Turn off drive with phone (No key needed)?

[BrownOuttaSpec]

Is it possible to turn off the ability to drive the car with only the Phone /Phone app and not have the key with you?

Scenario: You have the car key and your phone in your pocket/purse. You drive to places X, Y, Z and then get home and find out you dont have you key. But you dont now where you left it because you were able to drive using the phone app so it could be at any of those places.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the feature to drive the car with the phone turned off by default or even give the ability to turn it off?

I lost my car key and that is what made me think of it.... now i gotta check places X,Y,Z to find it instead of just 1 place. I'm pretty frustrated right now.

 

[trm2]

I really thought that for a Model S or X you had to explicitly turn on drive with phone each time. When doing so you have a very limited time to actually start driving before you need to re-enable it. If you didn't actively use your phone to drive, the fob should be somewhere in the car.

 

[MorrisonHiker]

With the Model S and X, the Phone Key functionality isn't automatic. You have to manually unlock and start the car from the phone app. With the Model 3, it is automatic.

 

[BrownOuttaSpec]

Interesting. Maybe my lost key is closer to my car than I thought.

My spare key was in the house about 15 feet away and through some walls. The car wasnt presenting the door handles automatically when i walked up to it so i had to give the handle a little nudge to get them to pop out. I then got in the car looking for the key this morning with my phone in my pocket and drove the car about 10 feet out of the garage to get more light and look around a bit easier (Didnt find the key). I then put my phone in the house next to the spare key and went back out to the car to try to drive it again and it gave the warning that the key wasn't in the car. I was running a bit late for work so I just grabbed the spare key and went to work scratching my head of what just happened and where the other key could be.

 

[Geek190]

Is your garbage can near to the car?
Perhaps an accidental tossing?

 

[boaterva]

Right, the phone doesn’t ‘do’ anything by itself for the S and X, it’s only via the Tesla servers and your ‘clicking’ on a button. The 3 is Bluetooth and automatic.

So, if the car works, ONE of the fobs is in or around the car. In the frunk? Under the seat? On another person?

 

[BrownOuttaSpec]

Update: Found the key! It was on a little table right next to the car under a piece of paper. I guess it makes sense if it was 3 feet from the drivers side mirror and it thought the key was in the car.

Thanks everyone for the help and explaining the car to a new Tesla owner

 

[boaterva]

Update: Found the key! It was on a little table right next to the car under a piece of paper. I guess it makes sense if it was 3 feet from the drivers side mirror and it thought the key was in the car.

Thanks everyone for the help and explaining the car to a new Tesla owner

I always wondered why Tesla didn’t/can’t do what BMW did. Their fobs knew when they were nearby and/but outside the car. Sure would make a difference.

And this was on a 2009 3 series!