Thanks Lee, an app is necessary for a Smartwatch. I will research "Remote S" and LTE. Do you have a link for the test of Remote S on the 3?
I’ve done some research on this very setup - a few points:
Model S is different. The phone is talking to the mothership and the mothership is talking to the car. With the 3, the phone talks to the car. Still possible to break a phone so a backup is a good idea.
The S doesn't have the same NFC keycard and bluetooth pairing in the app (at least not yet). I would not assume that they are the same among both cars. The Model 3 key manual specifically mentions that the Model 3 app uses bluetooth to work as a key, not an internet connection (like Model S).
Assuming this is when they are using the app and not the key fob?
The way I read it is that the phone, for the model 3, will use Bluetooth to unlock it and let you start and drive it. In those cases the phone is talking directly with the car. For everything else, opening the trunk, frunk, prewarming or cooling, checking charge status, etc. you use the app which will use the internet to connect to a central server to contact the car. So, as long as your paired phone is charged and has Bluetooth turned on you should be able to get in and drive away. If there is no cell service though you won't be able to do anything else.
Correct! My iPhone, unpaired, opened my car while it was in a Tesla Service Center (they lost the key) and I was 4,600 miles away. The Tesla app, signed in, is all you need, but you too need an internet connection and both ends to accomplish that. My own connection was with cellular roaming data in that case. FWIW, I can also access my car via my Apple Watch. I presume both of those things will work in Android versions too, but I do not know that for certain.
Apple Watch 3 will do this independently of an iPhone if you have the version with cellular enablement. It works. Thus far, AFAIK, Remote S is the only operable app for Apple Watch that allows locking/unlocking. There may be others that I do not know.
Helpful and informative. I presume Remote S is a third party app not supported by TESLA. There are rumors on the Internet that TESLA is going to lock out third party apps. Why would TESLA want to disable an app that saved the Service Center's bacon when they lost your key? This is evolving technology and I think we will see new developments rather quickly as time passes.
Actually the app I used in that unlocking event was the Tesla app. Both the Tesla app and RemoteS are similar using the Tesla API, but RemoteS has an Apple Watch app while the Tesla app does not. Basically the advantage of Remote S is nicer graphics and more granular settings. There will be much more flexibility coming, I think. The biggest issues for Tesla IMO are that users of non-Tesla apps can put pretty high messaging loads that the native apps are designed to minimize, and the constant-on character of some of them can be difficult for Tesla administration. I personally try to use them only when I am needing something, not just curiosity, in order to minimize unneeded calls on the system and keep from waking up my car too much. She does need her sleep too
That's possible too.
Of course if your close enough for Bluetooth to work you should also be close enough that, if the app does rely on internet, you can just get in and use the screen anyway.
