Vehicle not "waking up" so charge port won't release

[Bill Foster]

Hey guys, just wanted to see if you have had this issue.

Car is asleep, I'm walking up to undo the charger, push the button on the charger, nothing. vehicle won't release the charger because the lock is still activated. I have to open a door, which then wakes the car up, then I can release the charger cable...

Anyone else or just me?

 

[booger]

Hey guys, just wanted to see if you have had this issue.

Car is asleep, I'm walking up to undo the charger, push the button on the charger, nothing. vehicle won't release the charger because the lock is still activated. I have to open a door, which then wakes the car up, then I can release the charger cable...

Anyone else or just me?

Same here. Annoying.

 

[PCRover]

Hey guys, just wanted to see if you have had this issue.

Car is asleep, I'm walking up to undo the charger, push the button on the charger, nothing. vehicle won't release the charger because the lock is still activated. I have to open a door, which then wakes the car up, then I can release the charger cable...

Anyone else or just me?

That is how it works for me also.

 

[afadeev]

Car is asleep, I'm walking up to undo the charger, push the button on the charger, nothing. vehicle won't release the charger because the lock is still activated. I have to open a door, which then wakes the car up, then I can release the charger cable...

Anyone else or just me?

Yep, same here.
Also, about once a month, unlocking the car will still NOT release the charging cable/adapter lock.
The way to overcome that is to open the trunk, and pull on a little black nylon strap (approximately near the location of the charging door) that manually releases the charger lock.

Not great, but doesn't make my top-10 PITA list either.

a

 

[Bill Foster]

Yep, same here.
Also, about once a month, unlocking the car will still NOT release the charging cable/adapter lock.
The way to overcome that is to open the trunk, and pull on a little black nylon strap (approximately near the location of the charging door) that manually releases the charger lock.

Not great, but doesn't make my top-10 PITA list either.

a

Yes its not a huge gripe, I'm just surprised the vehicle isn't looking for an input from the button on the charger handle as a "wake up" command

 

[Dan203]

This seems to be as designed. The purpose of the lock is to prevent someone from unplugging you when the car is locked. If they could just push the button on the charger then that would completely defeat the purpose.

The real question is why are you locking your car when it's in the garage? Just leave it unlocked and you won't have this issue.

 

[Bill Foster]

This seems to be as designed. The purpose of the lock is to prevent someone from unplugging you when the car is locked. If they could just push the button on the charger then that would completely defeat the purpose.

The real question is why are you locking your car when it's in the garage? Just leave it unlocked and you won't have this issue.

I see that...
But I have my phone on me, and in range. Vehicle gets signal from the charger cable button, confirms phone key is in range, wakes up car and unlocks charger port..... makes sense to me....

And I dont keep my Tesla in my garage so that is why on that one

 

[Sklith]

This seems to be as designed. The purpose of the lock is to prevent someone from unplugging you when the car is locked. If they could just push the button on the charger then that would completely defeat the purpose.

The real question is why are you locking your car when it's in the garage? Just leave it unlocked and you won't have this issue.

At the moment, there's no option to mark your home as a 'do-not-lock' location, and completely disabling the auto-lock feature when it no longer detects your phone is the only option.

 

[qdeathstar]

This seems to be as designed. The purpose of the lock is to prevent someone from unplugging you when the car is locked. If they could just push the button on the charger then that would completely defeat the purpose.

The real question is why are you locking your car when it's in the garage? Just leave it unlocked and you won't have this issue.

Pushing the button to wake up the car is a reasonable middle ground... this happens to me about twice a week and I got to open the app on my phone in order to wake the car up....

 

[Joshan]

I see that...
But I have my phone on me, and in range. Vehicle gets signal from the charger cable button, confirms phone key is in range, wakes up car and unlocks charger port..... makes sense to me....

And I dont keep my Tesla in my garage so that is why on that one

Have you ever tried walking up to the door with your phone in your back pocket? Did you notice the door did not unlock?

I think this is the issue you are seeing. To unlock/wake the car you have to be very close to the door with the phone very close to the door. At the charging port you are nowhere near a door.

 

[bedoig]

Ya, happens occasionally. I usually just give a little 1/4 press on the rear door handle to wake the car up without opening the door. Then the button on the charge handle unlocks correctly.

 

[Msjulie]

Fix for me is to open the car door on the way to removing the charger, phone in hand... mostly works and fallback is the app (sigh)

 

[AlanSubie4Life]

Hey guys, just wanted to see if you have had this issue.

Car is asleep, I'm walking up to undo the charger, push the button on the charger, nothing. vehicle won't release the charger because the lock is still activated. I have to open a door, which then wakes the car up, then I can release the charger cable...

Anyone else or just me?

Everyone else has this problem as far as I know.

This is likely a hardware limitation, as it has never been fixed. When the car is asleep, pushing on the charging handle button apparently is unable to send the signal to unlock like tapping on a door handle, etc. does. If I recall correctly, it does require the contactors to be open to have the issue. If they are closed then the button will release the handle.
EDIT: it's a little more complicated than this, because I believe after hitting the door handle you don't have to wait for the contactors to close for the charging handle button to work...but I believe it does have to do with it being in the sleep state rather than the idle state. There is a transition state from sleep to idle where it is getting ready to close the contactors where I think the release button works.

Really, locking vs. not locking the car is unrelated. This problem should not exist even when the car is locked - pushing the button on the handle should send an unlock signal, with confirmation of course that an authenticated user is in proximity, even when the car is asleep.

 

[WilliamG]

This is working as intended, for better or worse. Also, it's interesting that several people have said in the past to push the rear door handle a 1/4 to unlock the door but not open it. I can't do that. It seems to be all or nothing.

Either way, when the door is locked (as it always is, since there's no option to leave doors unlocked at home), I just open the front door and then go unplug the cable, or I just use Siri on my watch to unlock the charge port if I don't want to let the cold/warm air out of the car (if pre-conditioning).

 

[Dan203]

At the moment, there's no option to mark your home as a 'do-not-lock' location, and completely disabling the auto-lock feature when it no longer detects your phone is the only option.

I didn't know that. (don't have the car yet)

How do you manually lock the car if you don't use auto-lock? Like my current BMW has a little ridge on the top of the door handle you have to touch to lock the door. Is there something similar on the Tesla? Or are the only options to auto-lock or manually lock using the button in the app?

 

[Bill Foster]

Have you ever tried walking up to the door with your phone in your back pocket? Did you notice the door did not unlock?

I think this is the issue you are seeing. To unlock/wake the car you have to be very close to the door with the phone very close to the door. At the charging port you are nowhere near a door.

Phone is in my left front pocket, and I have to walk by both doors on the driver side to get to the rear where the charge port is.
Good thought though !

 

[Sklith]

I didn't know that. (don't have the car yet)

How do you manually lock the car if you don't use auto-lock? Like my current BMW has a little ridge on the top of the door handle you have to touch to lock the door. Is there something similar on the Tesla? Or are the only options to auto-lock or manually lock using the button in the app?

Like all Tesla features, there's like a million ways to lock it. Easiest way is to press the "lock" button on the top of the screen before you leave. Second easiest way to lock it is to tap your key card on the B pillar of the driver's side.

 

[Big Earl]

Hey guys, just wanted to see if you have had this issue.

Car is asleep, I'm walking up to undo the charger, push the button on the charger, nothing. vehicle won't release the charger because the lock is still activated. I have to open a door, which then wakes the car up, then I can release the charger cable...

Anyone else or just me?

Like others have said, partially pressing the rear door handle will wake the car up and allow you to remove the charge cable.

 

[Dan203]

Like all Tesla features, there's like a million ways to lock it. Easiest way is to press the "lock" button on the top of the screen before you leave. Second easiest way to lock it is to tap your key card on the B pillar of the driver's side.

Geo-fencing the auto-lock seems like it would be a better way to go. They already have this for the garage door opener so why not use it for auto-lock as well.

One possible "life hack" for those of you who have this charger issue... hang a key car on the wall next to the charger so you can quickly grab it and wipe it on the B pillar when needed

 

[Big Earl]

One possible "life hack" for those of you who have this charger issue... hang a key car on the wall next to the charger so you can quickly grab it and wipe it on the B pillar when needed

Sounds like a good way to get your Tesla stolen.