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Stories of your Model 3 phone-as-a-key FAILURES, give us a FOB, Tesla!!!

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#61
Here’s a couple of thoughts that I haven't seen elsewhere on the subject:

Keycard: :It's a better backup than a physical key.
Despite the downsides of the keycard, there are some real positives. FOBs do fail too - when batteries go low, or if they're submerged in water - but the keycard does not. So while it's not as versatile, it's more more reliable than a FOB. It's also MUCH cheaper than a replacement FOB. After more than two $100 OEM/aftermarket replacement FOBs, many manufacturers require expensive reprogramming or even MCU replacements. I've read that the keycards cost $5 to $7.50 at the service centers.

Digital Car Key specification: 'Digital Key' standard uses your phone to unlock your car
Thanks to OTA updates, I'm pretty sure that Tesla can benefit from this standard as other manufacturers adopt it. IMHO, The *REAL* problem is fragmentation, from which Android devices suffer the most - but this spec and it's implementations will provide a better baseline to develop, test and improve. As more and more Android phones benefit from the Digital Car Key standard, I think we'll see huge boosts in reliability for cars that adopt the standard.

Yep, I'm an optimist with an iPhone X. ;) I just want it to work with my Apple Watch!

Thoughts?
 
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#62
While I don't necessarily have any phone-as-key failure stories, I do have some success stories.

I have a pair of pants with loose pockets. Things generally fall off from them when I'm sitting down or moving a lot. This one time, I was carrying a bunch of useless junk in them (think mints, change, etc) all day. It was for a family event, so I had left my wallet in the car, luckily. At the end of the day, I realized that almost everything I had in them had fallen off and gotten lost. My phone, however, is almost always in my hands so that was not lost. Plus, it's too big to miss.

I was able to drive off without losing anything of value at the end. Had I relied on a fob, I would've had difficulties getting back in.
 
  • Funny
Reactions: Runt8
#63
davedavedave said:
Here’s a couple of thoughts that I haven't seen elsewhere on the subject:

Keycard: :It's a better backup than a physical key.
Despite the downsides of the keycard, there are some real positives. FOBs do fail too - when batteries go low, or if they're submerged in water - but the keycard does not. So while it's not as versatile, it's more more reliable than a FOB. It's also MUCH cheaper than a replacement FOB. After more than two $100 OEM/aftermarket replacement FOBs, many manufacturers require expensive reprogramming or even MCU replacements. I've read that the keycards cost $5 to $7.50 at the service centers.

Digital Car Key specification: 'Digital Key' standard uses your phone to unlock your car
Thanks to OTA updates, I'm pretty sure that Tesla can benefit from this standard as other manufacturers adopt it. IMHO, The *REAL* problem is fragmentation, from which Android devices suffer the most - but this spec and it's implementations will provide a better baseline to develop, test and improve. As more and more Android phones benefit from the Digital Car Key standard, I think we'll see huge boosts in reliability for cars that adopt the standard.

Yep, I'm an optimist with an iPhone X. ;) I just want it to work with my Apple Watch!

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I have Android and the key works fine for me. I'm also fine using the key card as a back up. I keep it in my wallet so it's always with me.
 
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#68
As long as Tesla charges the roughly $200 for the fob and $200 for programming it for your personal use, and you pay for it, I'm all for you having a personal fob. Having used a fob (today, even), lost it, looked for it, found it, having to replace batteries, putting them in upside down, calling Tesla, I can't see that the phone is a major problem.
 
#70
roblab said:
As long as Tesla charges the roughly $200 for the fob and $200 for programming it for your personal use, and you pay for it, I'm all for you having a personal fob. Having used a fob (today, even), lost it, looked for it, found it, having to replace batteries, putting them in upside down, calling Tesla, I can't see that the phone is a major problem.
Click to expand...

Phone has worked pretty good for me android S8+, however not so well for wife who has a an S8 maybe it's her fitness tracker or the fact she has lots of apps open on her phone all the time. she complains pretty often she has to stand in front of car a while after pulling the handle but it eventually works.

As for key fobs never had any issues with them. I always have them attached to my house keys, in fact i have duplicate sets of house keys for each key fob for our other cars so i just take the set the for the car I'm using that day. wife just has both fobs with her all the time in her cavernious bag=) both cars have keyless entry so just grab hanlde it unlocks and then press start and off you go.
 
#71
I did a full overhaul on my Galaxy S5 phone a couple days ago. Saved all the photos and things to the removable memory card, took it out, wrote down important apps and login info, then did a full factory restore back to original state on the phone.

Afterwards, the phone ran much better and much smoother. After reloading everything and the Tesla app and reconnecting it to the car, the phone-as-a-key worked perfectly. For one day. After that, it spent the entire next day being able to open the door (most of the time), but was never able to turn the car on without using the key card.

Which proves what I've been saying all along, that phone-as-a-key SUCKS!!!

I still haven't heard back from Tesla on what they did wrong with phone-as-a-key and getting a fob made available.
 
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#72
I think the phone/key thing is a great idea to compliment the keycard that come with the Model 3. In almost 3 weeks of driving though, I have had the phone not open the car twice, which I was able to solve by restarting the iPhone. Other then that, my iPhone battery does seem to drain a lot quicker since I have been using it as a key for the car.
 
#74
timk225 said:
I did a full overhaul on my Galaxy S5 phone a couple days ago. Saved all the photos and things to the removable memory card, took it out, wrote down important apps and login info, then did a full factory restore back to original state on the phone.

Afterwards, the phone ran much better and much smoother. After reloading everything and the Tesla app and reconnecting it to the car, the phone-as-a-key worked perfectly. For one day. After that, it spent the entire next day being able to open the door (most of the time), but was never able to turn the car on without using the key card.

Which proves what I've been saying all along, that phone-as-a-key SUCKS!!!

I still haven't heard back from Tesla on what they did wrong with phone-as-a-key and getting a fob made available.
Click to expand...

I think what it proves is that your phone sucks, it is over 4 years old after all... I mean, is it even getting updates anymore?
 
#76
Argyle said:
I think what it proves is that your phone sucks, it is over 4 years old after all... I mean, is it even getting updates anymore?
Click to expand...

Funny how none of my other apps have a problem. Clash of Clans, Sirius XM, YouTube, etc. It's only the Tesla app that has problems, so it is obvious that it is the Tesla app that needs work.

I won't ever own an Apple product, because Apple is greedy, overpriced, and makes their products as non-repairable as possible, and they aren't getting my money.

If a newer phone is required, Tesla should give me a new Galaxy phone for free. I'm not spending $900 on a phone I don't need to make an app I don't want work properly.
 
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#77
timk225 said:
Funny how none of my other apps have a problem. Clash of Clans, Sirius XM, YouTube, etc. It's only the Tesla app that has problems, so it is obvious that it is the Tesla app that needs work.

I won't ever own an Apple product, because Apple is greedy, overpriced, and makes their products as non-repairable as possible, and they aren't getting my money.

If a newer phone is required, Tesla should give me a new Galaxy phone for free. I'm not spending $900 on a phone I don't need to make an app I don't want work properly.
Click to expand...

So just so you understand, there are multiple aspects of this problem. The phone communicates with the car via Bluetooth Low Energy which your phone does support, but it's likely that when your phone came out few devices used BLE in this way, so the functionality was largely untested.

So there are three pieces that could cause problems... The bug could be in the car's firmware, which is controlled by Tesla. The bug could be in the Tesla app, which is also controlled by Tesla. Or the bug could be in your phone's Bluetooth stack, which is controlled by the manufacturer and will only get updated if you get an operating system update.

In your case, I'm going to guess your problem is in the OS since you have an ancient phone which is not getting updates regularly (or at all). The phone as key was definitely problematic when I first got my car but it has improved greatly over time through updates to all three aspects (car, app, phone). Honestly you'd have better luck complaining to Samsung if you are unwilling to buy a more modern phone.

And if you don't want the app to work... Well, you did get a keycard right?
 
Last edited:
#78
timk225 said:
Funny how none of my other apps have a problem. Clash of Clans, Sirius XM, YouTube, etc. It's only the Tesla app that has problems, so it is obvious that it is the Tesla app that needs work.
Click to expand...
You’re absolutely correct, I run Clash of Clans on a 2 week old avocado and it unlocks my Tundra 100% of the time. Come on Tesla, Toyota can do it, why can’t you?!?!
 
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