# Camp Mode locked me out in the Woods



## OC 2 JTree

Warning: Camp Mode can Lock you Out! On my second night of Tesla Camping I was locked out in the woods. As you may know, Camp Mode allows you to lock the vehicle. On night two, the mosquitos were pretty bad so I decided to sit and read in the driver seat in camp mode with Lock engaged. At about 9pm I decided to get something out of the cooler in the back seat. Opened the driver door, no warning lights or message, so I wrongly assumed the lock was disengaged when the door was opened from the INSIDE. Closed the driver door to keep the mosquitos out and there I was standing in the dark with my keys and phone locked inside the car in the woods in a deserted campground.

Fortunately, a group of guys had set up camp earlier in the day. I went up to them and asked if they had cell service. They did. I thought, Great... I will log in to my tesla account and unlock the car. I could not connect to the car... it was spooling and noting that the car was last seen 4 hours earlier when I had gone in to town. Problem solving attempt 2 was adding one of the guys as a driver to my account to see if they could access the car... nope didn't work. Problem solving attempt 3 - call Tesla to ask them to unlock the car... nope the car is offline (because I am in the woods!). I get escalated to a Supervisor. They decide to send out a tow truck driver to tow me to where the car will be online again.

3 hours later the tow truck arrives. It takes 30 seconds for the tow truck guy to put a device between window glass and rubber insulation and insert a wire to pull the handle. I am back in my car at midnight. This situation could have been very serious if I had been in a remote location by myself.

It seems to me this is a programming error. When the door is opened from the INSIDE the Lock should disengage. I reported this to Tesla when they sent me a survey about Roadside Service, but want others to know about this issue. Hopefully, it gets fixed. At a minimum, a message should appear like when your door is open and you put your car in drive or other warnings that appear on the screens.

Other than getting locked out, the Tesla camping experience was fantastic. I will just keep a key on my at ALL times now!


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## FRC

OC 2 JTree said:


> Other than getting locked out, the Tesla camping experience was fantastic. I will just keep a key on my at ALL times now!


THIS! First, I try to never leave my phone in the car. I can't claim that I always succeed, but I can say that I very, very rarely leave my phone in the car. Second, I purchased an extra key card that has been duct taped to a suspension part for the last 3 years. Third, I have 3 different trusted family members who could access and unlock the car in an emergency. Belt, check. Suspenders, check. Pants that stay up without a belt or suspenders, check.


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## Madmolecule

I am glad you got in, but it is very scary and irresponsible that Tesla has not tested their gimmick modes very thoroughly. Your story could’ve turned out deadly in the wrong climate. With the rear air conditioner is not working in dog mode, And my boys being able to roll down the windows and dog mode, its just not responsible programming. One would think before they release camp mode, it would’ve been thoroughly tested, while camping, in various climates, By people with various camping skills. Of course I thought before they release car wash mode they would actually take it through a couple car washes and witness how great it is. Now I can’t imagine that was actually done. Some of us take their gimmick mode seriously, and tesla should also.


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## Klaus-rf

Madmolecule said:


> I am glad you got in, but it is very scary and irresponsible that Tesla has not tested their gimmick modes very thoroughly. Your story could've turned out deadly in the wrong climate. With the rear air conditioner is not working in dog mode, And my boys being able to roll down the windows and dog mode, its just not responsible programming. One would think before they release camp mode, it would've been thoroughly tested, while camping, in various climates, By people with various camping skills. Of course I thought before they release car wash mode they would actually take it through a couple car washes and witness how great it is. Now I can't imagine that was actually done. Some of us take their gimmick mode seriously, and tesla should also.


So they should call it all BETA?


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## Madmolecule

or modes for marketing purposes only. If you really want to camp, buy a tent. The car wash mode does encourage you to hand wash only.


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## lance.bailey

If I think about the algorithms at work here, I believe that most if not all of the "modes" (dog-mode, camp-mode, ...) should disable when a door is opened. If you want them to continue when you return to the car, you should need to reset the mode.


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## Madmolecule

That gets more complicated with dog Mode. Especially since you have to leave the car once you set it, And then if there’s multiple people in the car, or if you have to get something out of the backseat, or the trunk, or the Frunk. This is really a job for AI, if tesla’s AI was either.

I will be checking camp mode out this weekend, although my plan is to have the trunk open with my Carsule tent. At minimum tesla should define the modes, And let you know exactly what it does, and it would be nice to tailor it to your desires, you know with variables and such. The fireplace should burn down naturally during the night


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## lance.bailey

a countdown timer for starting dog mode would work fine. My dishwasher has a 4 second countdown for me to close the door, my model 3 should be able to do similar


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