There are a lot of people saying, "This isn't a problem, just use the key/keycard". Which is a fair thing to say, but not what Tesla markets.
Tesla strongly markets the idea that "all you need is the phone".
I know that my in-laws with a Tesla don't carry the key cards. They just use their phone.
So either Tesla needs to make a much stronger push for carrying one's key/keycard, or they need to fix the bug that makes the local bluetooth on the app stop working (or both).
Maybe some people will learn an important lesson here and start carrying their cards.
Where does Tesla market the idea that "all you need is the phone"? When you enable the phone as a key, it explicitly tells you to keep your keycard with you as a backup and that the phone is for convenience only.
People may primarily use their phone because it's convenient (I definitely do) but that doesn't mean Tesla marketed it that way to me.
Tesla barely markets anything. They don't do any advertising so their only real informational marketing is what is on their website and what you hear directly from Tesla employees including Musk (who often speaks out of his ass). Tesla would probably be better served to have a more defined and clearer marketing message. That would certainly help avoid the controversy about how Autopilot is or is not marketed.
As a practical matter this is reinforced as well by the need to still carry a driver's license. In principle the government could offer a secure digital ID, but it doesn't. Phone payment also isn't at 100%, so a backup credit card also still a good idea.
So it's necessary to have the ability to have a card on hand anyway, and at that point it's not much of a stretch to have a couple. Either via a phone case or whole wallet, but it's not like someone can (legally) just take their phone with them when going for a drive. Keeping the keycard along with license and credit card is still fairly minimal (phone digital wallet can consolidate a lot of fat card packs beyond those).
I guess the bigger risk is that while I always at least take my wallet with me in the car, I don't always take it with me out of my car while I always have my phone. Might be nice if Tesla had at least an option for some sort of fallback auth mechanism built into the car itself, be it keypad or biometric. The ones in phones are pretty good and are a pretty tiny item on the BOM, in a $35k+ vehicle seems like there should be room for it as an option?
Maybe that's overthinking it though, not like regular cars tend to have those either. Sometimes people just lock themselves out with regular keys too and that's that.
> I know that my in-laws with a Tesla don't carry the key cards. They just use their phone
Are you actually sure you know that they don't carry the key card in their wallet? Why wouldn't they? I find this pretty doubtful, it just seems like a pointlessly unnecessary way to risk getting locked out of your vehicle if your phone happens to die or becomes otherwise incapacitated. What possible reason could anyone have for not just keeping the card in their wallet as instructed by Tesla associates upon receipt of the vehicle and the cards themselves? It just doesn't make sense.
Playing devil's advocate: what wallet? As more and more functionality is moved to the smartphone, the less reason to carry a wallet there is. A smartphone can already replace credit cards (Google Pay and similar), cash (several per-country payment systems, the one for my country will be released in a couple of months), and even the driving license! (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=br.gov.serpro....)
In a more humorous note, I've seen many people use their cell phone as their wallet... by putting their identity card and cash inside the aftermarket cell phone cover on the back of the phone.
Over many years I have accidentally broken one card (I snapped it while using it as a scraper) and two have lost swipe and / or chip and pin functionality due to general wear and tear.
I disagree, I've never heard them market it as 'you just need the phone'. I've had one for 10 years now. Relying just on a phone is incredibly stupid, for obvious reasons. Do they never drive into a parking garage with no service? Have they never had a phone die suddenly - that's how mine always seem to go? What if you drive where there is no service, out in the country?
This is just wrong. All the instructions tell you to keep your keycard on you at all times. And the keycard is literally the size of a debit card. Just put it in your wallet with your ID and you never have to worry about a network outage.
I keep my keycard with me at all times and it's come in handy when my phone died or the app was just being stubborn.
I mean, the card is shaped like a credit card so people can keep it in their wallets so there's not much excuse. It seems pretty dumb to 100% rely on a device whose battery can run out.
And it's a thin card with no embossing. There's really no excuse. And convenient if you drop your phone in a river, like I did a few weeks ago while out kayaking. Upon returning to my Tesla, I unlocked it with my key card because of course I carry it with me.
> So either Tesla needs to make a much stronger push for carrying one's key/keycard, or they need to fix the bug that makes the local bluetooth on the app stop working (or both).
I think they just did that stronger push, albeit involuntary :)
Regardless of what Tesla markets, it would seem to be incredibly foolish to rely on your phone in this manner. If you're miles away from home, and you drop your phone and it breaks, or your phone's battery simply dies, I bet you'll feel pretty stupid when you walk up to your car and are unable to unlock or start it via any other means.
Carrying around the key cards just seems like taking a basic amount of responsibility.
I don't recall being told that during my test drive or during delivery, but even if they didn't, it seemed like a no-brainer thing to do.
A lost, broken, or dead phone is a common failure case. If you know your phone is your key, then you should be considering what your backup will be. Since you already need to be carrying something with your license, it makes sense to keep a key card with it.
I think the weird thing is the app won't finish starting until it has linked up over the Internet, which is problematic on a bunch of fronts. Even when things are working properly, it keeps the app from loading quickly... not something you want to see with a key-entry system.
But it isn't strictly just for that. For example, I can quickly check the VIN of the car, and what version of software was on the car the last time I was able to connect. It also seems to wake up the bluetooth on my phone on occasion.
> For example, I can quickly check the VIN of the car, and what version of software was on the car the last time I was able to connect.
which you can also check by opening the settings menu on the car screen itself with a couple of clicks or, if you need just the VIN, the driver side door of the car (just like any other car). So, as the parent comment said, using app for this is just a remote convenience function.
There are plenty of other places where you can check your VIN number too, like the insurance card (which you are supposed to have on you at all times while you drive btw)/website or your vehicle registration paper.
Yeesh. It's fine for us to admit that things sometimes have flaws which could be improved.
The app not opening without network connectivity just seems like one of those, we can acknowledge that without conceding the whole concept and/or ecosystem.
It isn't the ecosystem, you are not conceding anything.
The app is just an additional extra service, it isn't crucial for anything. All of those things you listed that are affected by the app not working can be looked up the exact same way they could be looked up on any other car, no app needed.
I agree with you overall though, it could be improved, but I am struggling to think of a better solution to this that they could implement, aside from caching the vin number and the software version on the client (which i totally agree with, would be a good solution for that specific issue). The rest of the functions like remote controlling the car from the app obviously won't work with that approach, but that's not a trivial problem to solve (if possible at all), and their current solution seems to be very reasonable (talking about them refreshing certs in the background once in a while).
The app clearly does cache a ton of information locally already. The "must call out to the network" thing is pretty clearly just to simplify the design of the app so they don't have to worry about conditions where the app hasn't authenticated itself and grabbed the latest information from Tesla.
Right, but when I'm filling out an insurance form, I'm usually not in my car, so the settings screen in the car is even less useful than the app. The website does totally work, but then again that also requires an Internet connection so...
Again, there are ways to deal with this stuff, but my point is just that the app is helpful in more ways than just remote control of the car.
Also, I usually only use my car keys for one purpose. I'm using my phone all the time, for a variety of purposes. I've had my phone stolen from me when I was using it for one of those purposes, and meanwhile, my car keys were still in my pocket.
If you have your Tesla account password memorized, you can turn any old smartphone -- a friend's, one you buy at Target -- into the key if you so choose.
> Tesla strongly markets the idea that "all you need is the phone".
I've been a Tesla owner for quite a while now. I don't recall seeing that in any marketing material. More-so being "strongly". It's pretty silly not to carry the key cards as a backup for the Model 3/Y (S and X use traditional RF key fobs).
Tesla strongly markets the idea that "all you need is the phone".
I know that my in-laws with a Tesla don't carry the key cards. They just use their phone.
So either Tesla needs to make a much stronger push for carrying one's key/keycard, or they need to fix the bug that makes the local bluetooth on the app stop working (or both).
Maybe some people will learn an important lesson here and start carrying their cards.