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Newbie question regarding connectivity between Tesla parked in underground parkade and the phone app

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I have joined the TMC just about a week ago, and am planning a get a Model Y. I have read up a few of the TMC Forum discussions trying to understand the numerous technical features of the car. One of them is the connectivity between the car and the Tesla phone app. I understand that the car has its own cellular connection, the phone app has wi-fi, data plan and bluetooth. I searched through the site to find out how they work together, but could only get bits and pieces of information about it.

Anybody knows what is required of the car's cellular connection to work (aside from the HW2,5 and above requirement); what component (wi-fi, data, bluetooth) the phone app uses to connect to the car, and under what circumstances?

There is also this specific case with the car parked several levels down in an underground parkade of a concrete building, whereas the phone app is located on more than ten floors above. Will this connection work in such an environment to enable phone app features such as sentry mode live stream?
 
If you can get cell service wherever the car is your phone will be able to connect to it. Btw, as I wrote the car needs cell service wherever it is if you wanna connect to it. For ex. I've connected to the car when the wife took it to the park miles away and I was curious about the v11 update, so I connected to the sentry and yep it was at the park alright.
 
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When you are in close proximity to the vehicle then your phone's BT is used to enable walking up to, unlocking the Tesla vehicle. When you walk away (with your phone), the Tesla vehicle will normally lock automatically after a short time.

Other than the BT connection the Tesla phone app does not communicate directly with the Tesla vehicle. The Tesla phone app communicates with Tesla's servers using either LTE or Wi-Fi. The Tesla servers will then attempt to communicate with the Tesla vehicle using LTE or else over Wi-Fi if the Tesla vehicle is connected to a Wi-Fi network. If your Tesla vehicle is out of range of LTE service but is connected to a Wi-Fi network the Tesla servers should be able to communicate with the Tesla vehicle.

If the Tesla vehicle is parked in a garage with no LTE service or Wi-Fi available you won't be able to control the Tesla vehicle functions using the Tesla phone app unless you are within BT range.
 
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If you can get cell service wherever the car is your phone will be able to connect to it. Btw, as I wrote the car needs cell service wherever it is if you wanna connect to it. For ex. I've connected to the car when the wife took it to the park miles away and I was curious about the v11 update, so I connected to the sentry and yep it was at the park alright.
Thanks for info. Could I interpret it like this, especially in the case with the underground car park where there is no wi-fi, but there is cell service (LTE) as I can turn on data and surf the net all the time. Since the car uses cell (i.e. LTE?) connection, I can connect to the car using data, hence be able to use the Tesla app from afar (like 15 floors above) to talk to the car, or to view live stream sentry mode, is that correct?
 
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When you are in close proximity to the vehicle then your phone's BT is used to enable walking up to, unlocking the Tesla vehicle. When you walk away (with your phone), the Tesla vehicle will normally lock automatically after a short time.

Other than the BT connection the Tesla phone app does not communicate directly with the Tesla vehicle. The Tesla phone app communicates with Tesla's servers using either LTE or Wi-Fi. The Tesla servers will then attempt to communicate with the Tesla vehicle using LTE or else over Wi-Fi if the Tesla vehicle is connected to a Wi-Fi network. If your Tesla vehicle is out of range of LTE service but is connected to a Wi-Fi network the Tesla servers should be able to communicate with the Tesla vehicle.

If the Tesla vehicle is parked in a garage with no LTE service or Wi-Fi available you won't be able to control the Tesla vehicle functions using the Tesla phone app unless you are within BT range.
Thanks for the reply. Now I think I get a bit confused. From a slightly earlier post from thesmokingman, I thought that in the garage (or underground parkade) where I can use LTE on my phone to surf the net, could I say that the car will have the same LTE service as I do? If so, does it mean that if I am far away from the car, I can use LTE to connect to the car?
 
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Thanks for the reply. Now I think I get a bit confused. From a slightly earlier post from thesmokingman, I thought that in the garage (or underground parkade) where I can use LTE on my phone to surf the net, could I say that the car will have the same LTE service as I do? If so, does it mean that if I am far away from the car, I can use LTE to connect to the car?
It depends; in the US Tesla uses AT&T to provide LTE connectivity to the Tesla fleet. Your phone carrier, i.e. T-Mobile may have a stronger or weaker signal than does the Tesla vehicle using the AT&T LTE network.

Wherever, whenever your phone and your Tesla vehicle are able to connect to LTE or Wi-Fi then you can control your Tesla Model Y using the Tesla app. (You can remotely lock/unlock the vehicle, turn on the climate control and control the temperature, heated seats, control Sentry mode, etc.) If you have premium connectivity you can remotely view the Sentry mode cameras.)
 
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Like many things these days, you NEED internet/data connection to communicate between the app on phone to the car. It doesn't matter the source of internet (wifi, LTE, ect). If either your phone or your car has NO connection, then you have to do something to have connection (move the car, move yourself, ect). If you are next to the car then the bluetooth function works to unlock the car regardless of internet connectivity.
 
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It depends; in the US Tesla uses AT&T to provide LTE connectivity to the Tesla fleet. Your phone carrier, i.e. T-Mobile may have a stronger or weaker signal than does the Tesla vehicle using the AT&T LTE network.

Wherever, whenever your phone and your Tesla vehicle are able to connect to LTE or Wi-Fi then you can control your Tesla Model Y using the Tesla app. (You can remotely lock/unlock the vehicle, turn on the climate control and control the temperature, heated seats, control Sentry mode, etc.) If you have premium connectivity you can remotely view the Sentry mode cameras.)
I'm not sure that's true. My Model Y is parked in an apartment garage and is on a wifi network provided by the complex. I have my own wifi in my apartment 4 floors up. There is no way my Tesla app will connect to the Model Y over wifi. Maybe if we were on the same wifi network it would work.
PS I have no lte connectivity
 
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I'm not sure that's true. My Model Y is parked in an apartment garage and is on a wifi network provided by the complex. I have my own wifi in my apartment 4 floors up. There is no way my Tesla app will connect to the Model Y over wifi. Maybe if we were on the same wifi network it would work.
PS I have no lte connectivity
Are you saying that you can't remotely lock/unlock or precondition your Model Y using your phone when inside your apartment?
 
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When you are in close proximity to the vehicle then your phone's BT is used to enable walking up to, unlocking the Tesla vehicle. When you walk away (with your phone), the Tesla vehicle will normally lock automatically after a short time.

Other than the BT connection the Tesla phone app does not communicate directly with the Tesla vehicle. The Tesla phone app communicates with Tesla's servers using either LTE or Wi-Fi. The Tesla servers will then attempt to communicate with the Tesla vehicle using LTE or else over Wi-Fi if the Tesla vehicle is connected to a Wi-Fi network. If your Tesla vehicle is out of range of LTE service but is connected to a Wi-Fi network the Tesla servers should be able to communicate with the Tesla vehicle.

If the Tesla vehicle is parked in a garage with no LTE service or Wi-Fi available you won't be able to control the Tesla vehicle functions using the Tesla phone app unless you are within BT range.
So basically the Tesla receivers / antenna is weak.

I have 5G on my cell on P3 in my building sometimes, if not LTE full bars on my phone.

My Tesla has no signal on P1, P2 P3. Well, sometimes on P1 weak signal the Tesla will have signal……..but for the most part 0

Guess the signal is weak unless you’re outside
 
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My car is just down one level. It gets LTE.

These are my observations about living this way:


1. As it is never on wifi, it doesn't download updates automatically.

2. It does get pushed critical updates via LTE, so we have, at least 2x in the past almost 3 years, arrived at the car to be told on the screen that the car has received AND installed an update.

3. We communicate with the car from the apartment (24 stories above) by our phones connecting to the internet via our wifi and telling the Tesla servers what we want to do, and the Tesla servers communicate that to the car. If we are not in our apartment (for instance, in the elevator on the way to the car) we use our cell-data to achieve that same process.

4. When we get close enough to the car, bluetooth connects. Sometimes 'close enough' is standing there screaming, "look my phone is in my hand, open up!" but then it will connect. Except occasionally I have to unlock the car via the internet using the app or pull out my keycard.

5. Despite all this communication, Summon no longer works underground. It appears to need to be able to see the car via GPS. The map shows my car parked where it would be if we were on the ground. But that isn't enough to use Summon. We used to be able to move the car in/out of our parking spot when it just needed a nudge further back after unloading the trunk. We can no longer do so.
 
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My car is just down one level. It gets LTE.

These are my observations about living this way:


1. As it is never on wifi, it doesn't download updates automatically.

2. It does get pushed critical updates via LTE, so we have, at least 2x in the past almost 3 years, arrived at the car to be told on the screen that the car has received AND installed an update.

3. We communicate with the car from the apartment (24 stories above) by our phones connecting to the internet via our wifi and telling the Tesla servers what we want to do, and the Tesla servers communicate that to the car. If we are not in our apartment (for instance, in the elevator on the way to the car) we use our cell-data to achieve that same process.

4. When we get close enough to the car, bluetooth connects. Sometimes 'close enough' is standing there screaming, "look my phone is in my hand, open up!" but then it will connect. Except occasionally I have to unlock the car via the internet using the app or pull out my keycard.

5. Despite all this communication, Summon no longer works underground. It appears to need to be able to see the car via GPS. The map shows my car parked where it would be if we were on the ground. But that isn't enough to use Summon. We used to be able to move the car in/out of our parking spot when it just needed a nudge further back after unloading the trunk. We can no longer do so.
Teslas need a better signal receiver - it’s equivalent to a phone 3G at the moment sadly
 
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