Extra info if you don't feel like reading the below: talking about the car's reception (not phone), in Canada, cannot be plugged in, cannot be connected to WiFi, yes this is a first world problem but the question stands for the $75k car.
"...after getting the car for whatever reason,". Never heard before it being put that way.
You might talk to your cell carrier and see if a cellular booster is available for that area. Then buy it and plug it in near the car.
After re-reading, that sentence was a bit of a dog's breakfast as well
if it was unclear, I meant to say it worked fine for a few weeks and has been a problem ever since.
Hadn't thought of a booster. No idea how they work, but I assume it needs wall power which would be a problem. Will look into it.
Not sure if that will exactly work. My assumption is that you'll need a cell booster for the cellular system the car uses. Since the OP is in Canada, that will probably be Rogers but don't quote me on that.
Yes exactly, for the car. Smartphone has spotty but seemingly better connection in the same area, despite being the worst phone she's had so far in terms of reception. Speedtest seemed to indicate it was using Bell FWIW.
If you were in the US, I'd suggest a "microcell" (technically a femtocell) that plugs into a network connection and creates a small area of cell service around it. Plugged into a window near that car, that should extend service. However, it appears Canadian carriers do not offer them for whatever reason.
You could install a cell signal booster or repeater on or near the building. However, I think the best option may be to just walk out to the car about 15 minutes before leaving and just manually turn on the heating functionality via the dash. Not the most convenient, but certainly the least expensive.
Is charging available at the building? If so, the car should be awake, in which case getting it to join local WiFi (perhaps installing an outdoor WiFi antenna or placing one near a window) would probably do the trick. If charging is not available, I don't see the benefit to preheating the car beyond a few minutes of comfort when you get in. Yes, it will help with regenerative braking, but unless she is going down some massive hills on the way home, she'll burn far more energy than you'll get by having regenerative braking available.
As far as I know, there's really no other benefits to preheating the car unless she needs to stop at a supercharger on the way home.
Huh, hadn't heard of these femtocell things. Interesting.
Walking out works
most times, but not if the car is frozen solid due to it's California-climate inspired design choices that require preheating the car for 30 minutes before you can even more a door handle. Being completely honest, least expensive isn't the goal. It's a $75k car. If something like the $200 Tesla fob would solve this, it would be an instant buy for us.
Charging not yet available, and even if it was it wouldn't be allowed on the work WiFi network (to make a very long story short, this is fair and agreeable).
The goal of preconditioning the car is twofold: Comfort, and actually getting into the car if frozen. So for most times when it's just for comfort, yes a few minutes of being uncomfortable could be tolerated, but... also would be preferable if our previously-mentioned $75k car could have a reliable "remote start"! Bearing lack of comfort that I didn't have to with previous vehicles that were half the price isn't something I had in mind, quite honestly. First world problems, eh?
has anyone actually been able to remotely connect to their car from their phone when the car is NOT on lte and is only on wifi?
to me, that sounds very risky. wifi is notoriously hard to fully secure. and there's no telling what path is taken when YOUR wifi is what is connecting your car to the public net.
if I was tesla, I'd only allow LTE in for remote control.
hoping this is what tesla actually did. anyone ever try it with wifi?
I
think I've done this on Vancouver Island (WiFi but no LTE). However I'm not sure I see the risk. They're using TLS and hopefully up to date on modern practices in dealing with it to prevent attacks like SSL splitting (if this weren't the case, it would be extremely easy bounty money at one of those hacker conferences in which Tesla participates). Additionally, you can't connect to most public networks anyways since they have login pages that Tesla doesn't yet support.
