Interesting Charge Port Door Observation

[CovertADV]

I went to a Supercharger this morning at Fox Hills mall to charge up. There was a pretty long line (photo below) and quite a few Teslas parked in regular parking spaces nearby. While I was waiting in line, I noticed something I thought was interesting. When someone would go to plug in the cord into their car, it would open the charge port doors on multiple cars park within about an 80ft radius.

@TeslaFix on Instagram: “More first world problems! It would be nice to get more Superchargers ️ in LA. RPV or Torrance would be a nice spot #elonmusk #tesla…”

 

[xyeahtony]

yeah this is normal. when you press the button on the wand, it has no ability to figure out which car you want to open so it opens whatever is in range.

 

[CovertADV]

yeah this is normal. when you press the button on the wand, it has no ability to figure out which car you want to open so it opens whatever is in range.

I figured it wouldn't be able to determine which car should be opened, I was surprised at the range.

 

[Naonak]

It won't open if your car is locked and the FOB is not nearby, though.

 

[DCGOO]

It won't open if your car is locked and the FOB is not nearby, though.

It will open the door on any/all nearby Teslas. But you will not be able to actually insert the charging cord until your specific car is unlocked (illuminated white).

 

[Kacey Green]

It won't open if your car is locked and the FOB is not nearby, though.

Not necessarily, I've put my fob (lowercase) in a Faraday bag and tried to get the car to respond to it proximity and pressing buttons, nothing, clicked my wall charger button and the joker flipped right out. Same when service center presses theirs when wife went to restroom and mine was not close door popped right open white light on.

However you'll need to have the car unlocked to have it let the cable go.

 

[Kacey Green]

I like to play this practical joke on the folks charging with me that have the auto open and close, to do it to the folks with the magnetic closure is a bit mean.

 

[Naonak]

I have 3 Teslas, and none of them will pop the charging port door if the door is locked and the fob is not in range. Maybe there's a timeout or something that the fob has to be out of range for a period of time before the door won't respond? The fob must be in range or the car must be unlocked to pop the charge port door with the HWPC button (Maybe SC is different, but how could it be?)

 

[Kacey Green]

It could be a timeout for sure all the times I had it happen with no fob are when it would still have the green light flashing if it had been plugged in (it turns that off after a while so it won't attract unwanted attention)

Sounds like time for an experiment.
Mine is a 2016 Model S 90D AP1 pre-refresh completed assembly 23 Feb 2016 at 2100 Freemont time.

The Supercharger gag I play they're either in or near the car, the service center getting me was when they had the fob elsewhere or my wife did.

 

[arathald]

From reading people's reports here, it seems like the behavior is different at superchargers than with other tesla connectors, and that superchargers will open the charging port without requiring the car to be unlocked. But I've always had my key on me at superchargers, so I can't corroborate that personally.

 

[DCGOO]

From reading people's reports here, it seems like the behavior is different at superchargers than with other tesla connectors, and that superchargers will open the charging port without requiring the car to be unlocked. But I've always had my key on me at superchargers, so I can't corroborate that personally.

How often is a Tesla parked at a Supercharger, and not already plugged in.

 

[arathald]

How often is a Tesla parked at a Supercharger, and not already plugged in.

More often than should be the case...

 

[Kacey Green]

More often than should be the case...

I'm a bit of a jerk twice I've found people parked at Superchargers not plugged in, and plugged them in but usually this is what I do with PHEVs parked at level 2 stations, though I use my own credentials to start the sessions

 

[mxnym]

IIRC, there is another thread where this is discussed and the answer to the befuddlement regarding whether the vehicle has to be unlocked has to do with either model or generation. More specifically, I remember it being pointed out that a Model X won't open if the vehicle is not unlocked, but a Model S will. However, I don't know if this is different from one iteration of Model S to the next.

 

[Kacey Green]

IIRC, there is another thread where this is discussed and the answer to the befuddlement regarding whether the vehicle has to be unlocked has to do with either model or generation. More specifically, I remember it being pointed out that a Model X won't open if the vehicle is not unlocked, but a Model S will. However, I don't know if this is different from one iteration of Model S to the next.

That makes sense