When home, my phone is always close enough for the phone key to authenticate with my MY, so if my charging cable is plugged in it can unlock my car

[pratherd]

I just took delivery of a Model Y. So I'm very new to how security and charging work on this car. I have a phone key that authenticates with my MY and detects when I am close to my car which auto-unlocks the car. This works fine.

However, I noticed that when the car is locked and charging and my phone is in the house, I can walk out to the car and push the button on the charging cable handle and unlock the car. The car is in an outside carport about 1 foot away from the side of the house. This is obviously a security issue, as I intend to leave my car charging during the evening.

The way I found this out was that I was trying to confirm that the charging cable would lock in place so that it would be difficult to steal during the night. So I left my phone inside and tried to pull the cable. I couldn't pull the cable, so then I pushed the button on the handle and that not only allowed me to remove the cable, but it also unlocked the car.

Is there something that I am missing? Or am I forced to use the physical key cards?

Here's to hoping that I am missing something, thanks!

 

[pratherd]

I just tested trying to open the car when my phone is in the house (car is parked outside, phone (this time) is approximately 9 feet away) - and the car unlocked.

If this is how this is supposed to work, then I will have to use physical key cards, or maybe fobs. I suppose I could turn off bluetooth, but I would give up a lot of functionality if I did that. I'll do some more precise measurements tomorrow with my phone at various distances to see where the boundaries are.

 

[Brolan]

If your phone is going to be close enough to your car to authenticate it you might want to activate pin-to-drive so a random person can’t drive it away.

 

[pratherd]

If your phone is going to be close enough to your car to authenticate it you might want to activate pin-to-drive so a random person can’t drive it away.

Oh, I didn't know about that feature, thanks!

 

[Big Earl]

Even if the car is able to be unlocked by pressing the button on the charging wand, I don't think you can drive the car away without the phone being inside the car. Please test and see if that's the case.

 

[pratherd]

Great point Big Earl, I'll test. But it is still serious enough even if that is the case.

I discovered that I can remove the Bluetooth permissions (both iOS and Android) from the Tesla app and that disables the passive phone unlocking feature but allows the app to still function as a phone key - just have to open the app. And I can then keep Bluetooth on as I normally do.

So that and getting fobs will solve my problem.

 

[KL_68]

how about using the phone app to manually lock your car? that's what I do when I park in my driveway, but most of the time I park in my garage.

 

[JoeT21MY]

Gotta be the proximity of the phone to the carport. Curious - do you have the walk away door lock feature on? If so, does it trigger? My doors auto lock when I'm about 5 feet away from the vehicle. Good luck.

From Manual...NOTE: To prevent unauthorized unplugging of the charge cable, the charge cable latch remains locked and Model Y must be unlocked or able to recognize your authenticated phone before you can disconnect the charge cable.

 

[pratherd]

Gotta be the proximity of the phone to the carport. Curious - do you have the walk away door lock feature on? If so, does it trigger? My doors auto lock when I'm about 5 feet away from the vehicle. Good luck.

From Manual...NOTE: To prevent unauthorized unplugging of the charge cable, the charge cable latch remains locked and Model Y must be unlocked or able to recognize your authenticated phone before you can disconnect the charge cable.

Yes, it does trigger. But event then the phones in my house still shows in the car as "active". And then I can open the car, or take out the charging cable with no problem, even though the nearest phone key is in the house about 9 feet away.

 

[Empiro]

In the app, does your car show up as locked? Try locking it there. In my experience, if locked, you need to be quite close before it will unlock the doors.

 

[pratherd]

Even if the car is able to be unlocked by pressing the button on the charging wand, I don't think you can drive the car away without the phone being inside the car. Please test and see if that's the case.

If the phone has bluetooth on and is in range enough for the doors to open then the car will also drive. If I turn off bluetooth on the phone or remove the bluetooth permission for the tesla app, then the passive open won't work. However, with bluetooth off/disabled I can unlock the car (through the internet connection) but I can't start the car, i.e. I must use the physical key or fob.

So the solution I am using at the moment is to disable bluetooth on my phone and then to use a fob - to benefit from passive opening. However the fob also needs to be quite far away from the car - more than 9 ft. But that isn't a problem since I can put fobs in a standard place, whereas phones I have in my pocket as a walk around the house.

My Mazda 6 key fob is way more precise and will not allow opening anything without being right up next to the car...

 

[pratherd]

Even if the car is able to be unlocked by pressing the button on the charging wand, I don't think you can drive the car away without the phone being inside the car. Please test and see if that's the case.

The phone doesn't have to be inside the car. I measured that with my phone about 8 ft away from the back of the car, I could both unlock the car and drive it away. Similar distance with the fob that I just bought. Seems like a security issue to me. But I can make due with the fob, knowing the limitations.

 

[jjrandorin]

Thats interesting, as my car wont open if my phone is more than 2-3 feet from the car. it wont open if my phone is in my back pocket, unless I turn sideways.

Are you sure there isnt some other authenticated device in the car? Also, if you unlock the car with anything other than phone key (passively), I dont believe it will auto lock. Meaning, if you unlock it with a key fob, it wont auto lock. If you unlock it with a key card, I also dont think it auto locks.

I believe your car is not auto locking, and I dont think thats because of the phone key being 8 feet away.

 

[nunzi429]

I just had someone open up my car in the middle of the night. Car and phone were not close enough. Seems to be an issue where my car is never locked. 2013 MS

 

[nunzi429]

I just had someone open up my car in the middle of the night. Car and phone were not close enough. Seems to be an issue where my car is never locked. 2013 MS

I think the Auto Lock appears to have been disabled... maybe with the EMMC recall

 

[RedY23]

On same note as you guys, My 2023 MYP is parked in attached garage. I went to drive it and seemed that the interior was still running, warm and had my wife's phone active. She was the last to drive it and was at home. I went into the car and had to switch users(no biggie there). Concern is that the vehicle kept thinking someone was in the car and kept things running. That has to be a big issue. Lots of people with cars close to phone when at home.

 

[davewill]

I agree that the problem seems to be that the car isn't auto locking in the first place. Try manually locking it, then see if you're able to open the car with the phone in the house, I'm betting it won't. Does auto lock work in other places?

 

[Midnightsun]

My car never locks at home because I selected the "do not lock at home" feature. I do keep it in the garage so not worried then again being unlocked does not allow anyone to drive away with it unless they have a key. Is this selected on your car? If so, then most likely why it is not locking at home.

 

[RedY23]

My car never locks at home because I selected the "do not lock at home" feature. I do keep it in the garage so not worried then again being unlocked does not allow anyone to drive away with it unless they have a key. Is this selected on your car? If so, then most likely why it is not locking at home.

Good point. I have mine set up the same. But have you ever found the heating system etc running while in the garage? Perhaps my experience was a one off.

 

[Midnightsun]

The car will make some weird noises in the garage every so often that does sound like heating however I have never gotten into the car to find it warmer than the garage temp which is set at 15C unless I physically ask it to do so prior via the app, my watch or even the computer. My automated climate control is set to 22C.