Tesla Model S Bluetooth audio won’t stay paused

[Stuart]

For the last couple of months, Bluetooth audio in my Tesla Model S won’t stay paused. I don’t know if it’s caused by the iOS 10 update, or a Tesla firmware update, or a combination of both. I currently have iOS 10.1.1 (14B150) and Tesla firmware 8.0 (2.44.130).

I like to listen to podcasts while driving. I use an app on my iPhone called Overcast. When I get to my destination I pause the playback before I leave the car. So far so good.

The problem is that it won’t stay paused.

If I open the back of the car to get shopping out, the audio starts playing again.

If I go into the garage to get something and accidentally walk too close to the car, the audio starts playing again.

Coupled with the fact half the time Bluetooth audio in the Model S plays silently until you flip to radio and then back to Bluetooth, often I don’t even realize that it’s started playing again by itself. I only find out the next day when I get in the car to drive to work, and I want to resume listening to the podcast, and I find it’s ended, and then I have to hunt to try to find where I left off listening yesterday. Some days, by the time I have found the right place I’m already at work. So I park the car, and leave, and often the podcast resumes playing again by itself, and when I get in the car to go home after work the whole process repeats all over again. It’s getting really annoying.

I tried getting in the habit of force-quitting the Overcast app whenever I leave the car, but even that doesn't seem to help. Somehow Bluetooth manages to relaunch the Overcast app and resume playing the podcast that I wanted to remain paused.

Has anyone else suffered this problem?

Any suggestions for solutions or workarounds?

 

[kendallpb]

Ugh, I hate both of those problems. I just commented in another thread I found first, which was about the first problem (not staying paused) and I also mentioned the second problem (having to flip to some other audio source & back again; I use Slacker for this). Very frustrating!

How to disable auto-on audio?

No work-around that I know of. I don't recall this being a problem pre-8.x software, so I blame the car.

 

[Stuart]

I noticed something new today. I stopped the car, paused the podcast, and got out. I left the phone inside because I was only stopping for a minute to mail some letters. I opened the passenger side door to pick up the letters off the passenger seat, and the podcast started playing. I had previously assumed that the problem was caused by the Bluetooth connection dissociating from the car and then re-associating again. But it’s not. It’s triggered by opening the car door. So it’s definitely the car’s fault, not iOS 10.

I got back in the car and experimented a bit more. Sitting in the driver’s seat, closing and opening the door didn’t trigger the audio to resume playing. But when I got out of the car, and then closed and opened the driver’s door, the audio immediately resumed playing. I paused it, closed the door, and opened it again, and the audio immediately resumed playing again. It’s very repeatable.

What’s interesting about this is that it doesn’t do it if you’re sitting in the driver’s seat. The car only resumes the podcast playback when it senses that there is no one in the car.

What’s depressing about this is that the conditions required to trigger it are extremely specific. What that tells us is that it’s not a bug. It’s deliberate. That means that someone at Tesla thinks this is a good idea. And that makes it very unlikely that the problem will ever be fixed, since, for whatever reason, they think it’s a “feature”, not a “bug”.

 

[GregMod-x]

I noticed something new today. I stopped the car, paused the podcast, and got out. I left the phone inside because I was only stopping for a minute to mail some letters. I opened the passenger side door to pick up the letters off the passenger seat, and the podcast started playing. I had previously assumed that the problem was caused by the Bluetooth connection dissociating from the car and then re-associating again. But it’s not. It’s triggered by opening the car door. So it’s definitely the car’s fault, not iOS 10.

I got back in the car and experimented a bit more. Sitting in the driver’s seat, closing and opening the door didn’t trigger the audio to resume playing. But when I got out of the car, and then closed and opened the driver’s door, the audio immediately resumed playing. I paused it, closed the door, and opened it again, and the audio immediately resumed playing again. It’s very repeatable.

What’s interesting about this is that it doesn’t do it if you’re sitting in the driver’s seat. The car only resumes the podcast playback when it senses that there is no one in the car.

What’s depressing about this is that the conditions required to trigger it are extremely specific. What that tells us is that it’s not a bug. It’s deliberate. That means that someone at Tesla thinks this is a good idea. And that makes it very unlikely that the problem will ever be fixed, since, for whatever reason, they think it’s a “feature”, not a “bug”.

REPLY_ I have a ghost that wakes up the radio with no one in the car... 1-5 second intervals, maybe once an hour, maybe 5 minutes... random times after midnight, when you THINK you might sleep! -- Greg M in St. Cloud, MN