Risks of auto lock....

[russman]

As I watched numerous drivers leave their car at superchargers, I noticed everyone relies on the autolock when they walk away. The problem is, I see that it would be very easy for someone to just walk up and open the door in the window you walk away at. The two people who just walked away didn't even look at the car and I could have easily just opened the door and it would have never locked. I also noticed that one car didn't autolock but the people walked away. It turned out the door was closed but not shut all the way. It was at the first notch. So they walked away and their car remained unlocked.

I'm making it a habit to lock and using autolock as a backup. Do you manually lock? Autolock and check? Just walk away?

 

[AMPd]

I just walk away, there's nothing of value in my car... well except the 3 fully stamped Dutch bros coffee cards

 

[trils0n]

v7.0 seems to have reduced the time between getting out and auto lock activating. Seems to be roughly 1/2 delay time, noticeably quicker. Never worried about it, even when it took longer.

 

[S4WRXTTCS]

I manually lock because I'm OCD.

 

[green1]

I like the auto-lock, but I do wish it was a bit sooner.

I find it odd, when I approach the car it doesn't unlock and extend the handles until I'm about a foot away from the door, but when I walk away it doesn't lock until I'm so far away I can barely tell by looking if the handles and mirrors have retracted. I want both locking and unlocking to happen earlier than they do now.

 

[AEdennis]

I manually lock because I'm OCD.

I do this. But the car is set to auto lock. However, I rarely give it time to do its thing.

 

[jerry33]

I checked the first few times when I got the car, but don't bother anymore. Nothing of value in the car, and they wouldn't be able to drive it as I'm too far away. I consider this a non-issue.

 

[Super_Popular]

I like the auto-lock, but I do wish it was a bit sooner.

I agree, you should be able to pick timing. 10 sec, 20 sec, 30 sec etc.....

 

[Caligula]

I like the auto-lock, but I do wish it was a bit sooner.

I find it odd, when I approach the car it doesn't unlock and extend the handles until I'm about a foot away from the door, but when I walk away it doesn't lock until I'm so far away I can barely tell by looking if the handles and mirrors have retracted. I want both locking and unlocking to happen earlier than they do now.

I believe this is because there's a timer after you reach a set distance from the car. You'd probably have the same results walking 15 feet (or whatever it is) away and standing there to wait out the remaining time.

 

[ottopilot]

I just walk away, there's nothing of value in my car... well except the 3 fully stamped Dutch bros coffee cards

I lol'ed at this. those things are gold man, cash them in.

 

[green1]

I believe this is because there's a timer after you reach a set distance from the car. You'd probably have the same results walking 15 feet (or whatever it is) away and standing there to wait out the remaining time.

I suspect you are correct, however it doesn't change the mechanics of it, the fact that it's still unlocked when I'm a long way away and can't even see the car any more.

 

[Patrick W]

I manually lock because I'm OCD.

Kindred spirit.

 

[2krazykats]

I wish they would program an audible beep everytime the car auto-locks (or manual locks for that matter) like they have on some car alarm systems. it's more reassuring than the car lights flashing which you wouldn't see if you were walking away from the car.

I do both, depending on my mood or paranoia, since I'm new to the car...

 

[ottopilot]

I wish they would program an audible beep everytime the car auto-locks (or manual locks for that matter) like they have on some car alarm systems. it's more reassuring than the car lights flashing which you wouldn't see if you were walking away from the car.

I do both, depending on my mood or paranoia, since I'm new to the car...

I second this. I've had the car less than a week and I find myself opening the app to confirm its locked after I walk away. A beep would be nice.

 

[ecarfan]

Auto lock is highly reliable, I would say 100% reliable as long as you fully shut the door, which is something that I think everyone can learn to do.
And if someone gets inside the car, they can't drive it anyway. I don't worry about it.

 

[fancycar]

I thought this was going to be another thread about the car auto locking with the key inside. It's unfortunate when this happens.

 

[austinEV]

Here is my autolock experience:
I was aware of the feature before I took possession of my car in late 2013, but it was not enabled by default and I didn't know to enable it. Also, they gave us two keyfobs and my wife at the time just stuck hers in her purse which she left in the car. We then drove to a football game, parking in a downtown parking lot. The car was free to steal for anyone that night and we had no idea. Just didnt have the instincts down yet.

 

[luvnMyTS]

I had my phone and laptop stolen shortly after getting my first Tesla. Horrible system the way it is. Hate having to fumble around my pocket to find the key to manually lock the door every time. If not optional settings, there's no reason the auto-lock feature should be set to auto-lock the car as soon as you either reach to the headlight of the car or a foot or two back of the trunk area. I walk into stores and see that the doors handles are still out when I'm over 20 feet away. Absolutely makes no sense. Great feature, horribly executed.

 

[Caligula]

I had my phone and laptop stolen shortly after getting my first Tesla. Horrible system the way it is. Hate having to fumble around my pocket to find the key to manually lock the door every time. If not optional settings, there's no reason the auto-lock feature should be set to auto-lock the car as soon as you either reach to the headlight of the car or a foot or two back of the trunk area. I walk into stores and see that the doors handles are still out when I'm over 20 feet away. Absolutely makes no sense. Great feature, horribly executed.

The good news is that Tesla could fix this and push it OTA to our cars, if they so desired. That said, I'm sure there are some unintended consequences that we aren't seeing here that may have come up for Tesla during R&D when trying various ranges/times. That is to say, perhaps this is the lesser of two evils.

 

[f-stop]

during the first couple weeks of owning the car, my passenger didn't close their door hard enough and I didn't notice it was slightly ajar, when I parked on a busy downtown street. I relied on auto-lock, but was surprised when we returned to the car to see that it appeared already unlocked before I approached (mirrors were not folded in, and I have auto-fold enabled).

After that I'm more paranoid about either manually locking it with the fob or watching it as I walk away. Or I will check the app to see if it shows locked status.