Passive Entry "On" behavior occasionally unpredictable?

[thecloud]

Ever since the Passive Entry setting was added in a recent update (I'm on 2017.36 1b27c6d), locking and unlocking the car seems to mostly work as it used to. I have Auto-Present Handles enabled, and Passive Entry is also on, so walking up to the car with the fob is expected to unlock it and present the handles... except, sometimes it doesn't, and I'm not sure why.

In a small handful of cases (3 times so far), the following has occurred:
1. Door handles do not present and car remains locked. (There's nothing blocking the fob's signal.)
2. Pressing the door handle does not cause it to unlock, even pressing with more force than usual. It's definitely locked.
3. Double-clicking the fob unlocks the car immediately, and the handles present themselves at that point.
4. Looking at the status of the Passive Entry setting, it's "On", but the toggle control is mysteriously dimmed (see photo).

At some point after driving the car (not just turning it on), the setting gets un-dimmed again.

It may be worth noting that I frequently reach into my pocket and click the fob when leaving the car, rather than waiting for the walk-away timeout, so that I can visually confirm the car is locking itself (lights flash and side mirrors fold in.) I'm pretty certain this was the case for all the times auto-unlock hasn't worked.

In the cases where this has occurred, it's possible that several other Tesla owners had walked past my car and it received a signal from their fobs. I wonder if Passive Entry just disables itself after a number of passive failures?

 

[boaterva]

The control is always dimmed unless you are in the car with the brake pedal (I believe, I can check) depressed to enable it to be able to be changed.

This behavior of yours is really weird because you’d think ‘Passive Enabled’ would be no change and everything would be as before. (Of course, tell any programmer that and they will fall on the floor laughing, but you know what I mean!)

 

[NewTMSMan]

Any chance the fob battery is getting low and causing the intermittent issue? I have not seen this on our S or X, both have worked as expected every time. Also if you lock the car and do not move far enough away from it with the FOB the car will not respond when you approach it, but I am sure you know that already.

 

[thecloud]

The control is always dimmed unless you are in the car with the brake pedal (I believe, I can check) depressed to enable it to be able to be changed.

Ah! Looks like that part of the mystery is solved. I did in fact need to depress the brake pedal, and that re-enabled the setting. Since this is a setting you probably wouldn't want someone to be able to change remotely, I can see why proof of physically being in the car is required to toggle it. However, that was not discoverable or obvious to me, especially since no other setting on that pane requires it, and the other times I've checked it happened to have been after driving.

This behavior of yours is really weird because you’d think ‘Passive Enabled’ would be no change and everything would be as before. (Of course, tell any programmer that and they will fall on the floor laughing, but you know what I mean!)

I just nodded knowingly, rather than ROFL'ing. Unintended consequences are always a risk when a new feature is added. But if the Passive Entry feature is actually failing closed when getting bad input, then I can appreciate Tesla's engineers doing the right thing here.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Not sure if related (maybe?), but here's a comment on the Off side from Model X:

Passive Entry Off has made my Model X locking routine very unpredictable, I spend a lot more time clicking the keys than I expected. It also a lot of the time refuses to auto-fold the mirrors since that latest update with this change...

I thought I'd just unlock from fob upon arrival at var - and lock upon leaving from fob - but in reality I may need two or more unlocks to get into the car and start the car, and on the locking side being able to lock and auto-fold seems erratic...

 

[boaterva]

Yeah, if ‘too’ much time elapses (for varying amounts of ‘too’!) before you actually sit down and start the car, it wants proof you are you and have the fob in your possession. Whether this can be fine tuned more or is a necessary side-effect of stopping the relaying hack, dunno.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Yeah, if ‘too’ much time elapses (for varying amounts of ‘too’!) before you actually sit down and start the car, it wants proof you are you and have the fob in your possession. Whether this can be fine tuned more or is a necessary side-effect of stopping the relaying hack, dunno.

Yes, that seems to be the case. But it also seems erratic in how it responds to door open and door lock requests... It is more work than getting into and out of other cars, for sure...

 

[David.85D]

Struggling with this, too.

Tried to turn passive entry on (while in car, pressing brake, control appears to change) but then the car still doesn’t unlock when I approach. Have to press the button on the fob.