Some Tesla owners on Friday night were faced with a dilemma: The Tesla app — or network — stopped working, leaving them unable to connect to their car and, well, get in there and drive.
The outage that makes Tesla’s Phone Key feature useless for some people isn’t due to a hardware issue with the vehicle itself.
The idea of using keyless or fobless isn’t exactly new to Tesla drivers at this point. It first debuted in 2017 Tesla Model 3and it was added Model Y and refresh Model S when they came out. And owners have other options for getting into their cars: keys or keyboards.
Tesla Key Card
That said, having a backup plan when technology is more prone to failure is something even early adopters are still getting used to. For instance, we might be used to the idea of Apple Pay, but we still carry our credit cards – and possibly cash – to make sure we can do all the errands.
Will be back online now. It looks like we may have inadvertently increased the granularity of network traffic.
Sorry, we’ll take steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2021
After some of the latest EVs revealed last week at the LA auto show—many of which featured similar technology—it can be predicted that five years from now, in another product cycle of the refresh. car, the keyboard will start to feel older-fashionable for mass-market shoppers as it is now for Tesla owners.
Tesla’s Phone key According to the company, relies on Bluetooth, while their keycard uses RFID signals and serves as owner-level access to add or remove phone keys or key fobs.
Apple CarKey
Apple revealed what could be a more reliable technology in June 2020: phone-based car keys built into the operating system, rather than an app, will work over NFC, requiring no separate app or network connection for them to work even if the network is down or the app crashes — even though the app Automaker’s usage will likely be partly to put them in the first place. BMW has been listed as one of the first automakers to support it.
That technology, which debuted with the current iOS 14 for iPhones or Apple Watches, is supposed to allow virtual car keys to be shared through Apple’s Messages app, even with limited features. With Android devices, Google also has a similar technology, using Ultra Wideband, although it will be offered only on some phones at first.
2023 Toyota bZ4X
That seems pretty close to what was described for some of the major product launches last week. NS Subaru Solterra will provide a smartphone-based digital key and for bZ4X EVToyota notes that this technology allows the key to be passed on to friends and family.
However, it was not the first time. BMW, Hyundai and Lincoln announced digital key systems last year, and this year Audi and Genesis are among the brands rolling out the technology. There is also a keyless feature provided on Ford Mustang Mach-E, to which some owners have reported that the response is not as consistent as you might expect from a key. Ford has a smart solutionthough — a numeric keypad for entry, with Phone as Key, used as a backup to enter and start the vehicle.
Ford Mustang Mach-E . keyboard entry
Ford Mustang Mach-E . keyboard entry
Ford Mustang Mach-E . keyboard entry
For better or for worse, automakers have always insisted on getting much of this new technology onto their electric vehicles first – a factor that makes Consumer Reports suggested last week, could affect Actual and perceived reliability of EVs, and their poor performance on the new reliability rankings.
Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the reason for the outage, other than a possible network traffic response from CEO Elon Musk. Green car report submitted a request for a technical explanation because, if last week’s reveal is any indication, this is indeed the future.
