is him as he is most likely to be driving if both are in the car however I find that her generally is chosen over him when both in the car - could it be her phone reacts first to the bluetooth request? Her has iPhone and him has OnePlus Andriod.

 

[MrBadger]

App login, Keys, driver profiles, driver accounts and Tesla accounts are all completely different things.

A car can have many driver profiles. Unless you assign one to (we don't as there are lots of cases where auto selection is not reliable, plus it takes a second to select the correct one if driver changes - far longer to adjust the rear view mirror) a key, they are not related to keys or driver accounts. Put the car in the valet driver profile and many options are limited or inaccessible.

Keys are physical items - phones, keycards, fobs. As above, unless you assign one to a profile, they are completely independent of anything. You could give a key card to a garage and it doesn't give them access to driver account.

Tesla accounts again are completely separate. Anyone can get one. They have their own referrals, billing etc etc.

Driver accounts are purely an extension to a Tesla account except for one master account that is like a super user for the car. With some finance packages where a third party owns the car, the master account remains with the finance company. Otherwise the master account is the Tesla account of the driver who purchased the car. The master account is the Tesla account that any billing is assigned to, options purchased from or any supercharger referral credits taken from (might be slightly different with some finance options?). Other than the master account which is automatically assigned to the purchasers Tesla account, driver accounts are ordinary Tesla accounts that have been assigned to the car from the master account.

Now the grey area.

The app needs a login from a Tesla account. For the app to be used as a key to drive the car, the account used needs to be set up as a driver account, I think. I also think that you can assign a phone as a key without it also being a driver account. But that only gives access to the car, not the ability to drive. But I may be totally wrong. I think we use to have things setup that my son could gain access to the car from his phone, but was not able to drive the car, but now I am doubting that - this was prior to setting himself up with a driver account so he can view the car from his own account.


There is absolutely nothing stopping you using the same account for everything and for a period of time, this was Teslas preferred approach. But that all changed when Tesla introduced multiple driver accounts and made all the more inconvenient with MFA when you may need to login but someone else's device will be needed to authenticate against.

There is also nothing saying that you must assign a key to a driver profile. If you don't, the driver profile simply remains the last profile selected. If you need to change profile, its 2 presses of the screen.

tbh, Tesla really needs to change the granularity of some of the levels of access. This may all change with V11.

 

[Alic01]

I believe from some videos i have seen that you can set a key as primary so in the case that him and her are in the car together the one set as primary would be selected first.

This is how we plan to mange the keys going forwards as she only ever drives when I’m not in the car.

 

[Cardo]

I believe from some videos i have seen that you can set a key as primary so in the case that him and her are in the car together the one set as primary would be selected first.

This is how we plan to mange the keys going forwards as she only ever drives when I’m not in the car.

There is no primary key, unfortunately. Only primary phone for calls/messages/etc.

As per VanillaAir’s post, the phone keys are completely agnostic to the driver profiles. As long as you’ve logged into the Tesla app (be that the primary account or an authorised one), you can then pair the phone with the car as a phone key. On the car side, you can then assign a profile to a particular phone key, no matter which account they’re logged into. The profiles are linked to devices, not accounts.

 

[Benjamin163]

It's no problem leaving it open in the background. It also means that it's ready to pass on notifications ... alarm triggered, charging started, charging stopped, charging problem needs to be resolved ... and quicker to wake the car when you do actually want to do something like pre-condition/warm the car... track your wife's location and if she's keeping to the speed limit (and her to track you of course!) It shouldn't be a significant drain on resources just sitting in the background.

great stuff, makes perfect sense, especially tracking the wife's location ;-)