# Computer wakes up every time passenger door is opened



## denver_kanuck (Nov 15, 2018)

Hi All,

First post so forgive me if I missed something in the 169 pages of the owner's manual or if I'm terrible at using the search function because I could not find an answer to that simple problem. 

I have Walk-Away Lock turned on. I'm using my iPhone as my key and the doors open fine and they lock when I walk away. Just as expected.

However, when my car is in my garage, I like to just open a passenger door to grab something or put something in the car with no intention of driving. When I open the passenger door, the computer, HVAC and radio turn on automatically and then turn off when I close that door. Another example is opening the passenger door first to put a bag before driving away. I open that door, computer turns on, close it, computer turns off. Walk over to the driver side, open the door, computer turns on again.

Ideally, I don't want the computer to turn on at all until I'm sitting in the driver's seat and put my foot on the brake.

Is there a setting to change that behavior?


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## Love (Sep 13, 2017)

denver_kanuck said:


> Hi All,
> 
> First post so forgive me if I missed something in the 169 pages of the owner's manual or if I'm terrible at using the search function because I could not find an answer to that simple problem.
> 
> ...


First I want to say WELCOME to the forum! And second, I don't think that such an option exists but I do think it's a very good idea, worthy of submitting for them to consider.

I always have stuff in the back seat that it would be handy to be able to get at without the whole car powering on. Also, along the same lines of wanting the keep the car power on with all doors closed, like when washing it and playing music.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I would agree. Similar to how if the driver gets out, but passengers remain, the car actually shuts down, but the passenger can touch the screen to restart it. If you open any door other than the drivers door - or maybe all of them, nothing comes on until you touch the screen. I'd hope it to be configurable as I want the car to come on when I open the drivers door, but others may not. It's kind of like push button start, touch screen start.


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## kort677 (Sep 17, 2018)

I don’t understand why this is an issue because when you close the door the car shuts down again.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

OP can state his reason as well, but it isn't just the computer, the AC and other items come on as well. I would say I open the door a few times a week to get something out of the car or put something in and no intention of driving. I just see this as wear and tear on components, even electronic ones. Many times the start up procedure is the hardest part on a component. Just trying to save a few cycles on some of them.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

GDN said:


> OP can state his reason as well, but it isn't just the computer, the AC and other items come on as well. I would say I open the door a few times a week to get something in the car or put something in and no intention of driving. I just see this as wear and tear on components, even electronic ones. Many times the start up procedure is the hardest part on a component. Just trying to save a few cycles on some of them.


Meh.

You're wearing and tearing your door hinges. Stop it.


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## Mosess (Sep 13, 2018)

The easiest thing to do is simply roll down the windows when you get into your garage and leave them down. The added benefit is that it airs out the cars interior so none of those toxic air fresheners (irony of calling them "fresheners" when they are highly toxic endocrine disruptors and harm the environment even worse than ICE cars do) are ever necessary.

It helps that I have a whole house dehumidifier (and my garage is served by the basement A/C unit) which also keeps the car dry in the garage so less corrosion issues in the long run.


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## denver_kanuck (Nov 15, 2018)

GDN said:


> OP can state his reason as well, but it isn't just the computer, the AC and other items come on as well. I would say I open the door a few times a week to get something out of the car or put something in and no intention of driving. I just see this as wear and tear on components, even electronic ones. Many times the start up procedure is the hardest part on a component. Just trying to save a few cycles on some of them.


Thanks for the replies.

I do hardware and software for a living so that behavior makes me cringe. I'm not so concerned about the screen but the wear on mechanical systems like the HVAC concerns me.

It seems so completely unnecessary to get all systems going if I'm just grabbing my sunglasses out of the car. I could have left the radio on loud and want to open the door without bothering anyone.

Where can someone suggest a feature? Is Tesla responsive to users feedback?


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

I like the way that it currently functions. In general use, when anyone gets in the car, life is good. 

If you are concerned about the mechanical systems, I suspect that the doors have a lower MTBF than the other systems.


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## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

I’m an engineer familiar with the concept of “cycles to failure”. So, I also cringe having this entire system getting exercised unnecessarily. It may be silly, but a lot of engineering is based on worrying.

I have learned not to open the rear door to get the charge port to let go of the cable. Shutting it turns the screen off (and other stuff?), then get another start up cycle when I open the front door.


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

What _is_ probably more of a "bug": When you open the back door, and the lights, music and screen come on, and then you close it. Switch to opening the driver door, and the screen, music, and lights turn off, and only the screen comes back on a second later. The lights and music stay off until you either sit there long enough, or start driving the car.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

Remember that this is not booting up a system or starting an engine like in other cars. It's simply turning on a display like on your phone or tablet. There is no wear associated. The display will even turn on if you touch the door handles with the doors locked, with a message to tell you to unlock the car.

As for the HVAC and the audio, I guess you could argue both ways. But if a passenger were getting into the car, shouldn't they have the ability to have air and music control?
I really don't think there is any actual extra _wear_ here. At most it's annoying that your music advances an extra ten seconds that you miss the next time you get in the car.


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## Dr. J (Sep 1, 2017)

JWardell said:


> At most it's annoying that your music advances an extra ten seconds that you miss the next time you get in the car.


Which you can fix by pausing the music when you get out. At least I can.


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## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

only time I find this feature annoying is when washing the car, and have audio playing on my phone. open a door to clean the jamb and the audio is picked up by bluetooth. close the door and you have to go back to the phone to restart it. 
Not the end of the world, but a slight annoyance.


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## babula (Aug 26, 2018)

MelindaV said:


> only time I find this feature annoying is when washing the car, and have audio playing on my phone. open a door to clean the jamb and the audio is picked up by bluetooth. close the door and you have to go back to the phone to restart it.
> Not the end of the world, but a slight annoyance.


I always wear my headphones when cleaning my car and when I go to clean the inside this happens and it always bugs the crap out of me... Not sure what the best solution would be though because generally I like it when I enter the car and everything switches over.


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## SR22pilot (Aug 16, 2018)

Wow, and I have enjoyed the behavior. It gets hot here and it is nice to have the A/C start as soon as the door opens.


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## babula (Aug 26, 2018)

SR22pilot said:


> Wow, and I have enjoyed the behavior. It gets hot here and it is nice to have the A/C start as soon as the door opens.


I think we all enjoy it. People are mainly complaining about opening a door other than the driver side and having everything turn on which is a little wasteful - especially for folks trying to maximize their efficiency.


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## SR22pilot (Aug 16, 2018)

babula said:


> I think we all enjoy it. People are mainly complaining about opening a door other than the driver side and having everything turn on which is a little wasteful - especially for folks trying to maximize their efficiency.


And I stand by my statement. Then again, I'm 65 and grew up in the south. I am often (as in several times today) opening the door for my passenger. The little bit I lose from the times I am getting something out off the back seat or placing something in the car doesn't bother me. Maybe you can come up with some perfect system where the car will know my intentions but till then I like the fact that it errs on the side of turning on. I understand others wanting something different and have no problem with it. I am just being that dissenter saying I like the way it is. I often open the rear door when the charge handle won't release because the car is asleep.


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## denver_kanuck (Nov 15, 2018)

Interesting comments. More people like that behavior than I would have expected. 

The beauty of the Tesla architecture is that they could offer a setting in the UI to suit your preference. Something like "Power up on entry" with a "driver door only" or "any door" choice and make everyone happy.

Even if I take the other side of the argument, the behavior still doesn't make sense to me. For example, I like to open the door for my wife (yes, I'm old school). When I open the door, systems power on, she sits, I close the door, systems turn off until I go over to the driver side and open the door. How does that make sense? Is that a bug with my car? Seems like it should sense that there is someone in the car and keep the systems running, no?


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## LucyferSam (Sep 13, 2017)

I wouldn't mind the behavior if it weren't for the fact that the rapid wake-up\sleep\wake-up cycle can leave the system confused (mostly the music being able to restart but I've occasionally had other systems like voice control lock up from this as well). If it was always reliable that it would wake up smoothly I don't think I'd care one way or the other.


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## YAMSA44 (Oct 27, 2018)

kort677 said:


> I don't understand why this is an issue because when you close the door the car shuts down again.


I agree! It's not like the car stays powered for a half hour.


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## jmmSTL (2 mo ago)

I posted this exact issue in the Facebook tesla model 3 owner's forum, and got only one decent reply out of about 7. Most were dismissive of my 'complaint' and one even suggested that the only thing that needed to be fixed was my OCD (funny, but not funny), but I agree that this is unnecessary wear and tear and a waste of power. If the HVAC compressor is cycling that many times, that quickly, then it's going to fail earlier. I've owned Hondas where the compressor never failed even after 300k miles, but also other vehicles where it failed after only 80k, so add my comment to the column that says "I think this should not be the way it works".


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## wa4yih (3 mo ago)

jmmSTL said:


> I posted this exact issue in the Facebook tesla model 3 owner's forum, and got only one decent reply out of about 7. Most were dismissive of my 'complaint' and one even suggested that the only thing that needed to be fixed was my OCD (funny, but not funny), but I agree that this is unnecessary wear and tear and a waste of power. If the HVAC compressor is cycling that many times, that quickly, then it's going to fail earlier. I've owned Hondas where the compressor never failed even after 300k miles, but also other vehicles where it failed after only 80k, so add my comment to the column that says "I think this should not be the way it works".


Thi time of the year it's an awesome feature. Gets the car warmer quicker


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## Rub"Y" (4 mo ago)

Turn on your Tesla before you get there ( there's an APP for that ), open the front door first , then the back door, throw in your briefcase and laptop close the back door get in the driver's seat and enjoy the ride. Life is good.


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## SimonMatthews (Apr 20, 2018)

GDN said:


> Many times the start up procedure is the hardest part on a component. Just trying to save a few cycles on some of them.


This turned out to be a myth. It's just that electronic devices tend to fail on power up, but it doesn't really add to wear on the device.


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## jmmSTL (2 mo ago)

wa4yih said:


> Thi time of the year it's an awesome feature. Gets the car warmer quicker


so you're making fun of me, or what?


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## JasonF (Oct 26, 2018)

jmmSTL said:


> so you're making fun of me, or what?


I'm not making fun when I suggest turning off HVAC entirely when you leave the car, or via the app. You'll have to turn it back on manually when you get back in, but it won't switch on the AC compressor when you open the doors.

It probably should have a 30 sec/1 minute delay before starting, but it doesn't right now, so that's the workaround.


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## ateslik (Apr 13, 2018)

another vote for “don’t turn every dang thing on until I press the brake pedal”. Also a solid vote for “jesus, can the button to release the charge cable actually work so that I don’t have to open the rear door to wake up the car?!?”


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## Kizzy (Jul 25, 2016)

ateslik said:


> another vote for “don’t turn every dang thing on until I press the brake pedal”. Also a solid vote for “jesus, can the button to release the charge cable actually work so that I don’t have to open the rear door to wake up the car?!?”


I find that pressing and holding the release button wakes the car for me and unlocks the chargeport (when I have my Phone Key on me).

Also, just slightly pressing in the rear door handle without actually unlatching the door wakes the car for me.


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## ateslik (Apr 13, 2018)

Kizzy said:


> I find that pressing and holding the release button wakes the car for me and unlocks the chargeport (when I have my Phone Key on me).
> 
> Also, just slightly pressing in the rear door handle without actually unlatching the door wakes the car for me.


good tips, I'll try those. Thanks!


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## wa4yih (3 mo ago)

jmmSTL said:


> so you're making fun of me, or what?


Not at all, basically stating that what some people's boat doesn't float others.

You don't like it, I do.


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## wa4yih (3 mo ago)

ateslik said:


> another vote for “don’t turn every dang thing on until I press the brake pedal”. Also a solid vote for “jesus, can the button to release the charge cable actually work so that I don’t have to open the rear door to wake up the car?!?”


You don't really have to open the door to pull the charge cable, you just have to wake the car up and hitting a door handle is a good way to do it. It's the general problem that people have opening the door, if the car doesn't see your phone, it won't wake up and allow things to work. 
Generally I find that if the car can easily hear the phone, all you need to do is hit the button. But if my phone is in my back pocket and/or I approach the car from the rear, then it won't unlock. By hitting the door handle, it basically give the car a view of the phone and a chance to interchange security.


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