Locked out of driving. No key card or cellphone. Learned the hard way.

[Rustin]

OK, learned the hard way this morning. Dropped off the kids at school. Got back in car but could not get in to drive mode. Discovered I forgot my cellphone and keycard at home. Was able to drive TO school because one of the kid’s phone is coded to the car so car was originally enabled with his phone.
Was gonna Uber home, but no phone. Was gonna take bus...didn’t know how. (I’m a Californian Ok?) Called Tesla roadside assistance but they were of no help. And of course all AAA could do was to tow me somewhere.

Long story short, was able to get ahold of my son’s cellphone and enable the car.

Question:
Is it a bad idea to hide the key card someplace in or outside the car for situations like this? I think as long as it is kept far enough away from the center console the phone-as-key feature should work as usual.

Was a long morning. Please advise.

 

[commasign]

Keep keycard with your ID in your wallet?

Your son (or anyone else with Tesla app logged in to your account; spouse?) can enable driving remotely by tapping “controls” and then “start”.

 

[Petrlol]

You could have also called your spouse (making assumption...) from the school office and they could have started the car via the app instead of tracking down your son.

 

[bluetinc]

Or you could find someone willing to download the app on their phone and log in for you... (you might change your password after this one) - Peter

 

[SMAlset]

If you carry keys with you maybe look into buy the fob and a fob keyring you can add your keys to.

If you wear something like a cellular Apple Watch all the time I think I hear people on here using an app to access their car. Haven't looked into it so that's about all I know. But a search in the Model 3 forum and "Apple Watch app" would help.

Getting locked out is no fun.

 

[Rustin]

Holy crap! That’s all I had to do? I didn’t even know about the App/Start feature from another App enabled phone. I could’ve easily had my wife or son “Start” the car remotely then.
Thanks everyone for the quick replies!

Side note: I did speak to someone at Tesla Roadside Assistance and the person never once offered this solution even though I explained my son and wife had App enabled phones.

 

[CanadianMetal]

Just to follow up this thought:

If you get some else to remotely start your car from their app ... how long will that last for ?

Will you get locked out once you put the car in Park ?
Or if you step outside the car ?
Or step outside the car and close the doors ?

or ??

Have never been locks out yet, but want to know for the future as I only carry my phone , and not the card .

 

[Misterbee]

If you carry keys with you maybe look into buy the fob and a fob keyring you can add your keys to.

If you wear something like a cellular Apple Watch all the time I think I hear people on here using an app to access their car. Haven't looked into it so that's about all I know. But a search in the Model 3 forum and "Apple Watch app" would help.

Getting locked out is no fun.

"Remote S" is the app you are looking for.

 

[SMAlset]

That's one of them that has a companion watch app. I looked on the App Store and there was another one someone just mentioned in the last day or two, Commands for Tesla. Someone started a thread on it. Personally I'm a bit old school and have the key fob. I also am cautious about using third party apps as I don't know what security they have or if there could be backdoors etc. I know Remote S has been around for quite a while and has many fans here on the forum.

 

[asianxtreme]

If you carry keys with you maybe look into buy the fob and a fob keyring you can add your keys to.

If you wear something like a cellular Apple Watch all the time I think I hear people on here using an app to access their car. Haven't looked into it so that's about all I know. But a search in the Model 3 forum and "Apple Watch app" would help.

Getting locked out is no fun.

Do you actually need cellular apple watch? Isn't the app only using bluetooth to connect to the car? I don't think it authenticates via internet every time you want to unlock or drive the car. Data point: My garage has very little to no cellular service and no Wifi and I always use my phone for passive entry, and doors open instantly.

 

[Runt8]

Do you actually need cellular apple watch? Isn't the app only using bluetooth to connect to the car? I don't think it authenticates via internet every time you want to unlock or drive the car. Data point: My garage has very little to no cellular service and no Wifi and I always use my phone for passive entry, and doors open instantly.

The Tesla phone as key feature uses bluetooth. All third party apps (and the majority of the functionality of the Tesla app) use the internet to communicate.

 

[SMAlset]

Do you actually need cellular apple watch? Isn't the app only using bluetooth to connect to the car? I don't think it authenticates via internet every time you want to unlock or drive the car. Data point: My garage has very little to no cellular service and no Wifi and I always use my phone for passive entry, and doors open instantly.

Well if you have your phone with you then you already have a phone key to open and start the car. OP said they left home without phone or key card and wanted a solution if it happened again (clearly didn’t want to be told to just remember to bring them with).

 

[Thp3]

... (clearly didn’t want to be told to just remember to bring them with).

Backup plans exist to backstop accidents. Keeping the Tesla key card with your drivers license is reasonable. Does the OP keep their driver’s license in the car? Then putting the key card there is consistent.

Owning a Tesla is a constant-learning experience. With wireless updates I now keep a 8 Gb USB stick inserted for dash cam before I may need it. I’m considering a bigger USB stick now with Sentry mode and multiple cameras writing to the USB stick.

If the camera inside the car starts recording me, I’ll have to consider dressing better and shaving‍

 

[hcdavis3]

If you carry keys with you maybe look into buy the fob and a fob keyring you can add your keys to.

If you wear something like a cellular Apple Watch all the time I think I hear people on here using an app to access their car. Haven't looked into it so that's about all I know. But a search in the Model 3 forum and "Apple Watch app" would help.

Getting locked out is no fun.

The app is called Commands. It is downloaded from the Apple Watch store from your iPhone. The problem with this scenario is that the commands are issued from the Watch to the phone to the car. So Apple Watch and no phone it won’t work. I think that the reason that commands issued from the watch have to come to the car from the phone is that Bluetooth isn’t strong enough to talk to the car from any distance. I will check this out today to be sure and will report back. Reporting back. Issued the open trunk command from my watch and the screen said “open the Tesla app on your phone” Hope this helps.

 

[hcdavis3]

My watch is cellular

 

[hcdavis3]

I did this command with my iPhone off. Sorry for so many addendums.

 

[Runt8]

The watch app needs to be written to take advantage of the watch's LTE connection. Many apps use APIs that require all communication to go through the phone.

 

[Dana1]

OK, learned the hard way this morning. Dropped off the kids at school. Got back in car but could not get in to drive mode. Discovered I forgot my cellphone and keycard at home. Was able to drive TO school because one of the kid’s phone is coded to the car so car was originally enabled with his phone.
Was gonna Uber home, but no phone. Was gonna take bus...didn’t know how. (I’m a Californian Ok?) Called Tesla roadside assistance but they were of no help. And of course all AAA could do was to tow me somewhere.

Long story short, was able to get ahold of my son’s cellphone and enable the car.

Question:
Is it a bad idea to hide the key card someplace in or outside the car for situations like this? I think as long as it is kept far enough away from the center console the phone-as-key feature should work as usual.

Was a long morning. Please advise.

Keep keycard with you. Hook it to belt loop, whatever. There’s been folks locked out with phone, too. Hiding it on car is at your own risk.

 

[SVMike]

The display shows the name of the driver...the settings for seat position, etc.
A good option would be to designate which key is the normal default key for that person.
If that person's key is not detected,but another key is detected, then show a popup warning..."Rustin's key not detected"

If you intended to use your son's phone, then you just swipe away the message...otherwise you are alerted that you forgot your phone.
On a normal day you will not see any message.
If you don't setup a default key, then you'll never see any message.

An alternate option would be to name each key (I think you can already do this) and to just show the key name for 10-20 seconds every time you go into Drive.

 

[Rustin]

@SVMike: That’s a great suggestion! I’ll definitely have to try that out. Makes total sense. Would also be a tool for letting me know I forgot my phone!!

Learned so much from this forum. Thanks!,