Valet parking

At some valet lots, they double and triple park and would have to keep your keys to extract other cars. They also might not want to risk you hitting another car for liability reasons. I've never tried to do it, although I have persuaded them to leave my car parked at the curb for an hour or so rather than parking it.

Prior to living in Las Vegas and owning a Tesla, I used to tip the valet driver to allow me to park in the front, or VIP section of their valet area. This worked every time. Now though, living in Vegas, I don't mind as much and I used to be worried about the Tesla, but since it's not a manual gearbox, and the engine is electric, I'm not so concerned with them driving it too quickly, especially when I can view their power input from the app. I was a little more obsessive my first few months, however, but now I just check for dings and curb rash when I get it back.

I'd never let a valet park my Model S (especially a P85/P85D) until it has a Valet Mode that can be severely locked down with a notice on the dash that the car is being monitored and all activity is logged.

I created this and bring it up on thie 17" screen before I leave the car with the valet
Valet Instructions - Tesla Motors Club - Enthusiasts & Owners Forum

I've only valet parked once. One of my biggest concerns is that the valet will accidentally open the frunk, perhaps by thinking that one needs to press buttons on the fob to operate the car, and will dent or crease the frunk while closing it.

TTT said:

I created this and bring it up on thie 17" screen before I leave the car with the valet
Valet Instructions - Tesla Motors Club - Enthusiasts & Owners Forum

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Good briefer for the valet!

I have my car valet parked all the time. Never had any issues. I do have a dash camera installed which is pretty visible from the inside. Guys, it's a car, the people working at the valet drive much more expensive cars. The Tesla couldn't be more easy to drive. I trust a valet person more than my daughter who just got her license

TTT. Thanks for instruction.

How long have we been waiting for valet mode/settings lockout?

No valet parking for me, other than self-parking up front, until this feature set automagically appears.

The fact that we can't get even a projected ETA for this functionality is... unfortunate.

Am rapidly losing my sense of humor about the additional level of risk I am expected to shoulder. This is but one straw.

TaoJones said:

How long have we been waiting for valet mode/settings lockout?

No valet parking for me, other than self-parking up front, until this feature set automagically appears.

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Basically...forever.

My wife and I don't "go out" much, i.e. to fancy restaurants or events. So it's not a feature I need. But it would be nice to have, and it seems like it should not be difficult to implement. And my Roadster has it. So I am puzzled as to why the S still does not have it.

Never, ever, ever! Have gotten dings in high end establishments, which of course they denied and even had one MF crank my super high end HiFI so high that it blew all my fuses (thank g-d I had it well designed). Never again. If they won't let me park myself, I bribe them and it always works. Hey. They are all kids. I'd be equally tempted to try the fastest acceleration in the automotive words (almost). I STILL am!!!

I did valet parking once when we went out for dinner. As we were finishing dessert, I decided to check my iPhone app and noted that the car was unlocked. Turns out that they left the fob in the car. To be fair, it seems their routine is to leave the keys in all the cars so they won't have to search through a key locker. Several days after this, I read of the fatal accident of a joy-rider in an MS that he stole because the fob was in the car. I have sworn off valet parking since then. Fortunately, in my semi-rural situation, valet parking situations are rare.

I don't know what I personally worry about more, the valet, or the joyrider:

Newport Beach valet let thief drive off with their car, couple says - LA Times

Rockster said:

I've only valet parked once. One of my biggest concerns is that the valet will accidentally open the frunk, perhaps by thinking that one needs to press buttons on the fob to operate the car, and will dent or crease the frunk while closing it.

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Saw the Tire Store do this trying to unlock it. Very glad I did see it and closed the Frunk myself. And they have serviced Teslas before...

saladman said:

I don't know what I personally worry about more, the valet, or the joyrider:

Newport Beach valet let thief drive off with their car, couple says - LA Times

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Apparently it's not all that hard to snag a car from a valet:

This Guy Pretends He Won An Oscar And They Literally Give Him A Car

Skip to 3:21 in the video to see the "getting the car from the valet" part.

i have not let a valet park the car. there are a lot of places in LA that are valet-only, but so far i've told them i needed to self-park. the closest i came was at a lot downtown where they double-park all the cars. he said he had to keep my key since i was blocking someone, but that he understood my concerns and suggested i park next to a car he wasn't expecting to have to move. he was pretty friendly and understanding so i left him a large tip afterwards - and turned out he didn't even have to move the car.

TaoJones said:

How long have we been waiting for valet mode/settings lockout?
.

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Looks like the new update gave us the valet mode.

Yes it does. Here is what Tesla announced, quote:
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Valet Mode
Valet Mode conveniently and discreetly limits Model S’s driving performance and restricts access to certain settings and personal information. With the touch of a button, owners can place a limit on speed, lock the glove box and frunk, and disable personal information like driver profiles and homelink settings.

Heh heh. Here in Germany there are basically no valet parking opportunities at all, simply because no German would leave his car with someone else. No way. In Germany, they should translate Valet Mode to "I'd prefer if my kids did not drive this car Mode".