For those with two Tesla’s, is there a trick to waking up the correct car?

[AndrewAllen]

Having two cars now and going back and fourth between them has become a pain without using the card or key fob.

An example is one of my garages has the most room so I detail the cars in there but they aren’t parked there normally. So I walk out to my primary car and put it in that garage. Then I put the primary car back in it’s normal spot. When I get to my wife’s it doesn’t open unless I slide the app to show the other car, then sometimes it doesn’t wake up for what seems like an eternity. I have this issue when I charge them too. If I unplug my car and try to plug hers in, the door doesn’t open unless I open the App to her car.

What options are there? Thx

 

[brkaus]

You could buy the key fob. note it doesn’t have passive entry, just click.

I have an S & 3, so I also find myself going back and forth a lot.

I still believe it’s easier than multiple key rings.

 

[DriveMe]

When I get to my wife’s it doesn’t open unless I slide the app to show the other car, then sometimes it doesn’t wake up for what seems like an eternity.

The phone app works as a key only for one car at a time: the one you have selected last. That's by design.
However, if I remember correctly, I can unlock the car immediately (by pressing the door handle) as soon as I select it on the phone app. Without waiting for the car to wake up and the app to show its status. I'll double-check that tonight.
In other words, to unlock your wife's car select it on the app with the phone close enough to the car (this uses Bluetooth) and then without waiting for the app to show the updated status go and try opening the door.

 

[ZoomsansVroom]

Can both cars be programmed to work with the same card key? I find it much easier to just use my card... (Don't have two Teslas, though.)

 

[Rockster]

I share OP's pain. Yes, it's a nice problem to have, dealing with two Teslas, but I really wish the app was written to send pings or whatever to both cars so that it didn't matter which car was active in the app.

 

[ronm2948]

I second what @DriveMe said ... you don’t need to wait for the car to wake up. At least for myself, when I switch from one car to the next, I slide to the other car in the app, and the second car will unlock instantly as it just needs a direct blue-tooth connection (the “waking up” in the app requires communication over the internet through Tesla’s servers which is much slower). It is not ideal, but I appreciate not having to carry around two bulky keys in my pocket. For me, the frustration is less with the switching, but when I forget which car is selected in my app, and wonder why my car won’t unlock.

 

[SMAlset]

Model S and Model 3 here. Our two accounts are linked together and we do need the app to be on the car we will be accessing to drive.

I have an iPhone and have the Tesla widget loaded so that I can quickly see what car the app is set to. If I need to switch, all I have to do is tap on the Tesla widget and it brings up the app and swipe there to the other car. The widget also indicates if the car is sleeping, parked.

 

[boaterva]

It depends how asleep the car is. If it's 'deep asleep' sometimes you do need to pull the handle to wake it up But you always need to select the car, you don't want all cars waking up as you pass by. That's the S and X fob problem and why we need faraday bags. We wish there was a switch on the fobs (for the S and X).

 

[Jimbydude]

Yes, wife and I both have a 3 and it's a pain to constantly swap back and forth (admittedly a 1st world pain!). Also found that it's not all or nothing as some have said already in that I can open doors I think even with my car selected.

However, and I just thought of it as I was typing this, I recently got Samsung s10 and it has a 'locker' mode where it essentially creates a completely separate folder of apps that are independant copies of your main apps, they are treated like separate installations. I wonder if I could have one car connected in each. Have to try when I get home, unless bubble burst before then!

 

[AndrewAllen]

The phone app works as a key only for one car at a time: the one you have selected last. That's by design.
However, if I remember correctly, I can unlock the car immediately (by pressing the door handle) as soon as I select it on the phone app. Without waiting for the car to wake up and the app to show its status. I'll double-check that tonight.
In other words, to unlock your wife's car select it on the app with the phone close enough to the car (this uses Bluetooth) and then without waiting for the app to show the updated status go and try opening the door.

For what ever reason when I select the other car it doesn’t unlock the car quickly. I tried to switch the charger from mine to hers this morning and it took me over a minute to get hers to unlock. When you slide the screen from one car to another it’s just slow. It works flawlessly with the same car. It’s just when I try to switch.

I have a key fob. I just don’t like carrying it around when I’m just working in the garage. With my ICE cars I leave the key in the ignition while I’m out there moving them around and then put the keys back inside when done. I’m just spoiled not having to worry about a key.

As someone said, first world problems.

Has anyone created a different email account for each car and actually separated them? Can you have two Tesla Apps on your phone?

 

[82bert]

What driverme said. We have two 3s and once I slide to other car, I can nearly immediately open it and get going, even if it’s not fully “awake”.

 

[SMAlset]

For what ever reason when I select the other car it doesn’t unlock the car quickly. I tried to switch the charger from mine to hers this morning and it took me over a minute to get hers to unlock. When you slide the screen from one car to another it’s just slow. It works flawlessly with the same car. It’s just when I try to switch.

I have a key fob. I just don’t like carrying it around when I’m just working in the garage. With my ICE cars I leave the key in the ignition while I’m out there moving them around and then put the keys back inside when done. I’m just spoiled not having to worry about a key.

As someone said, first world problems.

Has anyone created a different email account for each car and actually separated them? Can you have two Tesla Apps on your phone?

My husband and I have two separate my Tesla accounts (with separate email and billing) that are linked so we can each drive the others car. However they are accessed with one app and you swipe to change between cars. I can’t see the advantage of having two separate apps.

As far as the fob goes have you thought of maybe having a lanyard you can wear around your neck when outside around the house and simply clip your fob’s key ring to it? It would keep the fob kind of out of the way then but still readily accessible. That or clip the fob key ring to a belt buckle if you wear a belt.

 

[OCR1]

My husband and I have two separate my Tesla accounts (with separate email and billing) that are linked so we can each drive the others car. However they are accessed with one app and you swipe to change between cars. I can’t see the advantage of having two separate apps.

As far as the fob goes have you thought of maybe having a lanyard you can wear around your neck when outside around the house and simply clip your fob’s key ring to it? It would keep the fob kind of out of the way then but still readily accessible. That or clip the fob key ring to a belt buckle if you wear a belt.

Interesting. We have two Model 3’s under separate Tesla accounts. How do you go about linking the two together?

 

[sperkin]

Can both cars be programmed to work with the same card key? I find it much easier to just use my card... (Don't have two Teslas, though.)

Yes, you can. All my key cards are setup for both cars so I don't need to track which is which.

 

[SMAlset]

Interesting. We have two Model 3’s under separate Tesla accounts. How do you go about linking the two together?

You have to contact Tesla to do that internally at their end. They will need permission from each owner, and forgot what else. Be clear you want the accounts separate but linked to drive if that’s your preference instead of all under one master account with shared email, password and billing. Think we started the process by phone and then had to email them specifics and authorization to set up this way. Forgot how long it took from start to finish, maybe a day or two.

 

[Dan203]

Having two cars now and going back and fourth between them has become a pain without using the card or key fob.

An example is one of my garages has the most room so I detail the cars in there but they aren’t parked there normally. So I walk out to my primary car and put it in that garage. Then I put the primary car back in it’s normal spot. When I get to my wife’s it doesn’t open unless I slide the app to show the other car, then sometimes it doesn’t wake up for what seems like an eternity. I have this issue when I charge them too. If I unplug my car and try to plug hers in, the door doesn’t open unless I open the App to her car.

What options are there? Thx

Someone mentioned in another thread that if you push in the rear door handle just a little bit it'll wake up the car and allow the charge port to open.

 

[AndrewAllen]

Someone mentioned in another thread that if you push in the rear door handle just a little bit it'll wake up the car and allow the charge port to open.

Yes that works, but only if the car knows you are there. My issue is, it doesn’t think I’m there, so when I try to open a door the screen tells me to use the key card.

 

[AndrewAllen]

My husband and I have two separate my Tesla accounts (with separate email and billing) that are linked so we can each drive the others car. However they are accessed with one app and you swipe to change between cars. I can’t see the advantage of having two separate apps.

As far as the fob goes have you thought of maybe having a lanyard you can wear around your neck when outside around the house and simply clip your fob’s key ring to it? It would keep the fob kind of out of the way then but still readily accessible. That or clip the fob key ring to a belt buckle if you wear a belt.

Interesting. This doesn’t sound different for the App though. Both of our cars are on the app, and you swipe to change between cars. The issue is when I swipe from the car I was driving, to the car I want to drive, the app says waking up but the car doesn’t see me. It seems others have this issue too.

Lanyard isn’t a bad idea. I’m just leaning over the car a lot and don’t want to hit it with the key fob.

I had no idea you could code one card to both cars. I think that’s my solution. When I move my ICE cars to clean I just leave the key in it. Once I’m done I hang the key inside. If I can have one key card that should solve the issue as the fob only works on one car at a time.

 

[cybergates]

i got the fob for the 3 - it's less confusing for valets too. Now I have a fob for the S and the 3 so there's no confusion which key is for which.
I have this too - a red one for the 3 and black one for the S

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07KPZGT4D/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[DriveMe]

I just tested it this morning to make sure.
I approached my wife’s Model 3 (that was plugged in in the garage overnight). I then opened the Tesla app on my iPhone and switched it to this car. As soon as I did it, within 2 seconds I was able to open the rear door, and also to remove the charging cable. No problem at all! The app took much longer to connect, wake up the car and display its status, but I didn’t have to wait for all that.

We have no problems using our two iPhones as keys. However, for this to work, Bluetooth must remain enabled on the phone.