fluxemag
Member
It worked fine on the way back in the same ship's cargo hold, so it must have been a run-of-the-mill phone key fail the first time.
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Stories of your Model 3 phone-as-a-key FAILURES, give us a FOB, Tesla!!!
- Thread starter timk225
- Start date
It worked fine on the way back in the same ship's cargo hold, so it must have been a run-of-the-mill phone key fail the first time.
LOL. I can positively confirm that the offending app was NOT Tinder. (In case my wife reads this).
Exactly. People keep misinterpreting the desire for a fob as a desire to kill the phone key. I actually really like the phone key--when it works. It's been great not having to carry around a bulky fob. I'm willing to go back to that, though, because the phone key still fails multiple times on a daily basis not matter what I do with my phone. My phone works perfectly in all other aspects of my life and doesn't need to be upgraded otherwise.
chronopc
Active Member
I've owned the car since June 2nd and the phone failed on me exactly one time on June 17th. What I did was delete my phone from the car and set it up again and that did the trick and I have yet to get another failure.
Although after posting this my phone will probably fail and I will have to repeat this step.
Although after posting this my phone will probably fail and I will have to repeat this step.
Plus, from anecdotal reports, it's clear there's no guaranteed 100% for sure working phone for everyone, so upgrading the phone to a new one isn't necessarily going to solve the problem if you've got one ...
I don't have a Model 3 yet. So my opinion is only based on what I've read.
I like the phone key as a concept. If it worked reliably, I'd be OK with it most of the time. The biggest problem is the frunk access would require me to get my phone out, unlock it, run the Tesla app, and the unlock the frunk. Not fun if you're walking towards your car with a couple bags of groceries. My understanding is the trunk does have a button to push on the back, so that at least will open if your phone works as a key. But if I had a fob, I would already have my key ring in my hand, be able to find the "frunk" button and push it when I get near the car, to pop the frunk. That said, it's not that often that I would need access to the frunk, so if the phone key worked reliably, I'd be totally fine with it.
However, my wife absolutely does not want a smart phone. She has a regular dumb cell phone, and she only uses it to make calls or send a text message. So for her, she'd have to use the card key. And that's going to be a pain, especially with only the driver's side pillar having the reader. We have 2 kids, and to let our daughter into the backseat, she'd have to unlock from the driver's pillar, walk around to the other side, and let me daughter in, walk back around and put my son in the seat, etc.. Be much nicer if she could just walk to the passenger side and unlock it directly.
But the best would be phone key for me, fob for her. But if I had the option of a fob, I'd just use the fob everytime. It would work the same as the phone, except also give me buttons for lock/unlock, give me access to the frunk, and I could still pair my phone with the car to remotely (via LTE/wifi) do stuff like pre-cool the cabin.
AustinPowers
Total Smeghead
@drawfour: +1000
Exactly.
To sum up: Tesla, if you read this, please give us the option of a keyfob on the Model 3!
Simple as that.
All the tech geeks here can then keep on using their phones as a key if it works for them, and all of us oldschool grumpys (especially here in Europe, where things tend to be a little more "ancient" in many ways than in the US) will have one thing less to complain about. Win-win scenario.
*mumblestohimself*Why can't Tesla just once be more like a traditional automaker? Not everything they do is stupid or heinous you know.
Exactly.
To sum up: Tesla, if you read this, please give us the option of a keyfob on the Model 3!
Simple as that.
All the tech geeks here can then keep on using their phones as a key if it works for them, and all of us oldschool grumpys (especially here in Europe, where things tend to be a little more "ancient" in many ways than in the US
) will have one thing less to complain about. Win-win scenario.*mumblestohimself*Why can't Tesla just once be more like a traditional automaker? Not everything they do is stupid or heinous you know.
What a logical, well-reasoned response. You have it spot on and I completely agree with you. I'm sure someone will come along and tell you why they think you're wrong, that your wife "has" to get a smartphone, that the key card isn't as bad as you think it's going to be, that developing a Model 3 fob is pointless and not worth Tesla's resources, etc.
I'll put this here since it seems to the the phone key thread du jour.
Very frequently when I get in my car, I need to open the trunk first. I've actually had very good luck with the phone key unlocking the trunk I don't remember the last time it failed to open it.
What is annoying is that at least half of the time after unlocking the trunk, when I go to open any of the doors, it won't unlock and I get the key card prompt. I'd like to see someone explain how this one is a phone problem and not a car problem. Why would a phone that just unlocked the trunk 5 seconds earlier not be recognized as the key to unlock a door? I don't buy a Bluetooth reception problem because the phone can be in my hand and never gets more than 1 foot away from the car and still fail to unlock the door. It's infuriating because I know the phone was just recognized as the key, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to unlock the trunk in the first place.
A few firmware versions ago the mirrors unfolded and the doors unlocked when the trunk was opened. I'd love for that to still happen, but I guess Tesla figured people might not need to get in their car if they are opening their trunk.
Very frequently when I get in my car, I need to open the trunk first. I've actually had very good luck with the phone key unlocking the trunk I don't remember the last time it failed to open it.
What is annoying is that at least half of the time after unlocking the trunk, when I go to open any of the doors, it won't unlock and I get the key card prompt. I'd like to see someone explain how this one is a phone problem and not a car problem. Why would a phone that just unlocked the trunk 5 seconds earlier not be recognized as the key to unlock a door? I don't buy a Bluetooth reception problem because the phone can be in my hand and never gets more than 1 foot away from the car and still fail to unlock the door. It's infuriating because I know the phone was just recognized as the key, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to unlock the trunk in the first place.
A few firmware versions ago the mirrors unfolded and the doors unlocked when the trunk was opened. I'd love for that to still happen, but I guess Tesla figured people might not need to get in their car if they are opening their trunk.
iwannam3
Active Member
I can unlock the trunk from miles away, I believe it uses LTE. Unlocking the drivers door and "starting" the car uses Bluetooth low energy. Two different systems. Sometimes I can unlock the car from the app and get in and it then requires the card because Bluetooth is not working.
shrspeedblade
Rideshare Monkey
Not sure if this has been posted or not, and I'm not keen to plow through 7 pages so my apologies if it is a repeat, but while my phone (iPhone 7) does work perfectly well I have noticed that if I close down the app fully (double tap the home button and swipe it up) it will not work until I reopen the app. Something similar may happen on android phones. It's worth experimenting to see if this might be behind some problems experienced.
chronopc
Active Member
I hope all these issues with connectivity at least makes it harder for someone to steal the Model 3.
diamond.g
Active Member
If we trust Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Man-in-the-Middle attacks? to be accurate, then we shouldn't have worries about the same replay attacks that plague the Model S (and maybe the Model X as well, not sure if the X uses standard fob RF to unlock the doors or start the vehicle).
I know the difference between the BLE connection and the commands received by the car through the app via LTE. I'm not talking about being able to use the app to open the trunk remotely. I'm talking about walking up to the car and pressing the trunk release switch on the car and the car unlocking because the phone key has established the BLE connection--no interaction with the app. Open the trunk remotely through the app interface from anywhere in the world you have an Internet connection? Sure, I can do that too. But these are two totally separate things.
My phone is definitely being recognized through BLE as the key, which allows me to open the trunk (using the car's trunk switch), but when I walk over to one of the doors right afterward to open it, half of the time the phone is no longer recognized as the key and I get the key card prompt instead.
We figured out quickly with my wife's iPhone like you did that the Tesla app has to be running in the background for the phone key to work. If it's shut down completely it won't work again until it's re-opened.
The same does not work for Android. The app can be open in the background and the phone key can still not work. The app can be open in the foreground and the phone key still won't connect sometimes.
I got the Tesla phone app 3.4.2 update about a week and a half ago, and since then, it has been better. Not perfect, but better. I've still had to use the key card 4 or 5 times. But that's a noticeable improvement.
However, I maintain my position that Phone-as-a-key SUCKS, because I still have to drag my phone around with me every time I go into a store for 5 minutes, or something like that. And that is not convenient for me. I want a fob, Tesla.
First world problems!
However, I maintain my position that Phone-as-a-key SUCKS, because I still have to drag my phone around with me every time I go into a store for 5 minutes, or something like that. And that is not convenient for me. I want a fob, Tesla.
First world problems!
