I will prefer a fob when Tesla offers it. In the meantime, how do you order extra keycards? I want to get a couple extra.
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Tesla backing away from "Phone Key as primary key"
- Thread starter watilo
- Start date
You can order them through the service center. They have been charging ~$5 each for them although there seems to be a little variation
This thread title is clickbait. Avoid the FUD.
The content in the original post doesn't support the notion that Tesla is in any way lessening their support the phone as a way to enter your vehicle. However, that's what the title is implying.
When I took delivery of my vehicle, I was first shown how to enter my vehicle using the card. This has and always will be the most trusted way to enter a vehicle. Using the phone to enter the vehicle was also explained as an optional way of entering. That's what the email is referring to.
You can liken this to using a key fob vs an actual key to enter a vehicle. When the fob doesn't work you have the key to fall back on.
The OP just wants a fob. Personally I'd rather have Tesla just spend resources it would be using to develop a fob on further software improvements...
The content in the original post doesn't support the notion that Tesla is in any way lessening their support the phone as a way to enter your vehicle. However, that's what the title is implying.
When I took delivery of my vehicle, I was first shown how to enter my vehicle using the card. This has and always will be the most trusted way to enter a vehicle. Using the phone to enter the vehicle was also explained as an optional way of entering. That's what the email is referring to.
You can liken this to using a key fob vs an actual key to enter a vehicle. When the fob doesn't work you have the key to fall back on.
The OP just wants a fob. Personally I'd rather have Tesla just spend resources it would be using to develop a fob on further software improvements...
Nonsense comparison! The failure rate of a normal fob is incomparably lower than that of this nonsense beta-smartphone key feature.
I´ve had fobs fail me....never in 20+ years.
Meanwhile a lot of people have to fall back regularly to the keycard which is basically going back to the 80s concenring comfort of entry.
FalconFour
Member
Show of thumbs, who else here was told - through pre-sales available information, press, reviews citing Tesla's advice, and ultimately the delivery-time advice, that the phone key has always been the intended PRIMARY means of opening the car?
cool story, bro...except that it's wrong. in addition to being shown the phone key first and being told by my delivery person that the phone was primary, tesla's own support page and videos say that the phone key is primary.
Model 3 Support | Tesla
the number of tesla fanboys who seem to think the company can never do anything wrong, and are so dead set against giving anyone else any other options just blows my mind...
diamond.g
Active Member
The fob we are going to get is not going to be based on the same 315mhz tech others use. So I wouldn't jump to conclusions on how much better it will be until it is here.
I can get into my car just fine using phone key. You can't?
This is one of the two most common failures I encounter, having to unlock (or at least wake - it's in a flip case and flipping it open unlocks it automatically) my phone. The other is the car just being in deep sleep and taking seconds to power up and respond to phone (if phone is working) or prompt for RFID (if phone isn't working). Some of the time everything works fine, sometimes nothing works (both slow wake and phone needs waking) and occasionally I must cycle BT on phone.
I'd say at this point it's working correctly on first try more than 50% of the time, but not necessarily by a huge margin.
Of course I have an older 2015 device running Nougat. I could root and flash to Oreo or possibly P (forgot what it's called) but I haven't had any reason to do so ...
Just to offer another data point, for some weird reason my fob for my 2017 Volt will fail to register for a bit randomly every once in a while, no idea why. I have to use my OnLink app on my phone to unlock the car and then put the fob on the NFC spot in my center console to start the car. It generally works the next time I try to start up the car. It’s thankfully fairly rare; it’s surprising if it happens more than once or twice every couple of months. It isn’t battery related, since I’ve replaced the fob battery with a new one a couple of times the first few times this happened and it would still occur.
It’s nowhere close to the frequency that people seem to be encountering issues with the Tesla phone key, but it was still pretty annoying when it happened (and a little scary the first time it occurred), so I can see how having the phone key fail at as a semi-regular occurrence would be frustrating.
So you are saying that literally 100% of the time you've pointed your fob at your vehicle that it has worked every time?
And that your fob's battery has never run out in 20 years?
I've experienced misses on both accounts in the 17 years that I've owned my Honda Accord prior to the Tesla. (even standing next to the vehicle) Were they infrequent? absolutely. Was it really annoying when it happened? Yes. What did I do in those cases? I used the key obviously.
I really don't know what to tell you. I took delivery of my Model 3 on Sunday, the 19th so the delivery experience is pretty fresh in my head.
The first thing the guy did was ask to see the cards and demonstrated how to use them to open the vehicle. He then said you can also use your phone but other than that he did *not* walk us through using it.
Maybe it's the new abbreviated delivery experience that differs?
FalconFour
Member
It's probably precisely because of the problems with the prescribed "phone key" that some delivery specialists are taking it upon themselves to provide their own modifications, with the hope that it provides a better experience than the messy hell that is phone-key.
I figure it's again worth restating that I dont have "occasional misses", I have 0% success with phone-key until I toggle airplane mode, which as if dictated by a script, works every time. It's bad, but at least it's reliable.
I figure it's again worth restating that I dont have "occasional misses", I have 0% success with phone-key until I toggle airplane mode, which as if dictated by a script, works every time. It's bad, but at least it's reliable.
yes, exactly that. If I wasn´t grossly out of range it has always worked on all my cars.always! A non-working or only partially working fob is something that I personally only know from stories of internet people....
In the time I had my individual cars, usually around ~5-7 years none of the fob batteries has ever run out actually.
I needed to use the "emergency key" once when the car`s battery broke down and I had to unlock mechanically..that`s it.
I´ve had only merc/audi/bmw so far.
Great anecdote. You should totally keep telling it to the people that have to deal with their malfunctioning BT key several times a week or even more often.....
"So hey guys, I once had an old Honda where the fob would also sometimes not work...that totally makes the wonky gamble of a BT-key you get with your new 2018 60k car look less crappy, right?"
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iwannam3
Active Member
I find the most reliable "fix" to my 5.1.1 android when it fails is to restart the phone. Switching off bluetooth or airplane mode doesn't work. the vehicle software may be fine, but the 10,000 variables in the thousands of phones software set up and conflicts cause the failures. The phone app needs to be much more resilient. When installed it should check for interfering software and OS status and not install if there are conflicts.
Greetings
Please add me to the list of those wishing that they had a key fob for their model 3. We have both an S and a 3. My wife drives the 3 and continually complains about the issues related to the phone and the card. This system is a pain in the rear compared to using the fob that came with the model s. It all seems "cool" in writing, but it is very cumbersome annoying and irksome to use in real life.
Dear Elon..... PLEASE offer us a key fob for the Model 3. I am tired of listening to my wife complain about it to me and our friends. She compliments the car and is a huge fan of the HVAC system, but somehow all discussions of the car revert back to the access problems. This is not good for me, for Tesla or for my TSLA stock!
thanks
CGW
Please add me to the list of those wishing that they had a key fob for their model 3. We have both an S and a 3. My wife drives the 3 and continually complains about the issues related to the phone and the card. This system is a pain in the rear compared to using the fob that came with the model s. It all seems "cool" in writing, but it is very cumbersome annoying and irksome to use in real life.
Dear Elon..... PLEASE offer us a key fob for the Model 3. I am tired of listening to my wife complain about it to me and our friends. She compliments the car and is a huge fan of the HVAC system, but somehow all discussions of the car revert back to the access problems. This is not good for me, for Tesla or for my TSLA stock!
thanks
CGW
Ok. So my story about my experiences with my 17 year old Honda is somehow less valid than your stories about your 5-7 year old merc/audi/bmw? Is that what you are trying to imply? "A non-working or only partially working fob is something I personally only know from stories of internet people". Isn't your story one of those as well?
Listen, if you want a fob, great. My original post however is still accurate. The title of this thread IS clickbait as it erroneously implies that Tesla is somehow going to reduce its support for the phone as a way of entry. Literally nothing has occurred that supports that.
Will they introduce a fob? It sure appears likely given the patent applications they've made in the past year. Will they then magically remove support of the phone as a means of entry during that time? Why would they?
For me personally, I haven't had any problems getting into my vehicle. Now that could very well be due to the make of my phone / OS / Bluetooth stack / dumb luck ? I don't know. But I can't ascribe to the crowd who demand a fob because I simply haven't experienced the issues? Will I in the future? Maybe? But as it stands currently the fob would just be another thing I have to carry in my pocket besides my phone which already does the job.
Does that make my experience any less meaningful than yours?
considering the fact that fobs have been proven to be very very very reliable over the last 3 decades, while the BT crap Tesla is pulling here hasn`t had quite a backlash for nothing: No your anectode is completely worthless and I didn`t even bring one, I just answered your question..... This isn`t about my experience, this is about the genereal technical issues that you somehow pretend are only minor because you personally don`t have them.
Imagine your fob failing in 50% of the cases or not working at all. Many people with Android have that situation right now!
No one would care about the BT not working reliably if there had been a fob from the beginning and BT was something like an extra. Introducing a new primary means of accessing a vehicle, marketing it as some great innovation and then ****ing it up like this is why they absolutely deserve every piece of critique they get.
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