Model 3 Key User Manual

[N5329K]

30 feet of distance? that actually kinda sucks. I don't have a garage. but my driveway is right along the house. 30 feet means it's possible that my car will unlock itself from a good 25-30% of the square footage of my home. (I know...likely less, since BT is more of a line-of-sight communication medium).

Unless Tesla offers a simple keyfob (at a reasonable additional cost), or supports one in the aftermarket, I'm afraid their answer to your concern may just be, "You won't care."
Curious. Is that where we're at now?
Robin

 

[cpa]

If I read the instructions correctly....

My wife will have to purchase a smart phone in order to be able to lock and unlock the Model 3 and drive away. If she does not want to go through the hassle of buying a smartphone, then she has to use the equivalent of a hotel room key card and place the card in the right spot to unlock the car. Then she will have to do the same thing once she parks the car or else it remains unlocked.

Regardless, she will have fifteen seconds to press on the brake and place the car into gear.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

Unless Tesla offers a simple keyfob (at a reasonable additional cost), or supports one in the aftermarket, I'm afraid their answer to your concern may just be, "You won't care."
Curious. Is that where we're at now?
Robin

Well, my phone is only BT 4.2, so maybe I won't get the full range. Who knows. If enough of the early adopters have an issue and Elon knows about it, the will be a software fix before I even get my car. That's the cool part about Tesla.

I'm certainly not cancelling.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

If I read the instructions correctly....

My wife will have to purchase a smart phone in order to be able to lock and unlock the Model 3 and drive away. If she does not want to go through the hassle of buying a smartphone, then she has to use the equivalent of a hotel room key card and place the card in the right spot to unlock the car. Then she will have to do the same thing once she parks the car or else it remains unlocked.

Regardless, she will have fifteen seconds to press on the brake and place the car into gear.

Not much worse than putting a physical key into a slot and turning an ignition tumbler to start the ignition process.


/S slightly

 

[Twiglett]

My guess is (totally uneducated WAG) that they will use similar triangulation of the phone that they do with the FOB. In other words, by having several sensors, they can detect accurate presence. Bluetooth LE devices are very good at that (see iBeacons). So they can tell when you walk up to your car from behind, from the front, if you're in the car, etc...

Again.. just a guess, but since they 'solved' this with the FOB, they probably leveraged the same technology with Bluetooth LE

Exactly this ^^
This stuff isn't new, but folks are acting like unlock and lock will somehow explode in a flurry of crazy behavior.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

If I read the instructions correctly....

My wife will have to purchase a smart phone in order to be able to lock and unlock the Model 3 and drive away. If she does not want to go through the hassle of buying a smartphone, then she has to use the equivalent of a hotel room key card and place the card in the right spot to unlock the car. Then she will have to do the same thing once she parks the car or else it remains unlocked.

Regardless, she will have fifteen seconds to press on the brake and place the car into gear.

Not much worse than putting a physical key into a slot and turning an ignition tumbler to start the ignition process.


/S slightly

 

[gambit48]

The fifteen seconds is what concerns me. How do you reauthenticate if you don't start the car in 15 seconds? Having to go back outside to swipe near the B pillar would be incredibly annoying. I often get in the car and just idle it (not put it in gear) while waiting.

 

[Twiglett]

The fifteen seconds is what concerns me. How do you reauthenticate if you don't start the car in 15 seconds? Having to go back outside to swipe near the B pillar would be incredibly annoying. I often get in the car and just idle it (not put it in gear) while waiting.

not wanting to be a smart ass - but its right there in the manual, starting with the phrase "to reauthenticate yourself"

 

[brkaus]

The fifteen seconds is what concerns me. How do you reauthenticate if you don't start the car in 15 seconds? Having to go back outside to swipe near the B pillar would be incredibly annoying. I often get in the car and just idle it (not put it in gear) while waiting.

I’m assuming you missed this paragraph in the OPs attachment. From the text of the manual ...

—
Once inside Model 3, you can drive away if you power up within 15 seconds by pressing the brake pedal (see Starting and Powering O on page 37). If you wait more than 15 seconds before powering up, your authentication period expires. To re-authenticate yourself, place the key card near the hidden RFID transmitter behind the cup holders on the center console so that Model 3 can detect it. Once your key card is detected, your 15- second authentication period restarts.

—

So, if you unlock and put the key back in your pocket, you have 15 seconds. If you don’t touch the brake, you have to touch to the center console.

And touching the brake is “starting” it. It doesn’t put it in gear.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

The fifteen seconds is what concerns me. How do you reauthenticate if you don't start the car in 15 seconds? Having to go back outside to swipe near the B pillar would be incredibly annoying. I often get in the car and just idle it (not put it in gear) while waiting.

There's an RFID reader just behind the cupholders. No need to leave the car.

 

[gambit48]

Thanks. Couldn't get the .pdf to load.

 

[Twiglett]

time to unwatch thread

 

[SageBrush]

One advantage of the smartphone as fob I have not seen mentioned:
No more worry over uber expensive fobs and "reprogramming" fees if a fob (or must I say it, two) are lost

That to me is worth the price of admission.

 

[N5329K]

That's the cool part about Tesla

Definitely.
Robin

 

[davedavedave]

Note: You must remain logged in to your MY TESLA account on the Model 3 mobile app to use your smart phone to access Model 3. The mobile app can be running in the background.

Why would they say this otherwise. To me it seems like they want to tell that you do not have to have the app running but it can be even running in background....but is must be either running or running in background.

The context for your quote is "Authenticating" your phone, i.e., setting it up. BTLE generally doesn't require any apps to be running - your phone transmits its BTLE id perpetually, with or without apps running. I'm not saying with %100 certainty that this is how it will work with Model 3, but typically you do not have to have an app running in the background.

 

[davedavedave]

I

30 feet of distance? that actually kinda sucks. I don't have a garage. but my driveway is right along the house. 30 feet means it's possible that my car will unlock itself from a good 25-30% of the square footage of my home. (I know...likely less, since BT is more of a line-of-sight communication medium).

BTLE technology is highly configurable with respect to distances - it can be configured to within inches or dozens of feet. Having designed systems using this and using personally it every day for a couple of years, I can assure, I don't think Tesla is dumb enough to flub the execution of this one - it's just too easy.

I highly doubt they'll choose a long range like 30 feet for proximity detection to unlock the doors. Think of the issue of personal safety with respect to carjackers. The technology is very similar to all the keyless entry systems in most cars for the past decade. With both of my Priuses, you have to be about 3 feet from the car before it will let you open anything.

I think folks are really overly worried about all this. In the end, it's like power windows - they seemed frivolous in decades past, but now they're ubiquitous.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

I



BTLE technology is highly configurable with respect to distances - it can be configured to within inches or dozens of feet. Having designed systems using this and using personally it every day for a couple of years, I can assure, I don't think Tesla is dumb enough to flub the execution of this one - it's just too easy.

I highly doubt they'll choose a long range like 30 feet for proximity detection to unlock the doors. Think of the issue of personal safety with respect to carjackers. The technology is very similar to all the keyless entry systems in most cars for the past decade. With both of my Priuses, you have to be about 3 feet from the car before it will let you open anything.

I think folks are really overly worried about all this. In the end, it's like power windows - they seemed frivolous in decades past, but now they're ubiquitous.

True....my proximity key in the Audi works from only less than 5 feet from the car. I just wish Tesla wouldn't have published the 30 ft stat. it might alter people's perceptions. Like mine.

 

[S3XY]

Well, my phone is only BT 4.2, so maybe I won't get the full range. Who knows. If enough of the early adopters have an issue and Elon knows about it, the will be a software fix before I even get my car. That's the cool part about Tesla.

I'm certainly not cancelling.

From what I could tell the distance should be the same. It just might be a little slower negotiating the connection.

 

[stopcrazypp]

30 feet of distance? that actually kinda sucks. I don't have a garage. but my driveway is right along the house. 30 feet means it's possible that my car will unlock itself from a good 25-30% of the square footage of my home. (I know...likely less, since BT is more of a line-of-sight communication medium).

This was already discussed in some other thread. The connection range does not equal the distance that the car locks/unlocks the car. That only is how far the app can establish a connection.

 

[stopcrazypp]

The range of bluetooth. Need page 10 for details

Same comment, connection and unlock/lock are two different things. Again, the newer keyfob in the Model S is also bluetooth.
Tesla starts shipping new key fob with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)