Getting Car out of Park NOob Question

[Ormond]

I picked up a Model Y today. Before I left the SC for my virgin voyage, I paired my phone with the vehicle. Before I could shift out of park, I had to get out my key card and place it in back of my cup holders. Why?

I put the car in park at a red light to enable the lane-centering beta, and couldn’t get the MY back in drive. The cars behind me were not pleased. I had to get out my key card and place it by the cup holders to get it back in drive. People were honking, and not because of my handsome good looks! Rude!

Isn’t having my phone in the Tesla or key card in my wallet sufficient?

 

[jjrandorin]

I picked up a Model Y today. Before I left the SC for my virgin voyage, I paired my phone with the vehicle. Before I could shift out of park, I had to get out my key card and place it in back of my cup holders. Why?

I put the car in park at a red light to enable the lane-centering beta, and couldn’t get the MY back in drive. The cars behind me were not pleased. I had to get out my key card and place it by the cup holders to get it back in drive. People were honking, and not because of my handsome good looks! Rude!

Isn’t having my phone in the Tesla or key card in my wallet sufficient?

The "why" part of this question is most likely due to the fact that using your phone as key is a different "paired the phone with the car" thing than pairing it for phone / music etc.

You likely never paired the car with the phone as key function. Even if you did, the car should be unlocked with the phone as key to not need to use the keycard.

 

[Ormond]

The "why" part of this question is most likely due to the fact that using your phone as key is a different "paired the phone with the car" thing than pairing it for phone / music etc.

You likely never paired the car with the phone as key function. Even if you did, the car should be unlocked with the phone as key to not need to use the keycard.

Thank you. I’ll check my settings.

 

[jjrandorin]

Look at your tesla app, if you havent setup phone as key with the car it should have "setup phone key" on it. If you did do that already, then you might need to re pair it. Its not obvious that you have to pair the phone two different ways, but this is because the phone as key function uses different bluetooth type than the "connect for phone calls" function.

 

[spsheridan]

Here are the directions to set up your phone as a key.
Model 3 Owner's Manual | Tesla
The directions are for a Model 3 but the steps are the same for Model Y.

 

[EVer Hopeful]

Moral of the story: always carry at least one key card with you at all times (or get a ring or a bracelet)

My phone kept (keeps?) disconnecting from the car so that it no longer works as the key and I can't get in

To fix this I found out (from tmc) that I have to put the phone in Airplane Mode, then take it out of Airplane Mode and that seems to do the trick. I now have Airplane mode in the five quick thingies that you can pull down on my Android phone

...and don't leave the keycard inside the car either (no names here)

 

[Ormond]

It was odd. This morning my phone worked fine as a key and I didn’t make any settings changes.

Now I have to get the car connected to the home WiFi. So far, it hasn’t spotted my network. My 2016 Tesla had no problems. I don’t think there are any updates available.

 

[spsheridan]

It was odd. This morning my phone worked fine as a key and I didn’t make any settings changes.

One potentially related behavior I've noticed is that sometimes my car doesn't recognize my phone as a key if the phone is in my back pocket. It may be due to my body acting as an RF absorber and not letting the Bluetooth signal reach the car. I don't see this behavior if my phone is in my front pocket.