Question about door handles

[incrediwoah]

Hi TMC,

Hope you can help me out here. So I have passive entry on for the driver door only, as the majority of my time is going to and from work so I don't need all of the handles opening every time.

The unfortunate part is that if I ever need to get into the passenger side door, I have to go to the driver door or tap my key fob to unlock all handles upon walking up to it.

Is there anyway I can just tap the passenger side door to open it (say I just needed to grab my backpack) without having to set the passive entry setting to unlocking all handles open?

Thanks! Interested to hear what you got!

 

[scottm]

there's no way I know of to get just the passenger door handle to present, without all the other handles also presenting in unison

you might consider using frunk or hatch for storing things instead of passenger side... that way, you have two different buttons on the fob to open just those spaces without handles presenting (keep the walk-up unlock feature turned off)

fun fact: if you open the hatch using the button on the hatch (above the license plate)... it will open hatch, but also present all door handles as well... so there's the difference of opening hatch by fob or "manually". Fob hatch button opens only the hatch.

 

[oktane]

Poor design and cost-saving on part of Tesla. Most cars have sensors in each door (not just front) for the RF plus a capacitive touch on the handle, so the door doesn't needlessly present just because you walk by the car. I find this highly annoying as well.

 

[scottm]

I've turned off auto-present (walk-by present) (proximity present) (whatever you want to call it) long ago... just an annoyance. Was cool for the first few weeks of ownership... needlessly presenting too much in too many different situations.. OFF and never looked back.

My mode of operation is:
- if I'm in a rush to get in the car, I hit the fob to unlock while approaching the car.. timed such that handle is presented as my hand meets it
- if I'm not in a rush, or hands kind of occupied, I poke the handle when I get to the car and wait the 200 milliseconds for it to present then pull

 

[incrediwoah]

I've turned off auto-present (walk-by present) (proximity present) (whatever you want to call it) long ago... just an annoyance. Was cool for the first few weeks of ownership... needlessly presenting too much in too many different situations.. OFF and never looked back.

So with it off are you able to just touch any handle and it will open?

 

[scottm]

When auto-present is off, you can touch a handle to present all doors (if passive entry is enabled), or you can press fob unlock to unlock and present all doors. (I don't use driver-door only settings so I don't know offhand if touching driver door presents only driver door).

On my car, when the car is locked, passive entry is enabled, I must touch a FRONT DOOR handle (either one) to get ALL handles to present. Touching a REAR door handle does not do anything. I do use any driver-door-only setting, everything is set to all doors.

fun fact: (on my car) if the car is locked, and I use the fob hatch button to open the hatch, all door handles remain retracted (as mentioned upthread). But in this state, there is a difference in behavior: with the hatch up, if I then touch a REAR door handle then ALL handles present. I think this is the only time that touching rear handles has any effect on causing a present.

 

[scottm]

The notion of handles tucking away into the bodywork is great for aerodynamics and slick looking... but creates headaches for usability with its current implementation. Tesla could do a better job of it, as usual. We may see minor improvements over time.

Such as the day when a separate "lock" icon appeared on the console to manually control locking and unlocking/presenting handles. Before that, each time the car was put into Park (push the stalk button), the handles presented no matter what. Enough people felt that was a personal safety / security issue... some relief was given for a way to keep handles retracted, or retract them on demand - that wasn't tied to any other function.

 

[incrediwoah]

When auto-present is off, you can touch a handle to present all doors (if passive entry is enabled), or you can press fob unlock to unlock and present all doors. (I don't use driver-door only settings so I don't know offhand if touching driver door presents only driver door).

On my car, when the car is locked, passive entry is enabled, I must touch a FRONT DOOR handle (either one) to get ALL handles to present. Touching a REAR door handle does not do anything. I do use any driver-door-only setting, everything is set to all doors.

fun fact: (on my car) if the car is locked, and I use the fob hatch button to open the hatch, all door handles remain retracted (as mentioned upthread). But in this state, there is a difference in behavior: with the hatch up, if I then touch a REAR door handle then ALL handles present. I think this is the only time that touching rear handles has any effect on causing a present.

I might try this method of turning auto present off and then setting the handles to all presenting so that when I do go to open up a passenger door I can just press it instead of having to click the fob. Thanks for the input!

 

[CRASHER]

All door handles were iced by freezing rain. While everyone else drove away after work, I was left like an idiot trying to find a way in the car through hatch.

 

[incrediwoah]

All door handles were iced by freezing rain. While everyone else drove away after work, I was left like an idiot trying to find a way in the car through hatch.

oh noooo sorry!

 

[scottm]

All door handles were iced by freezing rain. While everyone else drove away after work, I was left like an idiot trying to find a way in the car through hatch.

it's not just the handles, but freezing rain along the tops of the windows will freeze them to the car, ice build up on the window can prevent windows from doing their mandatory 1/2 inch drop when the handle is / could be pulled... And you don't want to shut the door onto any obstructions (ice) build up around the window frame.. Freezing rain is the worst.

Hatch was a good idea.. did you make it!?

 

[CRASHER]

Hatch was a good idea.. did you make it!?

Hatch was the only option for entry into the car. I was able to open the back door and driver door from inside.

 

[David29]

All door handles were iced by freezing rain. While everyone else drove away after work, I was left like an idiot trying to find a way in the car through hatch.

Been there! Preheating is the only solution I have found. Else you have to have an ice scraper available.

And as long as we are griping about the handles in bad weather, there is another issue. The top of the handles is concave, so it collects water. This is annoying, because it means the handles can have a puddle of water on them even quite a long while after rain has ended, so you can unlock the car and grab the handle and unexpectedly come away with a wet hand. Unpleasant, especially in chilly weather.

Even worse, but less frequently, a puddle of water on top of the handle can freeze when the temperature drops, forming a small patch of ice. Water expands when it freezes, of course, so if conditions are just right, the frozen puddle of ice can interfere with movement of the door handle! I had this happen only once in three winters, so it is not common, but it was a pain when it did! Another instance of Tesla's lack of experience in designing for adverse weather. Hopefully, they are learning....

 

[scottm]

I have a feeling model S door handles won't be repeated by Tesla or any other car maker in the future and will go down in history as wow-factor gone awry! It's simply not worth the troubles... Cool, but silly in the practical sense.

We now see how to do flush mount for low wind resistance (a la Model 3 handles) without all the motors and sensors. I wonder what kind of problems we'll see with ice and whatnot with Model 3 handles as time will tell.

 

[David29]

I have a feeling model S door handles won't be repeated by Tesla or any other car maker in the future and will go down in history as wow-factor gone awry! It's simply not worth the troubles... Cool, but silly in the practical sense.

We now see how to do flush mount for low wind resistance (a la Model 3 handles) without all the motors and sensors. I wonder what kind of problems we'll see with ice and whatnot with Model 3 handles as time will tell.

Historical (or maybe hysterical?) side note: I watched an episode of "Comedians in Cars Having Coffee" the other day. (This is a Netflix series in which Jerry Seinfeld interviews people, mostly fellow comedians, while driving around in various interesting cars, many of them antique classics.) The episode I saw (Season 3, episode 3) involved Jerry with Jay Leno, and the car he used was a 1949 Porsche 356/2, apparently one of the earliest, hand-built Porsches. It has door handles very much like the Tesla Model 3! Quite flush, with a long end and a short end pivoting just below the door surface. You push on one end, the longer end pops up, and you pull on it. So -- nothing new under the sun!

 

[milleron]

Sorta new. I'll bet the '49 Porsche didn't unlatch electrically like the 3 does.

 

[David29]

Sorta new. I'll bet the '49 Porsche didn't unlatch electrically like the 3 does.

Agreed! And I bet there will not be any 2018 Tesla cars still operating when they are 69 years old, as that Porsche is!