My wife’s phone wins... every time

[Vostok]

My wife and I have separate driver profiles, but even if I open the door first and she is a distance behind, her phone “wins” as soon as she is in range and the profile changes from mine to hers, moving the seat, mirrors and steering wheel before I get in. I have to then manually select my profile.

I have iPhone X and she has 6s, so the older phone is winning as well!

What gives?!

 

[Flatbat]

My wife also has a iPhone 6s. I have a Samsung S9+. My profile has Walkaway Lock disabled, her profile has Walkaway Lock enabled.
I drive home having had my S9+ connected for the drive. I park the car in my garage, hop out with my phone in my hand. Damn car switches to wife's profile, adjusts seats and so on, then and after a few seconds locks the car! All the while her 6s never left her office which is nearby in the house. If it stayed on my profile it would not Walkaway Lock.

Perhaps it is related to the older tech in the 6s not power saving on BT & the car continually seeing it?

 

[paulp]

My wife and I have separate driver profiles, but even if I open the door first and she is a distance behind, her phone “wins” as soon as she is in range and the profile changes from mine to hers, moving the seat, mirrors and steering wheel before I get in. I have to then manually select my profile.

I have iPhone X and she has 6s, so the older phone is winning as well!

What gives?!

Even your car knows who’s boss

 

[Shallowal]

My wife and I both have the same model phone, Samsung Note 8. Her profile is always selected in preference to mine whether or not her phone is actually "in" the car. I have tried deleting my user in the car and recreating it, but it makes no difference.
Yet I almost never have any problems unlocking/opening the doors yet she occasionally does.

 

[Anubis]

Rumours are the phone access sensor is on the passenger side, which is the drivers side for LHD cars. Tesla too lazy to move it to the drivers side.

I have gotten around it by opening the door for my wife every time. Gets lots of kudos too...

 

[Flatbat]

Rumours are the phone access sensor is on the passenger side, which is the drivers side for LHD cars. Tesla too lazy to move it to the drivers side...

Good rumour but not true. On the M3 there are four Bluetooth antennas. One in the centre console, two in the B pillars just below each of the cameras and a fourth buried in the rear bumper. Two NFC readers. One in centre console and the second in the Right B pillar. Wifi antenna is in the roof beam between front and back glass roof segments.

 

[animorph]

Our Model 3 will switch to my profile as my wife pulls into the garage if I'm nearby.

I assume the order of the phones in the keys list would determine the dominant phone. Or maybe it's just the last one to connect.

 

[strykeroz]

Like the OP, I also find the boss' phone wins. Which is a constant source of entertainment for her, and a panic to change the profile before I get mashed up against the steering wheel for me.

 

[Flatbat]

Our Model 3 will switch to my profile as my wife pulls into the garage if I'm nearby..

What phones models do you a have?
I am wondering if it is related to how android and iPhone phones respectively deal with BLE power saving.

 

[Anubis]

Good rumour but not true. On the M3 there are four Bluetooth antennas. One in the centre console, two in the B pillars just below each of the cameras and a fourth buried in the rear bumper. Two NFC readers. One in centre console and the second in the Right B pillar. Wifi antenna is in the roof beam between front and back glass roof segments.

Good technical info. Thanks.

But there has to be something along these lines. The passenger side phone seems to always win out, as MY phone always wins out when I'm the passenger, but not when I'm the driver, so the Model 3 is definitely favouring the passenger side of the car.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I always thought it was the last phone to be paired that won.

 

[animorph]

What phones models do you a have?
I am wondering if it is related to how android and iPhone phones respectively deal with BLE power saving.

Android Nokia 7.1 for me, iPhone 10 for wife.

 

[Vostok]

I always thought it was the last phone to be paired that won.

I wondered that too, but when I first got the car my wife had an iPhone SE which was paired after mine (she did not come with me when I picked the car up) and it never won, she had to manually select her profile.

But recently she ditched the SE for an iPhone 6 hand-me-down so I removed the SE and paired the 6. Since then, the 6 has always won!

 

[Flatbat]

Good technical info. Thanks.

But there has to be something along these lines. The passenger side phone seems to always win out, as MY phone always wins out when I'm the passenger, but not when I'm the driver, so the Model 3 is definitely favouring the passenger side of the car.

Yeah something like that could be going on. While there are multiple BT antennas, giving each side equal reception potential, who knows how the software is prioritising things.

I always thought it was the last phone to be paired that won.

I would have thought it makes more sense for the last phone connected (not paired) to win. That concept was designed for back when car entertainment systems had a single BT Antenna. This car should be smart enough to leverage off the four antennas to derive phone proximity to drivers seat. But seemingly it is not doing this very well if at all.

Android Nokia 7.1 for me, iPhone 10 for wife.

Seems like the security controller sees your Android and switches to your profile because the iPhone is not active. Even though it will probably be connected by BT at the time. I would have thought sensed profile changing would be blocked when the car is driving.

 

[OzVic]

The passenger side phone seems to always win out, as MY phone always wins out when I'm the passenger, but not when I'm the driver, so the Model 3 is definitely favouring the passenger side of the car.

It's probably as simple as they've just never switched it from the American settings in software.

There's nowhere to submit the bugs and poor or no chain of communication in Tesla to get the message to the right software group. (without tweeting Elon directly)

 

[aegidius]

Maybe don't have the phone select a profile automatically, since it seems to be a lottery who gets it?

 

[Akatdog]

On our S we have it tied to the keys. Given the large height difference between my wife and myself I finally had to delete her key to keep from being repeatedly folded into the steering wheel every time I unlocked the car. I left her profile so it can still be selected from the drop down menu but it no longer auto sets seat position and mirrors from the key.

 

[Shallowal]

My wife and I have the same phone type, only difference is that I'm on a Telstra network and she's on Optus!!.
My phone was connected first at pickup time, but her profile has consistently been chosen, so I tried deleting my phone and profile and re-connecting it. Her profile still wins.
If her phone is anywhere near the car it will always choose her profile. Even if I unlock the car and sit in it (in the drivers seat) while waiting for her, as soon as she is in and I put my foot on the brake to begin the drive selection, it will select her profile.
BTW, The reverse is never true, ie if she is driving.
It seems to be some weird phone priority that defies all "black box" analysis.

 

[jamesgo]

This seems to also happens with the Model3 key-fob being used instead of the Phone Bluetooth.

 

[RhysL]

Just a guess but a female’s phone in her hand bag is going to win over a blokes phone in his pocket every time (even if she is way behind you)

The human body absorbs the majority of the RF coming out of your phone and if it’s pushed up against your leg, The car is going to see it as a much weaker signal than the phone in your wife’s handbag.