Incorrect auto-profile selected

[Pagemakers]

U.K. relevant thread only.

My car has 2 profiles. Mine and my partners. We both have iPhone used as keys.

I’ve noticed when I walk up to my car with my partner it always defaults to their profile - I always do the driving so it’s starting to get infuriating. In settings my phone is set to be the default profile.

If I walk to the car with both phones in my pocket it’s fine. The profile remains as it should, with me.


After weeks of testing I think I may have found the bug!

In the U.K. whoever walks up to the PASSENGER (left) side sets the profile in the car not the driver.

Because I always drive the profile sets to my partner - the passenger if we drive together.

Today as a trial I walked to the passenger door and the profile set to me.

When this was confirmed I walked back round to the driver’s door and the profile swapped to my partner again who had moved to the passenger door.

This would also explain why nobody in America is seeing this problem because for them it’s the correct behaviour.

Can any Brit who has 2 profiles set in their car please test this for me and confirm if you experience the same.

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Exactly the same happens with us. We also both have iPhones, and most of the time the car selects my wife's phone rather than mine.

 

[Puma2020]

Interesting find. I concur that it is likely to be an USA artifact, that Tesla has not realized is a problem. Do you have the software version that allows a priority device?

 

[Pagemakers]

I’m on 2020.40.9 but it’s been happening to be for ages. Certainly the last 3-4 updates or more.

 

[Pagemakers]

Exactly the same happens with us. We also both have iPhones, and most of the time the car selects my wife's phone rather than mine.

Are you doing the driving?

 

[WillyC]

Likewise!

 

[CMc1]

Same here. Two iPhones. 2020.40.9. Model 3. Priority device selected. Wrong device connects.

Likely due to Bluetooth being in passenger mirror.

How do we flag this?

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Are you doing the driving?

Yes, pretty much always.

I think the reason is as above, any phone towards the passenger side of the car is sensed before any phone towards the driver's side.

 

[doats1]

I always thought that my wife's phone just had a stronger Bluetooth than mine, but this makes much more sense.

 

[m3gt2]

Same here. Two iPhones. 2020.40.9. Model 3. Priority device selected. Wrong device connects.

Likely due to Bluetooth being in passenger mirror.

How do we flag this?

I think the priority Bluetooth is only for audio/calling I'm thinking of getting a ring each but then I think we'd loose the walk away locking

 

[Pagemakers]

I think the priority Bluetooth is only for audio/calling I'm thinking of getting a ring each but then I think we'd loose the walk away locking

That maybe true (and in this case irrelevant really) but the fact the car always connects to the passenger side is definitely a bug here in the U.K.

 

[m3gt2]

That maybe true (and in this case irrelevant really) but the fact the car always connects to the passenger side is definitely a bug here in the U.K.

I fully agree and while it could be fixed on new builds by moving the Bluetooth antenna to the RHS mirror it'd be a nightmare to retrofit

 

[Glan gluaisne]

The workaround we use is to make sure that I always get to the car and unlock it before my wife. Once it's picked up one signal, it seems to stay locked to that until the car's locked.

For us it's meant changing the way we leave the house, as I used to be the one that locked the house up, whilst my wife got in the car and got settled in. Now my wife locks up, so she always gets to the car after me. The main downside is that she always faffs around for ages, putting her handbag in exactly the right place, sorting out sunglasses, lip balm, putting on her seatbelt, etc, so now I have to sit there whilst she does all this stuff . . .

 

[Pagemakers]

I fully agree and while it could be fixed on new builds by moving the Bluetooth antenna to the RHS mirror it'd be a nightmare to retrofit

I think it could easily be fixed in a U.K. software update. If it sees 2 phones and one is stronger (closer) connect to the other.

 

[CMc1]

I fully agree and while it could be fixed on new builds by moving the Bluetooth antenna to the RHS mirror it'd be a nightmare to retrofit

Or via software by changing priority to device with lowest signal.
Sure they could “map” what the average phone signal is for RHD models v LHD

 

[Glan gluaisne]

It's not just a problem with phones. My wife's much more diligent about turning her phone on when we're going out than I am, I often just forget to turn it on altogether. Her phone will override the fob, in the same way as it will override my phone if I've remembered to turn it on. I suspect the fob uses the same Bluetooth LE signalling as a phone, hence the problem may well be to do with the physical location of the Bluetooth antenna, which is presumably co-located with the WiFi antenna, as both use the same frequency band. With this antenna being located in the passenger side wing mirror it seems unlikely that any software fix would be effective, as it seems to depend wholly on which Bluetooth LE signal the car picks up first.

 

[Pagemakers]

It's not just a problem with phones. My wife's much more diligent about turning her phone on when we're going out than I am, I often just forget to turn it on altogether. Her phone will override the fob, in the same way as it will override my phone if I've remembered to turn it on. I suspect the fob uses the same Bluetooth LE signalling as a phone, hence the problem may well be to do with the physical location of the Bluetooth antenna, which is presumably co-located with the WiFi antenna, as both use the same frequency band. With this antenna being located in the passenger side wing mirror it seems unlikely that any software fix would be effective, as it seems to depend wholly on which Bluetooth LE signal the car picks up first.

Never used a fob or card in my life

 

[Glan gluaisne]

Never used a fob or card in my life

The fob and the card use different methods to communicate with the car. The card uses an RFID system, so needs to be very close to the sense coils in the car, just a few cm away at most.

The fob works in the same way as a phone, in that it uses proximity and Bluetooth LE to communicate with the car. My experience has been that the fob seems to be a bit more reliable than a phone, in that it doesn't matter which pocket it's in it just works. My experience using the phone has been that it sometimes won't work if the phone's in a bag, yet having the fob in the same bag works fine. Not sure why this should be, as in theory I'd have thought that a phone should give a better Bluetooth LE signal. It may be something to do with the way the fob is activated by the car, perhaps, as I have a feeling that may be a difference between it and a phone.

 

[paulobrien]

Yeah, this is annoying, we get this too. Hi @Pagemakers!

 

[-monky-]

For those couples where one of you primarily does the driving, a better workaround might be to set both profiles to the primary driver’s settings (or set both Bluetooth devices to trigger the same profile? if that’s possible). And then have a third profile which the secondary driver manually selects if they are driving.

Not perfect but it would mean the primary driver is never inconvenienced. Instead the secondary driver would always face a little inconvenience....but it would seemingly occur less often.

Not a solution for “equal partners” though!