Be very careful with this solution. You must start the car within 15 seconds of touching the B pillar sensor with your wallet or else you have to take your wallet back out of your pocket while sitting in the car and lay it in the console where I would forget to pick it up when done driving and it could wind up on the floor under foot when making a turn. I do not like this solution because it takes me more than 15 seconds to start the car due to stiffness in aging joints while getting in, feet too large to get quickly through the door opening, extra time to put on the seat belt, adjust rear view mirror, and remember why I got into the car in the first place!
I don't think this solution is a reasonable workaround for your Dad, it wouldn't work for me.
Hi,
@T34ME,
@MP3Mike,
@cwerdna,
@run-the-joules,
Thanks for all the feedback and suggestions. I think a lanyard might turn out to be a useful option for my father, with the caveats about safely punching a hole in the keycard and/or using a plastic holder.
That said, my Dad and Mom are up and running with the Model 3 using the keycards. Mom's iPhone will eventually get hooked up so she can operate the car without the keycard, but that day waits until Tesla finishes moving the car from my account to theirs.
Dad continues to rely on his flip phone and has vowed to never, ever be driven to a smartphone. We'll see how long that lasts once Mom's iPhone is operating the car... although based on this thread, the bugs involved may make it seem like more work than it's worth.
At this point, my Dad's wallet is the slimmest it has ever been and the keycard is working through the wallet to the B pillar. Well... it looks as if only ONE side of the wallet works, the one where the keycard is nearest the pillar. If you flip the wallet over, it seems as if the keycard is muffled by the extra layers of leather and credit cards.
And, yes, it's a pain in the ass when my father makes it into the car, fumbles around adjusting the seat and getting ready to drive, and then finds that the car has forgotten his keycard and he needs to tap the keycard against the center console. Which necessitates shifting around in the seat, even unbuckling, grabbing the wallet out of his rear pants pocket, buckling back in, and then tapping the wallet against the center console. I understand that the keycard is a backup method but basically I think Tesla blew it by assuming that everyone would have a smartphone. And that they'd want to run the Tesla app and deal with all the problems smartphone/Tesla app people are currently reporting. And then, of course, there are those 15 people who still have Windows phones...
Watching my parents engage with Model 3 has made me realize that there's a lot there for people to deal with. I'm happy to report that although my parents are both still pretty scared by the car, and put off by some of the gratuitous changes (can't adjust the windshield wiper speed by twisting the stalk and instead you dig around on the screen, swiping until you find the wiper menu? someone at Tesla is *proud* of this?!), they have gotten into the spirit of the thing and seem eager to keep on with it.
Thank you, all, for the suggestions and help.
Alan
P.S. My son has been teaching my father how to drive a Tesla. Really!
