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Stories of your Model 3 phone-as-a-key FAILURES, give us a FOB, Tesla!!!
- Thread starter timk225
- Start date
fluxemag
Member
Happened to me the other day. I tried rebooting the car twice. Rebooted the phone three times. Turned off and on Bluetooth and still didn’t fix it. Tried forcing closed and restarting the Tesla app and still nothing. Even tried unpairing and re-pairing the phone to the car to no avail. Finally I decided to close all background apps on my iPhone and that fixed it. Looks like there was an app that was running in the background that was causing problems. Up until that day I probably had about 300 successful unlock events.
diamond.g
Active Member
You can put a more recent ROM on your phone if you want a newer version of Android. Though you’ll have to put up with driver oddities as Qualcomm has really poor driver support on newer OSes on older phones.
Haha, then he'll be complaining that all his other apps stopped working... And his phone probably still won't work as a key...
Or Tesla can just make us a fob and eliminate the entire problem. Just sayin'.......
diamond.g
Active Member
I would like a fob, but I also expect to hear folks complain about the batteries dying every three-four months on them...
I'm as big of a phone key critic as anyone here and also want a fob (you can look through my post history), but you're not giving yourself a fair chance to make this work by using outdated tech. You're two major versions of Android behind (Marshmallow vs Oreo with "P" right around the corner) and two major version of Bluetooth behind (4.0 vs 5.0), where the more recent version was developed specifically to improve the Bluetooth LE standard, which is how your phone communicates with the car as the key. By comparison, my Pixel with Bluetooth 5.0 running Android 8.1 just got a security update a month ago that specifically improved Bluetooth LE performance and helped the phone work better as the key until something changed with Tesla firmware to cripple it again.
iwannam3
Active Member
After my phone working brilliantly for a week after the car and app update, it is again failing. Nothing consistent, nothing I can trust. opens the vehicle usually, but there is some additional level of security that keeps it from allowing me to drive. If the phone communicates to open the door and activate all features except driving, it would seem like a software problem since the phone and car are already communicating.
It works without an Internet connection as long as the Tesla app is running on the phone in the background (not open, just running). Phone and car communicate by Bluetooth LE directly and doesn't require an active Internet connection as long as that condition was met. That poster probably had a "regular" phone key failure having nothing to do with being in a steel container.
You do need an Internet connection at some point when setting up the phone key in order to log into the app. There was an issue a few months ago where the Tesla servers were down for most of the day and the app wouldn't allow you to log in. If you got logged out of the app during that time, there was no way to log back in, and the phone key disconnected. Owners who were logged out of the app lost the ability to open our cars with our phones until the servers were back up and you could log into the app. If you didn't log out of the app, the phone key still worked. I don't know if they've corrected that dependency since then.
Read my previous posts here. Even if phone-as-a-key worked perfectly 100% of the time, I still wouldn't want it, because I hate having to take my phone with me every single time I go into a convenience store or somewhere else for 5 minutes, just to get the car to lock.
We want FOBS, Tesla!!! Phone-as-a-key SUCKS!!!!!
chronopc
Active Member
I agree with you about the fob, but wow you like not having your phone? I never go anywhere without my phone.
There's a fairly good chance I can survive 5 to 10 minutes in a convenience store without my phone. I don't like being forced to haul it around constantly when I normally would not.
CjRichMar
Member
I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 with Oreo. I've never gotten Bluetooth to work consistently to open / operate the car. 60% of the time, Bluetooth doesn't work. For the 40% of the time that it does, it'll open the car but then won't pair, so I have to reset. All in all, it sounds good on paper, but it should never be the primary method of operating the car. Even if it works 100% of the time, that still means that Bluetooth has to be activated all the time AND you have to carry your phone at all times to achieve the same passive entry method that the key fob provides. So my phone dies faster and I'm attached to it if I want to drive my car? No thanks.
Regarding contacting Tesla directly, I spoke with the Regional Manager for Houston in-person and highlighted these same concerns. He said he'd follow up. That was in March - nothing heard yet. I don't think Tesla has any intention of offering a key fob option. And that's a shame, because they're making what was a simple process that didn't really need to be refined (IMO) into something that relies on complicated technology with myriad ways to fail.
Regarding contacting Tesla directly, I spoke with the Regional Manager for Houston in-person and highlighted these same concerns. He said he'd follow up. That was in March - nothing heard yet. I don't think Tesla has any intention of offering a key fob option. And that's a shame, because they're making what was a simple process that didn't really need to be refined (IMO) into something that relies on complicated technology with myriad ways to fail.
roblab
Active Member
NO WE DON'T! If you want one bad enough, maybe Tesla will re program a Model S fob, and charge you the $400+ dollars they have always charged. Though the 3 isn't set up for a fob.
Most of us like the convenience of not having to carry around another device. Phone key works.
Yes, now you're getting it. I don't want to have to haul my phone around with me constantly for every little thing, a smaller and lighter fob in my pocket that I never have to touch all day is what I want.
