Serious security issue with phone as a key

[CNC1]

My key fob (BMW) is always in my pocket, however my phone, during driving is usual out, so, once and a while a forget my phone in the car. I do not see how I can forget key fob.
You can unlock and even start a lot of GM cars with the phone, but car will not move, or open door without fob is present.

 

[daniel]

This is simply not true, you can open the frunk from the permanent notification from the Tesla app (though I don't use iDevices so I'm not sure if the notification is different, but based on other reports I've read I don't think it is). I fail to see how this is much different than pulling a fob out of your pocket and pressing the frunk button.

I have no "permanent notification" from the Tesla app on my phone. The app notifies me when there's a new firmware version ready to install. Otherwise the app just sits invisibly in the background.

If someone can tell me how to put an "unlock frunk" button on the lock screen of my phone, so I don't have to unlock it, scroll to the screen with the app, and click on that, I'll be very grateful.

A fob is one button press. The phone is multiple presses and swipes with an unlock code or fingerprint (which often fails) thrown in.

 

[ChrisH]

I have no "permanent notification" from the Tesla app on my phone. The app notifies me when there's a new firmware version ready to install. Otherwise the app just sits invisibly in the background.

If someone can tell me how to put an "unlock frunk" button on the lock screen of my phone, so I don't have to unlock it, scroll to the screen with the app, and click on that, I'll be very grateful.

A fob is one button press. The phone is multiple presses and swipes with an unlock code or fingerprint (which often fails) thrown in.

On an iPhone there is a Tesla app widget. Scroll left from home screen and tap the frunk button.

Edit: I see you wanted it from the lock screen. Sorry I don’t think that’s possible. The method I described takes two seconds.

 

[copyhacker]

On an iPhone there is a Tesla app widget. Scroll left from home screen and tap the frunk button.

Edit: I see you wanted it from the lock screen. Sorry I don’t think that’s possible. The method I described takes two seconds.

It works from the lock screen as well, at least on my X with Face ID. You probably have to put your thumb on the button to authenticate for pre-X iPhones.

 

[SeanM]

I have a different question on this topic... how do I setup the Model-3 to auto-lock itself when I walk away from it?
Right now I have to open the app on my cellphone & press the lock icon to lock the car, no matter if how far I am from the car, it doesn't auto-lock.

Thanks.

 

[dailo]

I have a different question on this topic... how do I setup the Model-3 to auto-lock itself when I walk away from it?
Right now I have to open the app on my cellphone & press the lock icon to lock the car, no matter if how far I am from the car, it doesn't auto-lock.

Thanks.

In the lock menu click on the settings icon in the upper right which will give you more options.

 

[ceekz]

I have a different question on this topic... how do I setup the Model-3 to auto-lock itself when I walk away from it?
Right now I have to open the app on my cellphone & press the lock icon to lock the car, no matter if how far I am from the car, it doesn't auto-lock.

Thanks.

hit the car icon on the bottom left of your touch screen. I believe it is under the DRIVING tab, enable autolock upon walk away. Might need to touch the gear for settings in pre-v9 to find the toggle.

 

[dgpcolorado]

This is simply not true, you can open the frunk from the permanent notification from the Tesla app (though I don't use iDevices so I'm not sure if the notification is different, but based on other reports I've read I don't think it is). I fail to see how this is much different than pulling a fob out of your pocket and pressing the frunk button.

It isn't necessary to take the fob out of one's pocket to open the frunk. Tesla designed the fob so that the front and back of the little car shape can be determined easily by touch. That allows one to double push the frunk button by feel alone, to open it. Do it all the time. A long push on the rear button unlocks the charge port, in case it doesn't unlock otherwise — I rarely have this problem but occasionally my J1772 adapter won't release.

By the way, a dead fob can be used to open and drive the car via the RFID chip in it. And a fob with a weak battery will give a warning on the dash in plenty of time to replace the coin cell in it before it fails. Pretty standard stuff nowadays, but some have expressed concerns about such things in previous threads on the subject of fobs.

 

[LucyferSam]

It isn't necessary to take the fob out of one's pocket to open the frunk. Tesla designed the fob so that the front and back of the little car shape can be determined easily by touch. That allows one to double push the frunk button by feel alone, to open it. Do it all the time. A long push on the rear button unlocks the charge port, in case it doesn't unlock otherwise — I rarely have this problem but occasionally my J1772 adapter won't release.

By the way, a dead fob can be used to open and drive the car via the RFID chip in it. And a fob with a weak battery will give a warning on the dash in plenty of time to replace the coin cell in it before it fails. Pretty standard stuff nowadays, but some have expressed concerns about such things in previous threads on the subject of fobs.

Heh, the idea of actually being able to use a fob, even the Tesla shaped one in my pocket literally never occurred to me as when I had a fob for my last car it was on my key ring in my pocket below my wallet - it would be such a pain to get at and the buttons far more likely to get pressed on accident that ended up gluing the more problematic ones in place to prevent accidental presses. Now my key ring lives in the center console of the car so I can grab it when I need the other keys. Glad they are making a fob for those that want it, but no way will I ever go back to using one.

 

[dgpcolorado]

Heh, the idea of actually being able to use a fob, even the Tesla shaped one in my pocket literally never occurred to me as when I had a fob for my last car it was on my key ring in my pocket below my wallet - it would be such a pain to get at and the buttons far more likely to get pressed on accident that ended up gluing the more problematic ones in place to prevent accidental presses. Now my key ring lives in the center console of the car so I can grab it when I need the other keys. Glad they are making a fob for those that want it, but no way will I ever go back to using one.

I switched to carrying the fob alone in a pocket so that it wouldn't get scratched, because I really liked the looks of it. I carry what few keys I have left — primarily mailbox and bicycle locks, since I don't lock my house I don't need a house key — in another pocket, along with change and an origami knife. Makes the fob easy to use, although it doesn't need to be touched for most purposes. Carrying my phone all the time would be a considerable nuisance, even if it worked as a key, which it likely would not. So, I'm also glad that Tesla is going to offer a fob for the Model 3, for those who want it. Those who don't can continue with using a phone or card key.

 

[Qzic]

I have no "permanent notification" from the Tesla app on my phone...

If someone can tell me how to put an "unlock frunk" button on the lock screen of my phone, so I don't have to unlock it, scroll to the screen with the app, and click on that, I'll be very grateful.

First - if you don't have a permanent notification then you will have problems using the auto lock/unlock since Android may disable the Tesla app to save power. The purpose of the permanent notification is to keep it active so the phone as key works more reliably. There is no option to turn on/off the permanent notification. If you don't have it, I suggest uninstalling and reinstalling.

Once you have it, you can use the permanent notification to unlock the car, trunk, and frunk even from the lock screen (with out logging in). To get to those options click the down arrow to expand the options on the notification and you will see the options.

 

[daniel]

I added the Tesla widget to my phone. I can access the widget without unlocking the phone, but there are no unlock buttons on the widget. In fact that are no buttons at all except a refresh button, which does nothing since the car is asleep.

Next time I drive somewhere I'll see if there's a Frunk button on the widget when the car is awake. If this works it will be a very nice thing to have.

 

[Qzic]

Not the widget, the actual Tesla app. The persistent notification will have Tesla, the time, the name of your car, and then connected or disconnected. To the right of the time is a little down arrow. Click that and you will get additional options.

Other persistent notifications also have options accessible by clicking their down arrows.

 

[ChrisH]

I added the Tesla widget to my phone. I can access the widget without unlocking the phone, but there are no unlock buttons on the widget. In fact that are no buttons at all except a refresh button, which does nothing since the car is asleep.

Next time I drive somewhere I'll see if there's a Frunk button on the widget when the car is awake. If this works it will be a very nice thing to have.

There is a frunk button on the widget. You can even wake the car up by hitting the refresh button to see it.

 

[Kichwas]

I went to the SE pages on both Verizon and sprints website and both of them say out of stock.

...
Yeah next phone upgrade I will have to search the various Android brands to see if anyone has something with a headphone jack...

I would also like to find a phone that is smaller than my car...

I suspect the next iPhone will require a dolly or forklift to carry around and not even have a charging port anymore, and only work through facial geatures and sign language observed by the camera...

Suddenly William Shatner’s spoken poetry will be socially relevant...

 

[SeanM]

hit the car icon on the bottom lef

In the lock menu click on the settings icon in the upper right which will give you more options.

t of your touch screen. I believe it is under the DRIVING tab, enable autolock upon walk away. Might need to touch the gear for settings in pre-v9 to find the toggle.

Thanks will try when I leave from work in evening.

 

[slobluem3]

Three days ago I rented Model 3 via Turo on my trip from SF to Reno. Since I have my Tesla account on an app on my Phone, the guy who rented it to me logged with his account on my iPad. So I was able to enable iPad as a key to Model 3. It works like a charm and everything is OK with an exception of one thing: when I leave iPad in the car and lock it via key card it looks like locked but it will unlock to anyone (and he/she can even drive away with it).

How to reproduce:

1. Put your bluetooth device you are using as a key (typically phone) in a car.
2. Lock your car with key card.
3. Go away and leave there key card (so you will be sure that car did not react with it in any way).
4. Go back to the car and try to open driver's door (ignore the fact that car looks locked and try to open it anyway).
5. The car will unlock itself for you and you will be able to hop in and drive away.

I get that you usually do not do this. I encountered it only because I didn't want to take my iPad with me, so I locked with the key card. And I was very surprised when I came back and "just for fun" tried to open the car. After that, I tried it several times, always with success.

What it seems happening is this. When you try to open the door while the car is still locked, it will actively look out if a bluetooth key is in range. And since it is in the car, it is in range, and the car unlocks itself.

But imagine a situation when you and your wife will have both phones acting as a key. Then you will forget one of them in the car and leave together with just one phone. The car can lock up but will unlock to anyone because phone acting as a key is inside the car. I cannot verify if this can happen as I cannot add another device as a key to the car but I do not see why it will not happen...

BTW, I am not writing this to blame Tesla. I really like and admire how they are rethinking cars and declutter them. And to be honest, I am for years saying that I want my apple watch act as a key to my car (and in case of running out of juice with my watch I would like to be able to manually unlock my car with phone app over bluetooth).

This would also happen with any proximity based FOB. Just don't leave your keys in the car people, theres a reason insurance has always asked that first if you report your car stolen "Were the keys in the vehicle??"

 

[dgpcolorado]

Fair enough. I think they stopped making the SE with the latest roll out of phones. Too bad for those who like smaller phones.

Dilbert Comic Strip on 2014-03-12 | Dilbert by Scott Adams

 

[daniel]

Not the widget, the actual Tesla app. The persistent notification will have Tesla, the time, the name of your car, and then connected or disconnected. To the right of the time is a little down arrow. Click that and you will get additional options.

Other persistent notifications also have options accessible by clicking their down arrows.

How do you get a persistent notification? As mentioned, my Tesla app only notifies me when there's a new firmware version. And when I was supercharging on my trip this summer, it notified me when the car was done charging.

There's no arrow, down or otherwise, anywhere near the time either on my lock screen or on the widgets screen. Maybe we're on different operating systems. I never got iOS 11 because of all the bug reports, and it didn't seem to have anything I wanted. I was out of town when iOS 12 came out and still have not decided. By the philosophy of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," I might stick with iOS 10.

There is a frunk button on the widget. You can even wake the car up by hitting the refresh button to see it.

I've never been able to get the car to wake up from the app. Apparently when it's asleep it doesn't check for wake-up requests from the app. It just spins the wheel for a while and then reports that wake-up failed. But tomorrow I will check the widget when the car is awake.

 

[ChrisH]

How do you get a persistent notification? As mentioned, my Tesla app only notifies me when there's a new firmware version. And when I was supercharging on my trip this summer, it notified me when the car was done charging.

There's no arrow, down or otherwise, anywhere near the time either on my lock screen or on the widgets screen. Maybe we're on different operating systems. I never got iOS 11 because of all the bug reports, and it didn't seem to have anything I wanted. I was out of town when iOS 12 came out and still have not decided. By the philosophy of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," I might stick with iOS 10.



I've never been able to get the car to wake up from the app. Apparently when it's asleep it doesn't check for wake-up requests from the app. It just spins the wheel for a while and then reports that wake-up failed. But tomorrow I will check the widget when the car is awake.

That’s weird. I wake my car every night with the app to unlock the charging port. I did it on iOS 11 and now 12.

And what do you mean by persistent notification?