Helping a fellow owner out at the supercharger

[angelman]

Just a little anecdote. I was reading here the other day how a guy was locked out of his car and had his phone kicked in the car. Someone wondered if he could have just asked his wife or some one to download the app and login for him and unlock the car remotely.
Yesterday at local supercharger, the guy next to me asked if I could help him. He had locked his phone on the car and his key card wasn't working. It had a crack in it so maybe the antenna was damaged. I thought back to the forum post and suggested he log into his account on my phone. I made sure that he didn't save his details on my phone and he loved in ok and successfully unlocked his car. I hope I helped him feel happy being part of this great Tesla community. One of the nice things about being an owner is a sense of camaraderie at the supercharger. As the car becomes increasingly mass market I hope that will continue up to a point at least.

 

[jkoya]

Nice post and Thanks for helping a fellow Tesla owner - I feel good karma will be coming your way ....

 

[stonelance]

How did that work? Did he just log into the website, or have to log into the app?

 

[ewoodrick]

Treat your neighbors as you would have them treat you

 

[toolman335]

How did the phone get locked inside the car? I've accidentally left my phone in the car before and came back a while later to the car unlocked and not asleep. I would think that someone could say his phone died, but then he wouldn't be able to drive the car anyway, correct?
Wouldn't the doors unlock if he tried to get in the car anyway?
In case you can't tell, I'm confused lol.

 

[angelman]

How did that work? Did he just log into the website, or have to log into the app?

I logged out of the app on my phone and he logged in. Very simple

 

[toolman335]

Was his phone powered down?
If I left my phone in the car at a supercharger for 20 minutes there's no way my car would go to sleep and/or prevent me from getting inside it. How would the doors lock?

 

[angelman]

This is definitely an area I think Tesla could improve somehow. It's too way to lock the car without realising, too easy to have the car lock up with people inside and trigger the alarm. It's too unclear exactly what will happen for example if the car is left with the phone inside.. will it lock or not? In this case it seemed to lock

How did the phone get locked inside the car? I've accidentally left my phone in the car before and came back a while later to the car unlocked and not asleep. I would think that someone could say his phone died, but then he wouldn't be able to drive the car anyway, correct?
Wouldn't the doors unlock if he tried to get in the car anyway?
In case you can't tell, I'm confused lol.

 

[RayK]

How did the phone get locked inside the car? I've accidentally left my phone in the car before and came back a while later to the car unlocked and not asleep. I would think that someone could say his phone died, but then he wouldn't be able to drive the car anyway, correct?
Wouldn't the doors unlock if he tried to get in the car anyway?
In case you can't tell, I'm confused lol.

Here's just one scenario of several that I can think of:
- his phone was not currently being used as a key; either not registered with the car or bluetooth was off
- used his keycard to lock the car when leaving
- damaged said keycard prior to returning

 

[SMAlset]

We've lended assistance to newbies while Supercharging and when we were new always found owners more than willing to talk and answer any questions we had. I would hope owners all feel the same way about helping out. So much to learn getting an EV for the first time. I'll relay two situations I encountered.

One lady had just picked up her Model 3 from the Fremont Delivery Center and was having an issue getting the charging port to connect so she could charge. Thought maybe it was how she was trying to plug in but apparently it was a defective port. She had no idea how to get Tesla's help and so sat with her while she was on the phone with them. I think she had tried to pull open her charge port door and might have damaged it but not sure. She was going to have to go into service for it. Since her car could still be driven and she had enough range to make it to a service center, Roadside Assistance wouldn't come out. Needless to say she was not happy and it was not the best way to start new ownership. We had a charge port issue with our first Tesla which we discovered when trying to charge for the first time (was getting red ring at a ChargePoint). I did tell her that Service was able to replace out port quickly and we've never had a problem with it since. Hopefully they got her on her way and the car's been find since. Felt badly for her. Does hit home the advice to people to charge your new car at a Supercharger near the delivery location (or at delivery area if you can) so you've done it and know it works. Even if you charge at home all the time successfully eventually you will want to travel and use a Supercharger and you'll be more comfortable knowing what to do.

A second lady, from Southern California in her Model 3, approached us while we were charging to ask for help. She had the charge cable stuck in the port and couldn't remove it. The onscreen stop charging/open port weren't doing it nor was the button on the handle. Having recently read on TMC about how to release the charging cable from inside the trunk, we knew what to show her to get her decoupled and recommended she stop by a service center while on her trip to have them look at it. I'm friends with her to this day and text occasionally back and forth and plan to get together for coffee when she's back up this way.

Totally agree with OP about a sense of camaraderie at the supercharger . Hopefully this doesn't get lost with all the new owners on the road and sometimes the waitlines for charging.

 

[Casmium]

I have had it a few times that if I just leave my phone in the car for a while and not move it, it's as if the car can't see it, once I moved it the car recognized. This was for the purpose of putting into drive.

Will test this out tomorrow for leaving it locked, I'm wondering if they implemented something on certain phones that only sends the signal out to the car if the phone is moving like most new key fobs to prevent relay attacks.

 

[toolman335]

Very good point that we can test this. I'm going to do it.

I don't know about you all, but my car recognizes my phone loud and clear whenever it is near the car. It doesn't matter if my phone was in my pocket or on the front seat, it would definitely unlock the door if I attempted to get in. But again, why would the car lock? If the phone is inside the vehicle it doesn't know that you've walked away, correct?

 

[toolman335]

Here's just one scenario of several that I can think of:
- his phone was not currently being used as a key; either not registered with the car or bluetooth was off
- used his keycard to lock the car when leaving
- damaged said keycard prior to returning

You could be correct. I am VERY curious how this could happen.
My overall point is I've been burned a few times before and there's a part of me that doesn't trust someone who would have a story like this. Something doesn't add up(until the OP can tell us how/why this guy was locked out). My phone inside the car for 20 minutes of supercharging wouldn't lock my car.

 

[toolman335]

This is definitely an area I think Tesla could improve somehow. It's too way to lock the car without realising, too easy to have the car lock up with people inside and trigger the alarm. It's too unclear exactly what will happen for example if the car is left with the phone inside.. will it lock or not? In this case it seemed to lock

Too easy to have the car lock people inside it and trigger the alarm? Huh? I only have 3,200 miles on my car, but I've yet to accidentally lock my car and I have left my phone inside it for over an hour a few times.

 

[mswlogo]

If the phone is in the car and battery drains to trigger low power mode it may shutdown background processing / Bluetooth. The car will think you walked away and lock itself. Not tested this. Car could be smart enough door must open for phone to “leave” from inside.

If you drop your phone and kill it, your screwed. No different than lost or damaged FOB.

That’s why you always carry a working card with you.

 

[toolman335]

If the phone is in the car and battery drains to trigger low power mode it may shutdown background processing / Bluetooth. The car will think you walked away and lock itself. Not tested this. Car could be smart enough door must open for phone to “leave” from inside.

If you drop your phone and kill it, your screwed. No different than lost or damaged FOB.

That’s why you always carry a working card with you.

Yes exactly on that. Specifically, I keep a working card in my wallet and make sure to exit the car with it every time.

I'm still very curious what specifically happened at this Supercharger.

 

[derekmw]

When I go surfing with the Model 3, I usually turn off bluetooth and put the key card in my wetsuit. Somehow one day I forgot the key card in my wallet in my pants and locked myself out of the car. I asked a guy there in the parking lot if he could let me install the tesla app so I could unlock my car. He was blown away at how I could do this. I installed the app, logged in, and got my car unlocked. Then I signed out and uninstalled the app.

 

[kevindamen]

I have a Tesla Model X 2019

a few weeks ago, I was at a gas station car wash, walking around the car to check the cleaning.

Both the key and my cell phone was inside the car in the center console, when the car auto-locked.


No idea how that happened. but i have a guess,

In the few days before i kept getting strange sentry mode errors...

So I think there was a software problem with the Sentry Mode, that turned off sentry mode and triggered a lock down, before sentry mode restarted.

(I don't remember if i closed the door or if it auto closed... )

I was stuck outside of the car for over 30 minutes trying to figure out what to do,
during this time the cars lights would do their sentry blink thing when anyone got too close, same with the screen... doors were firmly locked.


then after about 30 minutes i noticed that the cars rear lights come back on and stay on.

i went over to the car, pressed on the door, and it unlocked and opened.

no idea why, but,

always keep your keys or phone on your when leaving the car, even if it is to just walk around the car and get back in...

 

[Adam3]

I don't even know my Tesla password, it's in lastpass haha

 

[angelman]

Yes exactly on that. Specifically, I keep a working card in my wallet and make sure to exit the car with it every time.

I'm still very curious what specifically happened at this Supercharger.

The real problem was that his keycard was not working. We tried several times and nothing happened. The keycard was damaged, there was a crack and a little chunk out of the top of it. I told him there was an antennae inside and maybe it got broken but I couldn't see any loose wires or anything to indicate that. Bad luck more than anything I think.