Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Door not unlocking as I approach the vehicle

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
Happens maybe 50% of the time where I get to the vehicle and the doors remain locked. Sometimes, as I fumble for my phone to send an unlock command, the doors unlock. Other times they don't unless I hit the unlock button on the app. BT is on with the app running in the background

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?
 
Happens maybe 50% of the time where I get to the vehicle and the doors remain locked. Sometimes, as I fumble for my phone to send an unlock command, the doors unlock. Other times they don't unless I hit the unlock button on the app. BT is on with the app running in the background

Anyone have any thoughts or experience with this?

Where is your phone? If you keep it in your back pocket, that is why (it wont work reliably through your body). What type of phone? You need to make sure there is no "BT optimization" going on, and allow the tesla app to background refresh.
 
Where is your phone? If you keep it in your back pocket, that is why (it wont work reliably through your body). What type of phone? You need to make sure there is no "BT optimization" going on, and allow the tesla app to background refresh.
Phone used to be in my back pocket, now I have it in my hand in case I need to use the app to unlock it. iPhone 12. All Tesla app options are green (on), including location in always mode. I'll check on the BT optimization...
 
Having the same issue with my iPhone & Tesla 3. Suddenly stopped unlocking on approach. Have tried ALL sorts of resets on my phone and the car to no avail. Unlocking via the app and auto locking on walk away has no issues. This is very very annoying.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nfs060
This has been an issue with my Y since day one. I have had multiple service requests for this issue and Tesla service as always blames anything they can without fixing the issue. The last time they said the phone key "simply doesn't work well" and I should use the key fob. This is quite frustrating as the car is marketed as not needing a fob. I tested their theory and I have the same issue with the fob. I also find the excuse that it won't work in your back pocket to be laughable. You can try any car on the market today with a fob and it will work 100% if the time without fail, no matter what pocket it is in. After two years or complaining and several different excuses Tesla service is now saying I am not going far enough from my car as I have to get at least 30 ft away from my car for the unlock to work again. This is again another excuse that makes no sense. My car is parked across the street from my house in a lot overnight (probably about 100ft). I walk to the car in the morning and about 50% of the time it doesn't open. I have to pull my phone out of my (front) pocket and it unlocks.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nfs060
Any Android users experiencing this issue?
Sort of. I have a Samsung S-22 (Android) and 2022-MYLR for 8 months. The car has never unlocked as I walk up to it. It consistently beeps, folds mirrors and locks when I get around 50 feet away, walking away from it. If I have a passenger anxious to get in who pushes in the door handle before I unlock the car, the handle will push in, but nothing else happens, i.e., the window doesn't drop and the door doesn't unlock or allow the passenger to open it.

When I get to the car without any unlocking and push in the door handle, most of the time the door will then unlock with a click, the windows will drop an inch, the mirrors will unfold and both the driver's door and the passenger's door (if the passenger still has the door handle pushed in), will "release" for lack of a better word and either / both doors can be pulled open by the handle.

Then when I get seated and step on the brake, sometimes it will allow me to select "D" and drive away. But frequently it will demand the key card be presented to the console.

However, many times when I walk up to the car and press the door handle in - nothing happens and I have to swipe the key card on the B pillar until it gives up and grants me access. When this happens, typically, (but not always), I have to again present the key card to the console for permission to drive.

And then there's the APP which may or may not be a little involved in all this. Various things come and go. Some days Charging Stats vanishes from the choices, some days Safety Score vanishes. Some days both vanish. When I open the APP, it may say something like, the car was last seen 2 days ago, or the car was last seen 4 hour ago, or the car is parked. {It never thinks the car is parked at Home, because it thinks Home is about a mile away from my car port where both the car display and the APP show it parked}.

I do have a wall charger and leave the car plugged in to it when I'm not using the car. Additionally I do have the premium connectivity subscription as well as Starlink WiFi and both the car and phone are connected. (Yes, thank you, I have made sure the APP has permission to run in background, etc.) When I walk up to the car and press the button on the wall connector handle, generally the logo will turn white and I can pull the plug. But sometimes pressing the plug button doesn't do anything. The only thing that will allow me to continue is to use the APP to End the Charge and Unlock the Charge Port, then pressing the button will turn the logo white and I can remove the plug. So far, I have never had to pursue pulling the string in the trunk to unlock it.

So much of what goes on with the car is so erratic and unpredictable, it is very difficult to pin down the real source / cause for any issue. It's hard to imagine how difficult life must be for the service techs. Apparently they are mostly on their own and do the best they can with little or no support from the mother ship.
 
  • Like
Reactions: helobubba
Seeing similar instability in unlocking my 2023 M3R with the iPhone app. Basically it's rolling the dice in whether or not the car will decide to unlock when I approach it.

All the various nuances mentioned here seem ridiculous to deal with (pocket location, distance from car, etc). If it's marketed as a replacement to using the card / keyfob, then it needs to work 100% of the time, with the same ease and confidence of using a good ol car key.

Tesla needs to look into this and fix it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nfs060