# Lock with phone inside?



## Normal1 (Sep 27, 2018)

Anyon'e have the occasion to leave the phone inside and the doors lock and can't open ...without the card? Were settings wrong? I didn't think it could lock with an active phone inside.


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

Yep, it can and definitely does lock with a phone inside. Isn't that what you want it to do?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Ed Woodrick said:


> Yep, it can and definitely does lock with a phone inside. Isn't that what you want it to do?


Some modern cars refuse to lock if they detect a key still inside. Leaving the phone inside is the equivalent for a Tesla.


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## Normal1 (Sep 27, 2018)

Ed Woodrick said:


> Yep, it can and definitely does lock with a phone inside. Isn't that what you want it to do?


NO! i don't carry a card, so the phone is my only key. Had to get my wife to bring card. How can I stop it from locking with phone inside?


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## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

Normal1 said:


> Anyon'e have the occasion to leave the phone inside and the doors lock and can't open ...without the card? Were settings wrong? I didn't think it could lock with an active phone inside.


Always carry the card in your wallet. It's a great failsafe, it does not matter much if it gets lost, as it carries no identification regarding the car and is easily replaced, and it's waterproof (in case your phone is not).
I want to be able to lock my phone in the car: if I drive to the beach, I am not going to leave my phone on my towel while I spend a couple hours swimming. I cannot take my phone swimming -- it's water-resistant, not waterproof -- but I can slip the card (which is waterproof) in my swimsuit zip pocket, so I lock the phone and my billfold in the car with the card and go swimming in peace ;-)

PS. I have not tried it, but it may be that the car will not lock if your phone is in it and does not go to sleep -- something feasible without running it down as you can leave it plugged into the charger. Or you could disable the "lock on walking away" setting?


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## roflwaffle (Sep 25, 2017)

garsh said:


> Some modern cars refuse to lock if they detect a key still inside. Leaving the phone inside is the equivalent for a Tesla.


They do, but I've done the same thing with my Prius FOB when I leave it next to something that can block it, like in my laptop bag close to my laptop.


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## Tchris (Nov 22, 2017)

Normal1 said:


> NO! i don't carry a card, so the phone is my only key. Had to get my wife to bring card. How can I stop it from locking with phone inside?


If your wife has the Tesla App on her phone, seems she could have unlocked the car remotely for you, and not have had to bring you the card.


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## GDN (Oct 30, 2017)

I've left my phone in the car a couple of times, I wasn't driving and had left it in the door. We came back to an unlocked running car. I've never seen the car lock when a phone that was set up as a key was left in it.


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## Tchris (Nov 22, 2017)

GDN said:


> I've left my phone in the car a couple of times, I wasn't driving and had left it in the door. We came back to an unlocked running car. I've never seen the car lock when a phone that was set up as a key was left in it.


Mine just did yesterday. Had to use my card to unlock it.


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## AugustaDriver (Jul 21, 2017)

I'm required to leave my phone in the car while I'm at work, as the building I work in won't allow them. So my daily routine is to have my card in my wallet and when I get to work turn off the Bluetooth on the phone, and lock the car with the card. By not having the Bluetooth on, the car doesn't know the phone is inside.


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## Becod (Sep 11, 2018)

What about locking your wallet w/car key in the car with your phone and the phone battery goes dead or is stolen?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Becod said:


> What about locking your wallet w/car key in the car with your phone and the phone battery goes dead or is stolen?


What about it?


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## Becod (Sep 11, 2018)

garsh said:


> What about it?


How do you open the door?


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Becod said:


> How do you open the door?


By keeping your keys on your person.

Keep a key card in your wallet in case your phone dies. Don't leave your wallet in the car.
If your wallet fell out inside the car, and your phone fell off inside the car and the battery is dead, then ...

You should buy better pants. Seriously.
Ask someone to bring you the *other* key card.
Make sure another family member (who owns a better pair of pants) has the Tesla app on their phone logged into your Tesla account so they can come rescue you.


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## Becod (Sep 11, 2018)

garsh said:


> By keeping your keys on your person.
> 
> Keep a key card in your wallet in case your phone dies. Don't leave your wallet in the car.
> If your wallet fell out inside the car, and your phone fell off inside the car and the battery is dead, then ...
> ...


Well, don't ever put your wallet in the the glove box at a rest stop and lock your car with the phone app and have your phone die.


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## samson (Mar 8, 2017)

Also does the TOUCH ID in iPhone and Fingerprint Authentication in Android work?

I have them turned on in both work and personal but whenever I open the app it doesnt ask for any authentication and goes right to the controls....

In other words its always logged in... I thought it would work like bank apps where the authentication pops up before logging in


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Becod said:


> Well, don't ever put your wallet in the the glove box at a rest stop and lock your car with the phone app and have your phone die.


You're acting like this is a mistake on Tesla's part.

Would you lock your Honda keys in the glove box at a rest stop? If not, why would you do that with your Tesla keycard?


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## Becod (Sep 11, 2018)

garsh said:


> You're acting like this is a mistake on Tesla's part.
> 
> Would you lock your Honda keys in the glove box at a rest stop? If not, why would you do that with your Tesla keycard?


Because I have my phone app, no use carrying both.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Becod said:


> Because I have my phone app, no use carrying both.


You started off by saying that you left your phone in the car (where it died) along with leaving the keycard in the car. Can we agree that you're just tempting fate if you leave all of your car keys within a car that locks itself? 

But as you say, what if your phone dies? The keycard is meant to be the backup for that situation. You can keep it in your wallet on your person for minimal inconvenience when your phone dies. You can keep it in your house/apartment so that *somebody* could go get it and bring it to you if your phone dies. Leaving it inside the car does nothing useful. You could also just charge your phone for 5 minutes so that it works as a key again.


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## brur (Nov 15, 2018)

The question is: can you opt out of self-locking with the phone in the car?
I don't care to know how wrong I am.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

brur said:


> The question is: can you opt out of self-locking with the phone in the car?


You can turn off "walk-away door lock". I think that will require you to manually lock the car.

Another way to do so is to pop the trunk. The car won't lock when the trunk is open.

EDIT: sorry, I read a little closer now and see that you said "with the phone in the car". If your phone is still in the car and bluetooth is still active, then yes, the car will not lock.


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## Tesla Newbie (Aug 2, 2017)

I’m confused why some of your cars lock if the phone is left behind. I take an elderly friend on his errands every once in awhile. It’s difficult for him to get out at every stop so I sometimes leave him in the car with my phone while I take care of the errand. The car never locks. I just assumed this was the expected behavior because when I take him in our other car (a BMW X5), I have to leave him with the key fob; otherwise his weight on the seat sets off the alarm. 

Of course my use case is different than what you described. Perhaps the car is not locking by virtue of the fact that the phone is in the car *and* there’s someone in the passenger seat.


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## BluestarE3 (Oct 12, 2017)

s


Tesla Newbie said:


> I'm confused why some of your cars lock if the phone is left behind. I take an elderly friend on his errands every once in awhile. It's difficult for him to get out at every stop so I sometimes leave him in the car with my phone while I take care of the errand. The car never locks. I just assumed this was the expected behavior because when I take him in our other car (a BMW X5), I have to leave him with the key fob; otherwise his weight on the seat sets off the alarm.
> 
> Of course my use case is different than what you described. Perhaps the car is not locking by virtue of the fact that the phone is in the car *and* there's someone in the passenger seat.


My car remains unlocked if my phone is left in the car, whether or not there's a passenger. This is as I would expect since there is no equivalent of a walk-away action when the phone remains inside the car within BLE range. On the other hand, if I turn off Bluetooth on the phone when I leave it in the car, the car will lock after a few seconds. This is also as I would expect since this is equivalent to my walking away with the phone in my pocket and out of BLE range. Perhaps the Bluetooth on some people's phones go to sleep after a while and this results in their cars locking?

(As an FYI, in both of the above scenarios, walk-away-lock is enabled.)


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## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

The fundamental question here is if Tesla has the behavior programmed in a manner that will not lead to humans locking themselves out of the car often, which ranges from an inconvenience all the way up to a safety concern - getting locked out of your car in a remote area in winter could be fatal. Even smart humans are not that smart, and few care to learn arcane rules about the behavior of something that should be simple.

This thread is just like threads on the charge port door - I'm not the only one baffled about when or if the charge port door will open.

If your phone is going to be treated as a "key", like a fob is a "key", it would be wise for Tesla to treat it like a key or a fob. The vast majority of cars behave in a manner that prevents you from locking yourself out - they assume you are capable of doing stupid things, and they're not wrong! This feature has been around for decades.

Most people will assume that the "walk-away" auto-locking feature is really "walk-away-with-the-key" auto-locking. Of course! The Tesla is a very smart car, isn't it? At least as smart as the car I've been driving, for which locking myself out is essentially impossible.

_Give me "walk-away-with-the-key" auto-locking, please. Make "beach mode" the exception, not the rule. At least let me buy a fob online._


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## Ericb (Oct 11, 2018)

brur said:


> The question is: can you opt out of self-locking with the phone in the car?
> I don't care to know how wrong I am.


You can disable the lock on walk away feature.


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## Jay79 (Aug 18, 2018)

As long as their are people around you can never 100% be locked out of your car. I'm sure somebody will allow you to use their phone to download the Tesla App and unlock your car if you appear desperate enough...lol 

At the end of the day some common sense needs to be used, leaving all your keys in a self locking car is always a bad idea even if you have the setting set not to self lock. Especially if your phone could possibly die on you, although with the quick charging USB ports I'm not sure how that could even happen. My phone charges very quickly in my car with the Jeda pad


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## Deraillor (Oct 30, 2018)

Tchris said:


> If your wife has the Tesla App on her phone, seems she could have unlocked the car remotely for you, and not have had to bring you the card.


Yeah but how are you going to contact her to let her know to unlock the car? (if you're not together)


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## Deraillor (Oct 30, 2018)

samson said:


> Also does the TOUCH ID in iPhone and Fingerprint Authentication in Android work?
> 
> I have them turned on in both work and personal but whenever I open the app it doesnt ask for any authentication and goes right to the controls....
> 
> In other words its always logged in... I thought it would work like bank apps where the authentication pops up before logging in


The app only asks for authentication when you opt to "start" it remotely. It will then allow the car to be driven (without PIN to drive, if that's enabled) for 2 minutes; you'll see the countdown in the app. This is a very useful feature. When I was on a week-long work trip, my car had to be left unplugged in very cold weather. The cold temperature sapped the battery more quickly than I expected, but I was able to have a buddy of mine get into the car and drive it to a nearby Supercharger to give it a little extra juice.


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