- Apr 20, 2013
- 511
- 60
This happened this afternoon in San Francisco: We met up with friends from overseas and after a nice Dim Sum drove up to Twin Peaks. It was a gorgeous day, and we enjoyed great views from up there ... Then one of our friends had the idea to have his picture taken sitting in the Tesla with the city in the background. We went back to the car which had auto-locked, and my wife who was driving today was trying to open it. Door handles would not present. She had the key fob in her hand. Pushing key fob buttons did nothing. Pushing on the door handles did nothing. I placed the key fob at the magic spot at the passenger's side of the windshield. No go. We were locked out, in the relative middle of nowhere at the top of San Francisco.
I thought "I can try one more thing" and whipped out my iPhone (my wife had left hers in the car). The Model S app took a few seconds to connect, and tapping the "Unlock" button and confirming the "Do you really want to unlock the car" dialog - a couple more (loooong) seconds and the door handles swooped out. All good!
Our friend (who is a car buff and electronics expert as well as ham radio licensed) mentioned that he had seen the same thing and heard of others having the same issue with his mother's Smart car at the parking lot of a public swimming pool in our childhood town in Germany. I think he said that not only was the car locked but could not be started either in that situation. It was determined to be RF interference from an adjacent telecommunications tower of Telekom, the German phone and wireless company.
There are a bunch of radio and microwave antennas on that part of Twin Peaks, and Sutro Tower, the main radio and TV transmission tower in San Francisco is within spitting distance. So he suggested that it was most likely some RF interference that caused the key fob to stop working. We confirmed that at a spot down from Twin Peaks where we stopped and had no trouble locking and unlocking the car with the key fob. Driving once unlocked was not an issue for us.
Later this afternoon I called Tesla to tell them of our experience and our suspicion for the cause. The agent was very patient listening to my story (not as rambling as this writeup
and said that there have been reports of similar incidences with Model S' at 2 locations in Southern California. If I remember correctly, one is called Mt. Wilson? Mine was the first report he knew of from Northern California or anywhere else. He also said (sensibly) that this was not isolated to Teslas or EVs, but not uncommon with modern cars with similar remote entry key fobs. He said that tow truck drivers confirmed that this was a regular occurrence at certain spots.
The bottom line: When you drive your Model S up to Twin Peaks make sure your key fob works before you lock the car or let it lock itself. Just in case, take your iPhone (or Droid) with you, and be thankful that the Tesla's 3G communication still works up there. Watch out for the same thing on other viewing spots with big antennas around ...
I thought "I can try one more thing" and whipped out my iPhone (my wife had left hers in the car). The Model S app took a few seconds to connect, and tapping the "Unlock" button and confirming the "Do you really want to unlock the car" dialog - a couple more (loooong) seconds and the door handles swooped out. All good!
Our friend (who is a car buff and electronics expert as well as ham radio licensed) mentioned that he had seen the same thing and heard of others having the same issue with his mother's Smart car at the parking lot of a public swimming pool in our childhood town in Germany. I think he said that not only was the car locked but could not be started either in that situation. It was determined to be RF interference from an adjacent telecommunications tower of Telekom, the German phone and wireless company.
There are a bunch of radio and microwave antennas on that part of Twin Peaks, and Sutro Tower, the main radio and TV transmission tower in San Francisco is within spitting distance. So he suggested that it was most likely some RF interference that caused the key fob to stop working. We confirmed that at a spot down from Twin Peaks where we stopped and had no trouble locking and unlocking the car with the key fob. Driving once unlocked was not an issue for us.
Later this afternoon I called Tesla to tell them of our experience and our suspicion for the cause. The agent was very patient listening to my story (not as rambling as this writeup
and said that there have been reports of similar incidences with Model S' at 2 locations in Southern California. If I remember correctly, one is called Mt. Wilson? Mine was the first report he knew of from Northern California or anywhere else. He also said (sensibly) that this was not isolated to Teslas or EVs, but not uncommon with modern cars with similar remote entry key fobs. He said that tow truck drivers confirmed that this was a regular occurrence at certain spots. The bottom line: When you drive your Model S up to Twin Peaks make sure your key fob works before you lock the car or let it lock itself. Just in case, take your iPhone (or Droid) with you, and be thankful that the Tesla's 3G communication still works up there. Watch out for the same thing on other viewing spots with big antennas around ...
