Locked out after closing door with key fob left next to cell phone inside

[Titus]

Went to Supercharger this morning, put my keys on the floor of the center console next to a charging cell phone. Car finished charging, got out to unplug and closed the door.

Had a big :scared: as the door handle retracted after I closed the door. Touched all the door handles and trunk for a good 10mins to no avail.

A nice fellow owner let me borrow his cell phone to call Tech Support; positive feedback as they unlocked my car within 3mins of calling.

I then noticed that door handles won't present when I have the key fob in the same pocket as my cell phone and a group member pointed out the manual does say radio frequencies from devices such as cell phones will interfere with the key fob.

So lesson is if you have the walk-away-lock turned on, DO NOT leave the fob next to a phone inside the car and close the door.... :tongue:

 

[Mille Pun]

Went to Supercharger this morning, put my keys on the floor of the center console next to a charging cell phone. Car finished charging, got out to unplug and closed the door.

Had a big :scared: as the door handle retracted after I closed the door. Touched all the door handles and trunk for a good 10mins to no avail.

A nice fellow owner let me borrow his cell phone to call Tech Support; positive feedback as they unlocked my car within 3mins of calling.

I then noticed that door handles won't present when I have the key fob in the same pocket as my cell phone and a group member pointed out the manual does say radio frequencies from devices such as cell phones will interfere with the key fob.

So lesson is if you have the walk-away-lock turned on, DO NOT leave the fob next to a phone inside the car and close the door.... :tongue:

Mind to tell which phone model?

 

[AudubonB]

I have done the same, but worse:

I had a flat trailer tire, so used the Tesla to deliver same to a local shop. Left key and phone inside car, went around back to open rear to extract tire....when I closed same, all were locked inside.

However.....in that we were in a no-reception location for AT&T, Tesla Support could not remotely unlock the car.

How solved? Tire shop employee drove me home, where I extracted the spare fob from the house. Elapsed time totaled some three hours.

And I never have had "auto-lock" on since.

 

[green1]

So lesson is if you have the walk-away-lock turned on, DO NOT leave the fob next to a phone inside the car and close the door.... :tongue:

If you have walk away locking turned on, never, ever, ever leave the key in the car. Keep it on your person at all times. Is the only way to be sure.

That said, when I get out at a supercharger to unplug, I never even close the door.

 

[bobhammer]

Went to Supercharger this morning, put my keys on the floor of the center console next to a charging cell phone. Car finished charging, got out to unplug and closed the door.

Had a big :scared: as the door handle retracted after I closed the door. Touched all the door handles and trunk for a good 10mins to no avail.

A nice fellow owner let me borrow his cell phone to call Tech Support; positive feedback as they unlocked my car within 3mins of calling.

I then noticed that door handles won't present when I have the key fob in the same pocket as my cell phone and a group member pointed out the manual does say radio frequencies from devices such as cell phones will interfere with the key fob.

So lesson is if you have the walk-away-lock turned on, DO NOT leave the fob next to a phone inside the car and close the door.... :tongue:

Mind if I ask, will borrowing another person's phone and log back into your Tesla account through the app then unlock the car works?

 

[Captain_Kong]

Mind if I ask, will borrowing another person's phone and log back into your Tesla account through the app then unlock the car works?

Yes this works very well. As long as you've a smartphone installed with Tesla app, you just log-in as yourself and can easily unlock your car.

Same thing happened to me once, both my and my wife's phones are locked inside together with the key... we walked to a nearby friend's house to borrow a smartphone to unlock the car.

2 takeaways - always have a relative / friend's smartphone with the Tesla app as a back-up (you can keep the password to yourself until you need it); and turn off(!) "Walk away lock" in Tesla's personalised setting page. And I now always pocket the key fob or lower the driver's side window if I'm getting out of the car or around the car.

 

[Titus]

Mind to tell which phone model?

Sorry for the late reply, it's a Sony Xperia Z3+ (Z4). But I don't think it's the phone model; like others said, any phone will interfere with the key fob's frequencies.

 

[jsiu]

Yes, the key fob is not designed to stand against radio interference nearby. The car remote in Hong Kong usually works in the 433Mhz frequency band which is assigned for lower power device. Apart from mobile phone, even a car air-ionizer / filter could interfere the key fob.

Sorry for the late reply, it's a Sony Xperia Z3+ (Z4). But I don't think it's the phone model; like others said, any phone will interfere with the key fob's frequencies.

 

[RDoc]

I'm not being snaky, just genuinely curious.
I never even take my "key" out of my pocket and my wife always just leaves her's in her handbag. We don't have them on the ring with the rest of our keys since they use RF (and are ungainly huge). Is there a reason people do anything else with theirs?

 

[Titus]

I'm not being snaky, just genuinely curious.
I never even take my "key" out of my pocket and my wife always just leaves her's in her handbag. We don't have them on the ring with the rest of our keys since they use RF (and are ungainly huge). Is there a reason people do anything else with theirs?

Yea that's the problem, I keep mine with a big key ring with my house and office and mailbox and padlock to my dinghy keys (only key I don't have on it is my motorcycle keys) so I only ever keep it in my pocket when I'm walking place to place. If I'm having lunch by myself I'd take it out and put it on top of my cell phone on the table. Yes yes I know, easy to lose keys that way but it's worked so far.

If I had the fob by itself I find that actually easier to lose because of the smaller size (and my 2 year old would add it to his toy collection when I'm not looking lol)