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Wife saved by the app today

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efusco

Moderator - Model S & X forums
Moderator
My wife 'stole' my Model S this morning to run a few errands. To punish her for this indiscretion I asked her to run it through the touchless car wash (yea, I know, but I don't have much choice around here). Anyway, after paying for the wash the car refused to put up the window and she had a "key not detected" warning and the car was turned off. I'd coincidentally just called her when this happened. The car was in for the 50K service recently and they changed out the battery in my fob, which I'd sent with the car, but hers had not been changed in quite some time.

In any case, I opened the app, used the "Start Car" feature and all was well. I replaced the battery in her fob as soon as she got home (The service center had left the extra for her fob in the cup holder, which is pretty freaking cool), and all is well.

Very satisfying to know that this is an option because it could have been quite inconvenient, would have obstructed traffic at the car wash and I'm not sure my wife knows exactly how to change the battery, it certainly would have take a while.

Have I mentioned I love my car?
 
Almost exact same thing happened to us a few weeks ago with my car (that, like you, the wife "stole" from me LOL). She was able to text me, and I gave her the ability to start the car to drive it. She went right to the local Tesla SC where they changed the battery for her, which resolved the issue. :) Gotta love Tesla!
 
You can get in and start the car with a dead battery in the Fob; below is from page 7 of the owners manual. The positioning of the Fob can be a little touchy, but it does work!

Battery Dead in Fob.png
 
You can get in and start the car with a dead battery in the Fob; below is from page 7 of the owners manual. The positioning of the Fob can be a little touchy, but it does work!

View attachment 77679

Yea, I'm aware of the option, but the process can be really tricky and trying to explain that over the phone would have been near impossible, I think. The app made it a LOT easier and faster.