When my 3 gets here soon I'll be setting up both my own phone and my girlfriend's phone with the car. Will she get her own Tesla account for this, or do I have to log in with my account info on her phone?
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Multiple phones = multiple accounts?
- Thread starter Dave B
- Start date
If you contact Tesla, you can have them change it so that your car can be accessed from another account.
You can do it either way. You can login to her phone with your MyTesla account, or you can ask Tesla to add the car to her MyTesla account.
FlyF4
Son of a MX
Uh, may I ask what you want to achieve by adding both phones to the account. Depending on your answer, you may not need to do that.
Insight75
Member
MyTesla account currently has both cars. Just 1 account. I'm thinking I want to change this up and split this. Will contact Tesla to find out.
The intention is that some time she may drive the car, and having her phone work as a key would be the way to go. (Yes, with card as a backup.)
Security best practices would be to have her have her own account and I add her phone to the car via the options there, but I understand if Tesla doesn't want to deal with the idea of someone who doesn't own a car having a Tesla account.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Its of no matter to me, but I disagree with your assessment that its more secure to have two accounts versus one account with the single car. Since you are talking security, let's discuss that. If something happens to her phone (lost or stolen) and she had not logged out of the Tesla app before she closed the app, someone can open the app again without entering the password again. Once they are in the app and have her phone, they can unlock and start the car. What's next? The car is gone. With a single account, its going to be easier and faster for you to change the password on your phone and block access to the app and prevent unlocking the car. If she's on a separate account, you could find yourself slowed down or even prevented from getting in to her My Tesla account and changing the password. If you defend this with, "well, I will know her password", then what's the point of having a separate account, if you are sharing passwords.
I would recommend take delivery and see how a single account with a single car works for a little while before you start changing things.
BTW, its not about how many phones. You can install the app and access the account from as many phones, tablets and ipads as you wish - at the same time.
Shygar
Member
Pretty sure you can manage the keys from the UI in the Model 3 itself. So wouldn't it be safer to have two accounts and just remove access for hers if her phone is lost or stolen?
Thanks for asking this, I was wondering the same thing as I want my wife to use her own account for the Model 3, even though I'm primarily the one driving it.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
I agree, its a very good question. And the discussion on it should continue to get max info and idea.
But back to the question above. What happens if they get her phone, get in the car and are gone? Its a little late to worry about using the 3 UI to manage her virtual key then.
Here's the question that should also be asked, does the app require the password to be entered again to start the car?
Here's the scenario. The bad guy finds the phone laying next to the car, (or stole it from the car's owner without the owner's knowledge).
The phone is unlocked, so the bad guy opens the app. The owner did not sign out of the app, so the app opens. Now the bad guy can unlock the car and get inside. BUT, he can't start the car. Because when he selects Start, it prompts him for the account password.
Is this the same on the 3?
No, on the Model 3 it is supposed to work just like a fob. You walk up to the car, open the door, get in, and drive away. You don't have to touch the phone or even have it unlocked.
Very good points all around here. We should be able to come up with some sort of "best security practices" when it comes to the phone keys. I'm of the mindset that it's better for each different phone to be on a separate Tesla account if possible. I'll make up my mind once I finally get my Model 3 and can do some testing of my own.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Ouch, That means we trade convenience for security when it comes to starting/driving away in the car. So, IMO, it looks like multiple accounts increases the chance of someone unlocking and leaving with the car before someone could get to an interface and change the password on the second/third account to prevent bad guy access - if for instance the phone was lost or stolen.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Sandiegodoug
Active Member
That’s exactly the way mine works, but wife and I both share account and both iPhones have same account with both cars on app. I do have to have the phone on the 3 for the phone to access the car. In the x it doesn’t matter since use key fob
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Good info. I've not done a scientific survey, but just observed how other owners use the app when we've had meets and the subject wanders around to access the car via the app. I noticed most folks don't sign out of the app before they close it on iphones. When I remember to say something, I try to point out that, leaving the app running/not signing out, increases vampire drain on the car. But in this case, my point is, we are leaving access to the car easy for someone that gets our cell phone - when we don't sign out of the app before we close the app.
Honestly I'm trying to come up with a good answer but coming up short at the moment. You may be right and that one account would be more secure. I yield to the consensus of the thread.
It's a risk I'm going to take for the sake of convenience. I know where my iPhone is at all times and if I ever lost it I would do a remote wipe on it immediately. This really is not any different than losing a traditional key fob to any other car. You lose it or it gets stolen and someone else will potentially be able to get into your car and drive off. At least with my iPhone as the key I can remotely wipe out the iPhone and completely disable its ability to be used as a key for my Model 3.
Shygar
Member
Multiple phones is not really the same question as multiple accounts, because the debate here is whether multiple phones should use the same account or different accounts, not whether there should even be multiple phones.
I think ultimately how is it any less secure than a key? If someone steals your key, there's nothing you can do, they have your car. At least with Tesla, you can track the car and deactivate the account that was stolen, but still have an active account on the car. So theoretically if someone stole my wife's phone and drove away, I could (theoretically) call Tesla to deactivate her account, go find my car and drive away with it. If it was just a single account, I would have to leave the account active or rely on the RFID card to continue driving the car. I wouldn't be able to continue to track the car if my account was deactivated.
I think ultimately if someone wants your car and is willing to steal something from you to get it, then there's not a ton at the end of the day to stop them. Maybe you can put a fake key on your keychain so someone steals that thinking they can get into your car, not knowing the phone is the key
.
Akikiki
A'-Lo-HA ! y'all
Maybe instead of a fake key, you should carry an inactive phone - unactivated as a decoy. Just around holding it up to your head talking to yourself. And when your arm gets tired put it down on a table or top of a trash can so its bait for someone to take. Then you can sneak back to your car and drive away. Yes. Yes, - now we (me) are getting ridiculous.
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Well, This sounds way too complicated. I love new tech, and will try not to pre-judge here, but this almost feels like a step backwards in terms of convenience and security. Almost like they reinvented the wheel, so to speak.
