Android phones tend to fail more often than iPhones when used to unlock the Model 3 via Bluetooth, according to a TMC poll.
With the “Walk Up Unlock” and “Walk Away Lock” features enabled, the Model 3 can detect a Bluetooth signal from an authenticated smart phone. Doors automatically lock or unlock based on the phone’s proximity to the vehicle.
“I’m hoping to get a sense for how consistently the ‘phone key’ is working for Model 3 owners, and if there’s any significant difference between iPhone and Android phones,” TMC Member jsmay311 posted last month.
The poll considered a ‘failure’ to be any trip during which any of the following things occur:
While entering, the door fails to unlock/open within 3 seconds of pressing the door handle
Once inside, the car doesn’t allow you to shift into gear right away
After exiting, the car doesn’t auto-lock (assuming “Walk Away Lock” is turned on)
Any instances where you have to fiddle with the phone (like toggling on/off Bluetooth or Airplane mode, or opening up the app in the ‘foreground’) before it will work should also be considered a failure
Jsmay311 noted that the poll is meant to assess how well the phone key works without having to jump through any extra hoops compared to a regular key fob.
The majority of iPhone users (32.7% of respondents) said they rarely experienced a failure, while the majority of Android users (22.2% of respondents) chose the largest bucket of failure, saying their phone fails more than 26% of the time.
While the iPhone seems less likely to fail, users still experienced plenty of trouble. It seems the phone key system still needs work. It’s tricky though, as performance could vary across devices and different versions of operating systems.
More than 150 TMC members voted in the poll and many offered their experience in the comments.
“For what it’s worth, we have two Model 3s,” ImEric said. “She has an iPhone 7 (iOS 11.3) and I have a Galaxy S7 (Android 7.0), and I estimate that my phone key works about 65% of the time, while she has virtually no issues with using the phone as the key.”
“My phone has had about a 2% success rate (Moto G5+, Android 7.0),” ahagge said. “Specifically, if I reboot the phone, it connects for an hour or two. Once it disconnects, nothing works to get it to reconnect but rebooting the phone. Specifically, turning Bluetooth off and on does not good whatsoever. So it’s basically dead to me. I use the card key every time.”
With the “Walk Up Unlock” and “Walk Away Lock” features enabled, the Model 3 can detect a Bluetooth signal from an authenticated smart phone. Doors automatically lock or unlock based on the phone’s proximity to the vehicle.
“I’m hoping to get a sense for how consistently the ‘phone key’ is working for Model 3 owners, and if there’s any significant difference between iPhone and Android phones,” TMC Member jsmay311 posted last month.
The poll considered a ‘failure’ to be any trip during which any of the following things occur:
While entering, the door fails to unlock/open within 3 seconds of pressing the door handle
Once inside, the car doesn’t allow you to shift into gear right away
After exiting, the car doesn’t auto-lock (assuming “Walk Away Lock” is turned on)
Any instances where you have to fiddle with the phone (like toggling on/off Bluetooth or Airplane mode, or opening up the app in the ‘foreground’) before it will work should also be considered a failure
Jsmay311 noted that the poll is meant to assess how well the phone key works without having to jump through any extra hoops compared to a regular key fob.
The majority of iPhone users (32.7% of respondents) said they rarely experienced a failure, while the majority of Android users (22.2% of respondents) chose the largest bucket of failure, saying their phone fails more than 26% of the time.
While the iPhone seems less likely to fail, users still experienced plenty of trouble. It seems the phone key system still needs work. It’s tricky though, as performance could vary across devices and different versions of operating systems.
More than 150 TMC members voted in the poll and many offered their experience in the comments.
“For what it’s worth, we have two Model 3s,” ImEric said. “She has an iPhone 7 (iOS 11.3) and I have a Galaxy S7 (Android 7.0), and I estimate that my phone key works about 65% of the time, while she has virtually no issues with using the phone as the key.”
“My phone has had about a 2% success rate (Moto G5+, Android 7.0),” ahagge said. “Specifically, if I reboot the phone, it connects for an hour or two. Once it disconnects, nothing works to get it to reconnect but rebooting the phone. Specifically, turning Bluetooth off and on does not good whatsoever. So it’s basically dead to me. I use the card key every time.”
