N5329K
Active Member
I see the card as a necessary backup to a hit-or-miss primary...the phone. At first, I thought the card might be useful in certain limited situations. Valet parking, for one. But I hadn't considered how sketchy that use case would be with valets who didn't know how it's supposed to work, or where to wave the damned thing, or who might just leave it sitting in the car someplace.I still love the "phone as a key." It is the card that is a big step backwards. If owners were provided with a Key FOB and the phone option, then eventually the phone would be the entry of choice for the vast majority, in my opinion.
People that don't need the functions (summon, etc.) or don't always want their phone with them, could stick with the Key FOB. Why limit the pool of owners with a technology that could frustrate some?
The best scenario is a Key FOB that is based on 315Mhz RF. Anything is better than using a card reader and placing it on a specific location of the car.
Phone -> Great idea.
Card --> Bad idea for now and for owners, but I can see the usefulness for the utility model of car-sharing.
The phone-as-key primary creates all these unnecessary additional problems for owners and for Tesla. No shocker that in my view solving the initial misstep will go a long way to solving all the fallout issues.
For those brave souls who really want to jump into shared ownership and renting out their Model 3 to strangers, the phone-as-key makes more sense. If, that is, it can be made to work reliably. If it can't be made to work reliably, then add angry midnight phone calls to owners from stranded renters to the list of why this is not such a great idea.
Meanwhile, there's an immediate fix available. I hope Tesla makes use of it.
Robin