Remote S: Tesla app for Apple Watch, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch

[AllenWong]

Finally, Tesla is charging for idle time (link and discussion). Unfortunately, they only give us a scant 5 minutes to get to the unplug.

I'd like the computer app to know how far I am from my car (GPS) and how long it would take to walk there, and add a variable amount of settable time.

Interesting feature. If enough people want it, then I'll implement it. Is there anyone else interested in a feature like this?

 

[Ulmo]

Finally, Tesla is charging for idle time (link and discussion). Unfortunately, they only give us a scant 5 minutes to get to the unplug.

I should edit this and say "... idle time using SuperCharger stalls (...)".

 

[BertL]

Interesting feature. If enough people want it, then I'll implement it. Is there anyone else interested in a feature like this?

Personally, I'd like to see what, if anything Tesla implements with updates to their standard App first. Supposedly we're getting some big update to the std App this month and that would then allow you to finesse Remote S' implementation of whatever capabilities are provided out-of-the-box so to speak. I'm not holding my breath, but I'd hope Tesla would implement usability functions in their own app for the masses, including e.g. if SpC slots are not busy and their isn't a big need to immediately remove your vehicle (because you won't get a 40-cent/min idle charge), wording and notification urgency would be different than in busy conditions.

In my personal case, your implementing a function like this would be neat, but I probably would not use it often. While I know others are more reliant, I'm not a huge daily Supercharger user as I purposely had a 100A HPWC installed before delivery and it handles my charging needs 99% of the time. For me, if I am on a road trip and using a SpC, I already can set my MS to charge to 100%, go do a bathroom break or grab something quick to eat, check either my Tesla App or Remote S on charging progress a couple of times, and given the way MS charging (at least on my 90D) slows down so significantly from ~93% to 100%, I've got plenty of time to anticipate the need to get back to the car if other charging stalls have much activity beyond my own. I'm honestly more concerned with charging being disconnected and watch for those notifications from the std Tesla App (has happened a couple times at SpC when charging stops, I go back to the MS, and find charging has restarted on it's own.) Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I have had no issue thus far trying to always get back to my MS before charging is complete, then sitting in the comfort of my MS if need be for a few minutes before I take off. (But don't get me wrong, I am VERY HAPPY to hear Tesla is putting in processes that will cause all of us to be more considerate of others. )

 

[msnow]

Personally, I'd like to see what, if anything Tesla implements with updates to their standard App first. Supposedly we're getting some big update to the std App this month and that would then allow you to finesse Remote S' implementation of whatever capabilities are provided out-of-the-box so to speak. I'm not holding my breath, but I'd hope Tesla would implement usability functions in their own app for the masses, including e.g. if SpC slots are not busy and their isn't a big need to immediately remove your vehicle (because you won't get a 40-cent/min idle charge), wording and notification urgency would be different than in busy conditions.

In my personal case, your implementing a function like this would be neat, but I probably would not use it often. While I know others are more reliant, I'm not a huge daily Supercharger user as I purposely had a 100A HPWC installed before delivery and it handles my charging needs 99% of the time. For me, if I am on a road trip and using a SpC, I already can set my MS to charge to 100%, go do a bathroom break or grab something quick to eat, check either my Tesla App or Remote S on charging progress a couple of times, and given the way MS charging (at least on my 90D) slows down so significantly from ~93% to 100%, I've got plenty of time to anticipate the need to get back to the car if other charging stalls have much activity beyond my own. I'm honestly more concerned with charging being disconnected and watch for those notifications from the std Tesla App (has happened a couple times at SpC when charging stops, I go back to the MS, and find charging has restarted on it's own.) Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I have had no issue thus far trying to always get back to my MS before charging is complete, then sitting in the comfort of my MS if need be for a few minutes before I take off. (But don't get me wrong, I am VERY HAPPY to hear Tesla is putting in processes that will cause all of us to be more considerate of others. )

Yeah I agree. Let's see what functions the new Tesla app has and perhaps new API's will be exposed in 8.1 that we would want more. I'm not opposed to what @Ulmo proposed it's just not on my top ten list.

 

[djkalabadal]

Hi I downloaded ur app a week ago but can't seem to make it work did everything the sunroof vents but won't open completely or anything else summon also doesn't work have checked the always connected option in the car also. But nothing seems to work can I please help thanks

 

[BertL]

Hi I downloaded ur app a week ago but can't seem to make it work did everything the sunroof vents but won't open completely or anything else summon also doesn't work have checked the always connected option in the car also. But nothing seems to work can I please help thanks

Does your Tesla App work? All functions? That is always the first test. From there, Allen and others can suggest other things to try.

 

[AllenWong]

Hi I downloaded ur app a week ago but can't seem to make it work did everything the sunroof vents but won't open completely or anything else summon also doesn't work have checked the always connected option in the car also. But nothing seems to work can I please help thanks

Tesla disabled opening the roof past vent remotely recently. As for the Summon, make sure that the car icon next to the Remote S logo stays a solid white color before doing a Summon. If it's just an outline out of car, then the app has trouble connecting to the Tesla's summon server. In that case, try changing your phone's internet connection (i.e. getting off or on WiFi). Other things to try is logging off and back on to refresh your token to see if Tesla will allow you into their server. Finally if all else fails, open the official app and make sure that the official Tesla app can do a Summon. If it can't then something else is wrong (summon disabled in the car? Conditions for summon isn't met? etc.).

 

[sdorn]

So I just got my Tesla yesterday and the Tesla app works fine. So does the Tesla Toolbox app. However, for some reason Remote S keeps logging me out. Everytime I go to open the app it asks for my username and password again, which makes the Apple Watch app useless. Anyone know what is causing this?

 

[slevit1md]

There is a limit to how many times you can ask the Tesla servers for information. That limit is unknown, but it has been demonstrated before that too many stat refreshes in a short period of time would cause their servers to start ignoring your requests for a while before letting you refresh again. 5 seconds is fine from my experience. 5 second was the original refresh time of Remote S and is what I use personally. I later changed it to 9 seconds to help Tesla out and reduce the server bandwidth load to them by a half.

I've noticed recently that the updates seemed slower, wasn't sure if it was me or if it really was taking longer.
Any way to change it back to 5 seconds? Maybe set to 9 seconds by default, but an option to set it back to 5 seconds? One of the things I like most about the app was that it updated so much faster than the Tesla app. It's a shame to see the app intentionally slowed.

 

[caltechkid]

So I just got my Tesla yesterday and the Tesla app works fine. So does the Tesla Toolbox app. However, for some reason Remote S keeps logging me out. Everytime I go to open the app it asks for my username and password again, which makes the Apple Watch app useless. Anyone know what is causing this?

I have the exact same problem unfortunately. My Tesla app worked fine a few hours after picking up the car so I know the problem isn't my account or authentication info.

 

[sdorn]

I've noticed recently that the updates seemed slower, wasn't sure if it was me or if it really was taking longer.
Any way to change it back to 5 seconds? Maybe set to 9 seconds by default, but an option to set it back to 5 seconds? One of the things I like most about the app was that it updated so much faster than the Tesla app. It's a shame to see the app intentionally slowed.

You can change this setting. On the iPhone you go to your main Settings app (not Remote S, but Settings for the phone itself) and then scroll down to Remote S. There are a bunch of settings there you can tweak and near the bottom is that refresh delay setting you are talking about.

 

[AllenWong]

I have the exact same problem unfortunately. My Tesla app worked fine a few hours after picking up the car so I know the problem isn't my account or authentication info.

So I just got my Tesla yesterday and the Tesla app works fine. So does the Tesla Toolbox app. However, for some reason Remote S keeps logging me out. Everytime I go to open the app it asks for my username and password again, which makes the Apple Watch app useless. Anyone know what is causing this?

This is a known bug for people who didn't give their Tesla a name yet (which makes sense if you just bought your car recently or didn't know that you could name your car). If you just add a name for your Tesla in your car by pressing the T logo on the center-top, it will fix this issue. This bug will be addressed in the next app update.

A little backstory if you're curious: The reason why it was there was added security so the car name had to match what was on record to prevent unauthorized access for when you delete the app but someone reinstalls it under the same Apple keychain. I didn't realize at the time that it was possible for a "null" value to appear if the car was never named. This caused Teslas without a name to always need to be reauthenticated in Remote S because the app thinks that the app was deleted (thus explaining the "null" value for the car name). I'll fix this issue in the next update.

I've noticed recently that the updates seemed slower, wasn't sure if it was me or if it really was taking longer.
Any way to change it back to 5 seconds? Maybe set to 9 seconds by default, but an option to set it back to 5 seconds? One of the things I like most about the app was that it updated so much faster than the Tesla app. It's a shame to see the app intentionally slowed.

Oh yea, the default is 9 seconds, but you can change it to whatever you want. Even 1 second if you wanted to. Just go to the app's settings (in your Settings app), and you can change the refresh delay from 9 to 5 (or whatever you want).

A little back story on why you think the app is updating slower now: It actually only defaulted to 9 seconds if you deleted the app and reinstalled it or if you're a new user. For a lot of the older users, the refresh was kept at whatever they had before (default was 5 seconds before). If you switched phones recently that might explain why you had a faster refresh before and slower now. But the option to go back to 5 seconds was always there. I changed it because I starting to noticed that my app had a decent chunk of users, so I didn't want to burden their servers with so many refreshes. If Tesla servers are slow, then everyone loses (and in the earlier days, the servers would go down pretty often). The compromise was to default it to 9 and then all the users who still wanted a faster refresh could still do it if they really wanted to. Remote S is all about giving you more control.

 

[caltechkid]

This is a known bug for people who didn't give their Tesla a name yet (which makes sense if you just bought your car recently or didn't know that you could name your car). If you just add a name for your Tesla in your car by pressing the T logo on the center-top, it will fix this issue. This bug will be addressed in the next app update.

A little backstory if you're curious: The reason why it was there was added security so the car name had to match what was on record to prevent unauthorized access for when you delete the app but someone reinstalls it under the same Apple keychain. I didn't realize at the time that it was possible for a "null" value to appear if the car was never named. This caused Teslas without a name to always need to be reauthenticated in Remote S because the app thinks that the app was deleted (thus explaining the "null" value for the car name). I'll fix this issue in the next update..

Thanks for the explanation, Allen - really appreciated! I will try this when I get my car back later toady and let you know how it goes.

 

[HebrHmr]

Thanks for the explanation, Allen - really appreciated! I will try this when I get my car back later toady and let you know how it goes.

I was experiencing the same thing and didn't even realize it was an issue. Same boat, forgot to name the car before I dropped it off at the shop. I just assumed from what I gathered about Allen in other posts that it was a security feature. I guess I was half right. Looking forward to getting full use of the app on my upcoming road trip. Thanks @AllenWong for being so in tune with your customer base.

 

[sdorn]

So you name the car in the car itself or in the app?

 

[slevit1md]

A little back story on why you think the app is updating slower now: It actually only defaulted to 9 seconds if you deleted the app and reinstalled it or if you're a new user. For a lot of the older users, the refresh was kept at whatever they had before (default was 5 seconds before). If you switched phones recently that might explain why you had a faster refresh before and slower now. But the option to go back to 5 seconds was always there. I changed it because I starting to noticed that my app had a decent chunk of users, so I didn't want to burden their servers with so many refreshes. If Tesla servers are slow, then everyone loses (and in the earlier days, the servers would go down pretty often). The compromise was to default it to 9 and then all the users who still wanted a faster refresh could still do it if they really wanted to. Remote S is all about giving you more control.

Thanks so much! Probably happened when I went from the beta version back to the regular version. As always, your answer does not disappoint!

 

[HebrHmr]

So you name the car in the car itself or in the app?

In the car according to Allen's previous post:

If you just add a name for your Tesla in your car by pressing the T logo on the center-top, it will fix this issue.

 

[BertL]

So you name the car in the car itself or in the app?

Touch the "T" at the top of the CID and you'll find an option to change the name of your vehicle.

 

[Ulmo]

First, I want to say that I love your app. I don't feel like this below issue is very important. It's just confusing to me while using Watch. Don't worry about it if it takes excess time to fix.

I don't think this is very important, but it is a logical error while I look at it:

Is fan setting "what it would be if it were on" (actually makes sense) or "what it is doing right now" (this is where my logical fallacy comes in)? If it is "what it is", then what is wrong?

In the iPhone app at the same time, I believe the screen said "Stop Climate", meaning it is on. (For sure, later below, it was in this state (read on to keep proper timeline).)

Is there a deep fix to this, or is it something that just indicates lack of update?

After 5 - 10 minutes, I came back to the same Apple Watch screen, and it still shows similar (Inside now 80º, fan now 5, Outside still 37º, and HVAC still Off).

I got to this particular state by starting Camp Mode on the iPhone (for the first time to test it out).

I exited the camp mode screen on my iPhone (I failed at first by pressing the wrong button, came back to the screen, and it informed me Camp Mode was off despite me not pressing off), then went back to the watch, went to other screens, came back, and same thing. Then I hard-pressed the watch, and pressed HVAC On. I came back to the HVAC watch screen, and it flashed On then Off. I tried going back to the HVAC On button again, and this time it went to HVAC On. While typing this information in this message, the watch closed, I reopened it, went back to the watch's Remote S, and it says HVAC Off again, with fan at 5, and at the same time the iPhone app is showing "Stop Climate" with fan 5, and active temperatures, etc.

In the past, I have also run into inconsistencies between the state of your iPhone app on my iPhone and the car's status with respect to Locked/Unlocked, various doors opened/closed, and the HVAC on/off; nicely, your app handles those inconsistencies gracefully in terms of not crashing and sometimes holding our hands figuring out what is going on, but I would like to know the best way to "refresh and know for certain", for things like making certain my car is locked, or less important, HVAC on for a preconditioning event.

I love your app on the iPhone since it lets me do things that really matter to me. This is a fairly small nit, since I think of Apple Watch as more of a toy that never works right than as something useful, but if your app ends up being the first or even one of the first useful things I get to do with my Apple Watch, then I would love it! I intend to keep trying it out on Apple Watch now; let's see if I follow through (I don't really use Apple Watch much since I find it fairly useless).

I have the original Apple Watch. If I upgrade to their second watch, I will only get ceramic, since I'm allergic to most metals on my skin. But, I don't have the money to do so at the moment. Since I don't have the money to do so at the moment, I want to make my next Apple Watch upgrade worth it, and am leaning pretty successfully toward refusing to do so until they do one or more of: Round Watch; Cell Phone Network Watch (doesn't require tether); Wifi Capable Watch (doesn't require tether); really fast and useful watch (currently Apple Watch is so slow and unreliable that I've never actually successfully used it at work to speed up anything I do without just pulling out my phone from my pocket).

So, I hate to say it, but I hope your app works on the original Apple Watch for a very long time, and possibly a used ceramic watch 2 in the distant future if Apple doesn't innovate their watch line much.

 

[AllenWong]

Looks like you found a bug. If the fan speed is showing in the watch, it should mean that the HVAC is on. The discrepancy might be changes in the Tesla API. I'll fix it in the next update.