Leaving People in the Car?

[Drew57]

I normally use camp mode for passengers but a few weeks ago I left my 90y old father in a rear seat for 30 minutes while I did some grocery shopping for him, it was a scorching hot day so I used dog mode.

When I got back there were a couple of shoppers standing by the car, laughing & pointing at the screen. Ha..."my owner knows I'm here....he's even wagging his tail, poor old dear !"

 

[P3dStealth]

Just FYI I am waiting for a reason to leave my girlfriend and her mother in the car so I can put it in dog mode and walk away.

 

[roadcred]

Sounds a little dramatic.
My wife can operate the glove box just fine so long as I show her how every single time.
How is the AC uncontrollable? if you mean the fact that the passenger face vents cant be disabled then yes that is dumb but you can divert away from the passenger. I find up and to the right works best. Just done 900 miles with my air vent hating other half with no issue. Fixed on the ModelY BTW.
Others have suggested the alarm doesn't go off if there is a front seat passenger so you could always let your wife sit in the front sometimes ? or maybe let her have a copy of the app on her phone. Alternately you could go really crazy and let her drive

The alarm does go off with my wife in the front seat so in the case of my vehicle thy are wrong. I missed her one other gripe which is greater than all the rest. There are no grab handles - essential in a car as fast as this one!

 

[roadcred]

Yea and if you buy the key fob it works like a normal car. If you think about it they are using a feature that they don't want to use but also don't turn off.


I still think just telling whoever is in the car to tap the screen is the most intuitive. Screen turns off. Tap. Car is back on.

There is one other secret. If you open the door and get out of the seat then tap the brake the car stays on. It's not easy for some people but I can do it like nothing.

Should not be necessary in the 21st century in a £50k car. Come on this is supposed to be cutting edge!

 

[roadcred]

Yea and if you buy the key fob it works like a normal car. If you think about it they are using a feature that they don't want to use but also don't turn off.


I still think just telling whoever is in the car to tap the screen is the most intuitive. Screen turns off. Tap. Car is back on.

There is one other secret. If you open the door and get out of the seat then tap the brake the car stays on. It's not easy for some people but I can do it like nothing.

I bought the key fob to leave in the car pure and simple but why do we need these work rounds on a £50k car.
There are only 3 great things about a Tesla
1. The battery
2. the drive units
3. Tesla Superchargers.
The rest of the car is badly designed with no thought to ergonomics whatsoever.
Unfortunately item 3 stops you ever considering any othe EV.

 

[mpandrew]

EDIT: tested my theory and it does indeed work.
One off change: have door open when toggling the setting
Permanent change: ensure door is shut when to changing setting

This definitely does not work on my M3LR. Tried a couple of times, each time I toggle walk away lock, I see the profile update and the green saving indication so it remembers the setting. I'm doing this sat in the seat with the drivers door open. Are you doing something different?

 

[RichieC]

As above. Walk away door lock. As far as I’m aware, if you toggle this with the drivers door open the setting will reset once you go back into drive. Meaning a one off setting and no need to remember to switch back on.

Same with lock confirmation sound... turning off with the door open will only turn off once. It fully saves if door is shut when you toggle. (Useful for early hour drives, not waking family/neighbours on lock).

EDIT: tested my theory and it does indeed work.
One off change: have door open when toggling the setting
Permanent change: ensure door is shut when to changing setting

Ah! I did notice that it sometimes saves the setting and sometimes not, it could well be that sometimes i have the door open when i change the setting! I will test this further.. many thanks - how did you find this?

 

[ElRey]

As above. Walk away door lock. As far as I’m aware, if you toggle this with the drivers door open the setting will reset once you go back into drive. Meaning a one off setting and no need to remember to switch back on.

Same with lock confirmation sound... turning off with the door open will only turn off once. It fully saves if door is shut when you toggle. (Useful for early hour drives, not waking family/neighbours on lock).

EDIT: tested my theory and it does indeed work.
One off change: have door open when toggling the setting
Permanent change: ensure door is shut when to changing setting

I can also confirm it definitely works for me on a M3 SR+ late 2020.

I've used it a few times already with wife and kids left in the car while I ran into the shops.
Probably the most valuable tip to date for me.

 

[M3-Newbie]

so.... having smiled at the father left in car on dog mode comment several weeks ago... I left my mum in the car to go to the pharmacy about three weeks ago and (I was oblivious) she set off the car alarm twice while I was away which has TERRIFIED her!

Dog mode now in use, but (of course for a dog...) it locks doors, and she can't vent the windows, which made her panic the other day (she isn't well right now and whilst i was only 4 minutes - once she felt warm and wanted air I guess it felt like a lifetime (aircon was too warm because I didn't want her getting cold...)

She has to sit in the back because of access in her drive way and needing to fling door right open behind mine.

I have and really like the walk away lock thing, I haven't yet tried camp mode, or the key on the centre console, or the door cracked open so will try those - only issue is she is so scared now she doesn't want to try anything incase the alarm goes off and she is helpless in the back. I've been leaving my phone whenever I can but I also don't want her and the tesla to be stolen - mind you they would probably bring her back or abandon the car the earful they would get!

 

[Smog]

So just to add to this I thought it was “one of this things” I’d have to adapt to, until the other day.

we’d called at a car park and the other half waited in the car whilst I got a ticket. She waited in the car as it was raining. Usually, I leave my door slightly ajar, as I took my phone with me to pay on the app and I needed the unique code.

Anyway, whilst over the car park I realised I’d closed my door, turned around to unlock the car, and to my surprise it was still open.

Other half states the radio stayed on and screen never went off. The ONLY thing we did different was she left her seatbelt on.

I don’t think it works on sensors (see YouTube videos where cars will drive without a driver as long as the seatbelt is plugged in), so maybe just ensuring your passengers stay buckled up will work?

Haven’t been able to try it again this week due to shifts, but others may be able to try to confirm?

 

[mpandrew]

Or buckle the empty drivers seat?

 

[doats1]

I've disabled the walk away lock. It hasn't worked out for me so not worth the hassle.

It would be great if the app had a shortcut to lock and unlock, so that you don't need to open the app to do this.

 

[MrBadger]

It would be great if the app had a shortcut to lock and unlock, so that you don't need to open the app to do this.

Have you looked if there are any widget functionality available, ie as in iOS?

 

[Jeeves]

Don’t know what smartphone you use, but the iOS version definitely has some Siri Shortcuts that you could use: Apple Siri commands for your Tesla

There are several other apps from the App Store, but many have security concerns over them.

 

[Jason71]

I've disabled the walk away lock. It hasn't worked out for me so not worth the hassle.

It would be great if the app had a shortcut to lock and unlock, so that you don't need to open the app to do this.

There effectively is on Android. You can do it from the permanent notification

Which means you can do it even from the lock screen ( though not if the phone is actually locked if that makes sense, should do to android owners)

EDIT
Actually that's a bit worrying you can actually still unlock the car it even if the phone is locked which means if someone steals your phone they can get in even if they can't unlock the phone. ill have to look if there is a way to disable that

 

[doats1]

Have you looked if there are any widget functionality available, ie as in iOS?

In the official iOS app I don't think there is from what I can see. The 3rd party apps are close to £30 and to be honest I don't want 3rd party apps controlling my car.

Don’t know what smartphone you use, but the iOS version definitely has some Siri Shortcuts that you could use: Apple Siri commands for your Tesla

There are several other apps from the App Store, but many have security concerns over them.

I meant the shortcuts you get when you hold press the app icon briefly and a few quick actions appear.

There effectively is on Android. You can do it from the permanent notification
View attachment 600772
Which means you can do it even from the lock screen

Like this! Looks like the Android app is a bit more advanced. Ah well, might be a factor when upgrading my phone, though.

 

[Jason71]

There effectively is on Android. You can do it from the permanent notification
View attachment 600772
Which means you can do it even from the lock screen ( though not if the phone is actually locked if that makes sense, should do to android owners)

EDIT
Actually that's a bit worrying you can actually still unlock the car it even if the phone is locked which means if someone steals your phone they can get in even if they can't unlock the phone. ill have to look if there is a way to disable that

replying to my own post with a quick PSA

It appears that ( on my Galaxy S10 at least) you can stop this with the "hide content" option in the Lockscreen notifications section of settings.

 

[MrBadger]

In the official iOS app I don't think there is from what I can see. The 3rd party apps are close to £30 and to be honest I don't want 3rd party apps controlling my car.

iOS app widget - car needs to be awake to use but thats true of any non integrated solution.

 

[doats1]

iOS app widget - car needs to be awake to use but thats true of any non integrated solution.

View attachment 600774

I can't find that anywhere, is that the official one? If so, I think that my iPhone 6S is finally starting to show its age.

 

[Jeeves]

Assuming you have iOS 14.x,

- Swipe right to get the shortcuts
- Scroll down to get Edit
- Tap customise to get the a list of widgets you can add, and you’ll find it there.

Thanks @VanillaAir_UK, I didn’t know about that.