A Tesla glitch left some owners stranded and looking for manuals: NPR

Tesla drivers can unlock and start their car from a smartphone, which became an issue when the app refused to work on Friday. (Photo by Carsten Koall / Getty Images)

Photo Carsten Koall / Getty

hide captions

switch captions

Photo Carsten Koall / Getty

Tesla drivers can unlock and start their car from a smartphone, which became an issue when the app refused to work on Friday. (Photo by Carsten Koall / Getty Images)

Photo Carsten Koall / Getty

Some Tesla owners experienced a series of server errors on the automaker’s app on Friday, frustrating motorists who were unable to unlock or start their electric vehicles with their phones. The outage was resolved within hours, after Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk looked into the issue.

Tesla vehicles use advanced technology, including the ability to allow users to control the vehicle with their phone. This makes the keys that come with it almost obsolete – until a server error arises, in which case the keys become quite important.

The problem seems to be happening worldwide, with users reporting problems from the US, Denmark, Germany, and the UK.

In South Korea, journalist Jaehwan Cho took to Twitter to find some answers, tagging Tesla and Elon Musk, as he worked his way through the troubleshooting process.

“Checking…”, Musk replied.

About five hours later, Musk said the bug was resolved, citing “increased network traffic” as the cause of the outage.

“Sorry, we will be taking measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Musk wrote on Twitter.

Based on Tesla’s Website, users can call roadside assistance if they are locked in their vehicle or unable to connect to the app. But perhaps the easiest solution is for drivers to turn around using the car’s key or key card, if they happen to have it, to get back on the road.

Tesla, which no longer operates the public affairs division, could not be reached for comment on the shutdown.