Phone as Key Issues

[PeteInCA]

I have a question for all of you who are much smarter than me when it comes to this kind of stuff. I have read that there is a hypothesis that certain apps on one's phone may be impacting the tesla app. So, I'd like to do an experiment. What if I got a cheap Iphone or whatever people think actually works, used or whatever, and did NOT activate the phone with a carrier, would the bluetooth still work? My idea here is to just have a phone that has nothing on it, nothing to confuse it, that is a dedicated "key" for the car. I'd use wireless to download the app, and then just rely on the bluetooth to open/start the car. This way I could better determine whether one of my apps is impacting my ability to use the "key" or if there's actually a problem with my car.

I don't personally want to switch from Android to Iphone, and I don't want to pay for another line of service if that's not necessary to do my test. I would like to determine how much of the phone as key issue is being caused by the car vs incompatibility of my collection of apps on my primary Android device.

 

[Reid]

I have a question for all of you who are much smarter than me when it comes to this kind of stuff. I have read that there is a hypothesis that certain apps on one's phone may be impacting the tesla app. So, I'd like to do an experiment. What if I got a cheap Iphone or whatever people think actually works, used or whatever, and did NOT activate the phone with a carrier, would the bluetooth still work? My idea here is to just have a phone that has nothing on it, nothing to confuse it, that is a dedicated "key" for the car. I'd use wireless to download the app, and then just rely on the bluetooth to open/start the car. This way I could better determine whether one of my apps is impacting my ability to use the "key" or if there's actually a problem with my car.

I don't personally want to switch from Android to Iphone, and I don't want to pay for another line of service if that's not necessary to do my test. I would like to determine how much of the phone as key issue is being caused by the car vs incompatibility of my collection of apps on my primary Android device.

Yeah, I would expect that to work just fine. Phone-as-key should work without an internet connection, I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work.

 

[RTPEV]

I have a question for all of you who are much smarter than me when it comes to this kind of stuff. I have read that there is a hypothesis that certain apps on one's phone may be impacting the tesla app. So, I'd like to do an experiment. What if I got a cheap Iphone or whatever people think actually works, used or whatever, and did NOT activate the phone with a carrier, would the bluetooth still work? My idea here is to just have a phone that has nothing on it, nothing to confuse it, that is a dedicated "key" for the car. I'd use wireless to download the app, and then just rely on the bluetooth to open/start the car. This way I could better determine whether one of my apps is impacting my ability to use the "key" or if there's actually a problem with my car.

I don't personally want to switch from Android to Iphone, and I don't want to pay for another line of service if that's not necessary to do my test. I would like to determine how much of the phone as key issue is being caused by the car vs incompatibility of my collection of apps on my primary Android device.

I'm not about to scan back 49 pages of posts, but someone did suggest this strategy somewhere back there.

While that's a reasonable theory, there is another theory (and the one I subscribe to) that it's more about going in and out of Bluetooth range and when you are on the fringe of being in range, if there are an excessive number of Bluetooth communication errors, that the OS will ban the app from using Bluetooth for a certain amount of time (or until you do a Bluetooth or Airplane mode reset).

As much as I detest Bluetooth, I don't think interference with other apps is one of my complaints about it, particularly with BLE. So while this would be a good experiment to prove or disprove the theory, my opinion is that it won't fully solve the problem.

 

[Ryan Webb]

I have a question for all of you who are much smarter than me when it comes to this kind of stuff. I have read that there is a hypothesis that certain apps on one's phone may be impacting the tesla app. So, I'd like to do an experiment. What if I got a cheap Iphone or whatever people think actually works, used or whatever, and did NOT activate the phone with a carrier, would the bluetooth still work? My idea here is to just have a phone that has nothing on it, nothing to confuse it, that is a dedicated "key" for the car. I'd use wireless to download the app, and then just rely on the bluetooth to open/start the car. This way I could better determine whether one of my apps is impacting my ability to use the "key" or if there's actually a problem with my car.

I don't personally want to switch from Android to Iphone, and I don't want to pay for another line of service if that's not necessary to do my test. I would like to determine how much of the phone as key issue is being caused by the car vs incompatibility of my collection of apps on my primary Android device.

I did exactly this - we had Android phones that were not cooperating with the 3 at all. Found an old iPhone 5 (needed a new battery). No SIM/service. Just restored it and only installed the Tesla app. It worked flawlessly - no problems at all. We have since upgraded our Android phones to iPhone X and no longer have an issue, and no longer need to carry around 2 phones.

 

[N5329K]

What you have created is a monumental key fob.
Someone has to, I guess.
Robin

 

[FalconFour]

Ah, this is the (wow, 49 page) thread about the phone-as-key issues. Took delivery Sunday evening and have been practically living in the car since then ... giving rides, running errands, everything possible. Of all the many, many times (easily over 25 by now, I think?) I've gotten into the car, not once has it automatically - without intervention - worked as intended. I've switched airplane mode off/on as I approach the car, and that generally works well... but not once have I been able to "just walk up with my phone and wow it works!!".

Moto G5 Plus, Android 7.0.

What complicates the matter is that I can have Bluetooth audio streaming WHILE I'M TRYING TO START THE CAR, so clearly not just in range, Bluetooth totally working fine, Tesla app in foreground, sometimes even saying "Phone key: Connected"... but it still says "tap card here to enable driving". So it's my wallet's front-most card.

I understand that all hands are on production right now, but like... are app devs/testers building cars too? Plausible... wouldn't blame 'em... but I do hope this gets smoothed out soon. I am NOT going to rip another hole in my finances for a freakin' massively overpriced iPhone just to act as a working key. (also not going to go the "very large key fob" route, either... the card works well enough, but it's tacky as hell)

Banning a background app from abusing Bluetooth makes some sense. I've noticed a bit of a pattern where that may be the case. Hopefully they can find a way around that, without draining battery like mad...

 

[RTPEV]

Interesting one yesterday for me: I stopped at a store for a few minutes and when I came back out I got into my car just fine (maybe it never actually locked?) but then it had me use my key card to actually start the car. At the end of my trip it seemed to act normally. I did manually lock the car with the app (to be sure) as I went in to my next stop, but I was able to get in and start the car with the phone key after that errand (without a BT reset).

 

[andremc]

.

What complicates the matter is that I can have Bluetooth audio streaming WHILE I'M TRYING TO START THE CAR, so clearly not just in range...

There are multiple Bluetooth connections made when your phone connects to the car. The one that controls the audio is different from the one that controls locking/starting the car.

 

[FalconFour]

There are multiple Bluetooth connections made when your phone connects to the car. The one that controls the audio is different from the one that controls locking/starting the car.

They're not using different radios, though. So the car and phone can obviously see one another, and the only thing that stands in the way is software.

Side note: when I first got the car and connected my phone via BT, it was completely haywire - rapidly connecting/disconnecting in an infinite loop. It'd play one second of audio, then drop the connection (and start playing on the phone), reconnect, play a second of audio in the car, drop, reconnect, drop, reconnect... forever. I disabled contact sharing from my phone BT settings, and it stays stable now. So yeah... some BT issues to deal with for sure.

 

[chronopc]

I don't any problems with using the phone as a key. However, I do notice that my car has a lot of issues connecting to my phone for other functionality. It requires me to go into the settings and manually connecting to the phone, even though on my phone it says it's connected to the car.

 

[andremc]

They're not using different radios, though. So the car and phone can obviously see one another, and the only thing that stands in the way is software.

Side note: when I first got the car and connected my phone via BT, it was completely haywire - rapidly connecting/disconnecting in an infinite loop. It'd play one second of audio, then drop the connection (and start playing on the phone), reconnect, play a second of audio in the car, drop, reconnect, drop, reconnect... forever. I disabled contact sharing from my phone BT settings, and it stays stable now. So yeah... some BT issues to deal with for sure.

That sounds like an issue specific to your car and/or your phone. I’d have the service center check it out if I were you.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Phone: HTC One m9 (released March 2015, currently on Android 7.0 / Nougat - was released on 5.0 / Lollipop but HTC kept releasing updates until Nougat before they abandoned it)

I have had the car for not quite 2 days now. I've had a better than 50% success rate, but worse than 75%. I have not until this moment played with any "battery optimization" or similar settings so we'll see if that helps as I've just set the Tesla app to not be optimized.

I have noticed that when it doesn't work, after I open the Tesla app, usually I'll see Phone Key rapidly oscillating between "Connected" and "Disconnected" for a second or two before it stays "Connected" and I can open the door. Physical position of phone doesn't seem to matter as I've several times pre-emptively removed it from my pocket and walked up with it in my hand so that I can open the Tesla app quickly if necessary, and it didn't work (some have reported that moving it from a back pocket to front pocket solved their problem).

 

[RTPEV]

They're not using different radios, though. So the car and phone can obviously see one another, and the only thing that stands in the way is software.

Side note: when I first got the car and connected my phone via BT, it was completely haywire - rapidly connecting/disconnecting in an infinite loop. It'd play one second of audio, then drop the connection (and start playing on the phone), reconnect, play a second of audio in the car, drop, reconnect, drop, reconnect... forever. I disabled contact sharing from my phone BT settings, and it stays stable now. So yeah... some BT issues to deal with for sure.

I've had this happen once or twice (granted, I haven't had the car long) within the first day or two of ownership. Since then my BT audio connection has been much better than it ever was in my LEAF. It does occasionally drop the connection briefly--I think it has something to do when I am moving in and out of range of a Wifi hotspot I've connected to (i.e. at work or home) or a hotel down the street from work (I haven't stayed there, but I've stayed at another location with the same SPID name).

 

[Reid]

Now that Tesla finally added our car back to our account, phone key has resumed working. Wife has an iPhone 7, I've got an X, never had an issue in a few dozen attempts. We'll see how that changes over the months though, too soon to say it's a resounding success. I certainly plan to carry the key card on me indefinitely, but as I get more comfortable with it, I might start leaving the key card behind on certain occasions; eg, out for a run or something and just carrying my phone. I figure I can always fall back to the app or calling roadside as long as I'm 99.9% sure it'll work.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Well, changing the battery optimization setting didn't help any. I've also just today realized that I have to manually reconnect the phone to car for calls/audio/etc (including going into my phone's BT settings screen it seems so that it is discoverable). Doesn't just work.

regular BT functionality always just worked on my old car.

 

[sperkin]

I'm getting more and more of this issue where the doors won't unlock when using the phone as a key. One of my biggest fear happened tonight while getting take out dinner. I parked right in front a popular restaurant and when I was leaving with 2 bags of food there were 8 people around my car. Looks like 2 group of party just left the restaurant and was admiring the Model 3 up close, which is rare in LA. No one cares about this car, but tonight for some odd reason, they were all looking and talking about it. I said Hi and then tried to opened the door but the door won't unlock. Now, I have to place the bags on my glass roof, dig out my phone, unlock the phone, find the app, and then wait for it to wake up the car to unlock it. People then walked away after realizing I was nervous and couldn't get the doors to open.

People at my work are used to seeing tbis but total strangers watching me trying to open my door just made me felt ashamed of owing this car. Still the best car on the market due to lack of competition but I hope Tesla fix this and many other minor quality of life issues before Toyota/Lexus and Honda catches up with a stylish RWD EV.

 

[Reid]

Well, changing the battery optimization setting didn't help any. I've also just today realized that I have to manually reconnect the phone to car for calls/audio/etc (including going into my phone's BT settings screen it seems so that it is discoverable). Doesn't just work.

regular BT functionality always just worked on my old car.

Related to the "battery optimization" settings? Change them back?

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Sometimes when it doesn't work, waking my phone fixes it. Other times, I just have to wait a moment even if I had the phone already awake (sometimes I can hear some kind of clunking occurring somewhere in front of the car before the door unlocks and the Tesla's screen lights up- some relay getting thrown?)

When it works, it just works, but that's at best half the time.

 

[FalconFour]

I think in the week I've owned the car now, car key has worked "normally" just once. That is, where I haven't had to toggle airplane mode (on then back off and make sure Bluetooth also turns back on, which it often doesn't). 49 out of 50 times, I either have to toggle airplane mode or use the key card.

I wish it were as easy as just having to wake up my phone or open the Tesla app (neither of which helps). Disabling battery optimization ("Don't optimize") has had no effect either.

Moto G5 Plus, Android 7.0

 

[RTPEV]

This is really bizarre. I would have thought that toggling Bluetooth would generally be enough, but in my experience it rarely works. I usually have to toggle airplane mode to get it to work (after which it generally works just fine). Maybe toggle Bluetooth doesn't toggle the BLE system?

The only other thing I can report is that my Bluetooth streaming connection drops as I move in and out of WiFi range (which is pretty annoying actually). So maybe there is some kind of interference or conflict between WiFi and Bluetooth in my phone.