Parking in area with No Wifi/3G - Worried if service can't read car

tmc2015 · May 26, 2015

My parking garage is underground - no wifi, no 3G. I am trying to figure out how to get wifi down there, but I am a tenant not an owner and having my car connected to wifi isn't a priority (and shouldn't be) for the building.

Today I got in the car and had a 'parking sensors disabled' warning. No problem, car drove fine, I called the 877 # and they are sorting it out.

I did search the forums about the parking sensors issue and read several things about people's MS not starting. So now that has me worried. I bought a new car because my old one was unreliable, and I don't want to be late because of my vehicle. I know gas vehicles can have problems too, but I rarely hear about a new car not starting and of course troubleshooting one of those vehicles is easier. This is all complicated by the fact that service won't be able to 'read' my vehicle when they can't 'see' it on their system because of where it is parked. I don't want to have to plan on leaving an hour early to get anywhere on the chance that today is the off day the MS doesn't 'fire' up.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

TexasEV · May 26, 2015

In two years of driving a Model S every day I've never had a day when I couldn't drive it, and I haven't heard of it happening to anyone in our local group. Sure there may be a freak event, but there is no reason to think it would happen any more often than in an ICE. I don't think it's something to worry about.

mgboyes · May 26, 2015

One of the serious side effects of reading forums like this is that you get a completely skewed view of reliability because here is where everyone comes to talk about their issues.

The Model S is the most reliable car I've ever owned. Don't worry about it.

Cyclone · May 26, 2015

mgboyes said:
One of the serious side effects of reading forums like this is that you get a completely skewed view of reliability because here is where everyone comes to talk about their issues.

The Model S is the most reliable car I've ever owned. Don't worry about it.

To further expand on this... After read the frunk crease threads on here, I was so worried and felt I would never ever use my frunk. Well, after trying my hand a few times on a demo car, I don't see what the big issue is. The frunk is not difficult to close and just a medium of care in closing it rather than a traditional drop-slam hasn't been an issue at all. Basically, reading on the forums scared me and experiencing the car showed that I was worried about nothing.

SabrToothSqrl · May 26, 2015

My parking garage (basement) at work also provides nearly no cellular access... other than not being able to turn on the heat/ac from my desk, (since it can't find the car) I've had no issues.

About 3 months into ownership you stop treating it like a high tech expensive gizmo, and just treat it like the car it is.

As for the Frunk, I never use it... also from fear of creasing/scratching it. I hope the X can power open/close the front like the trunk!

TexasEV · May 26, 2015

SabrToothSqrl said:
About 3 months into ownership you stop treating it like a high tech expensive gizmo, and just treat it like the car it is.

Speak for yourself. After two years of ownership I still treat it like a high tech expensive gizmo and not just a car. I've never hand washed any other car every week. I've never read forums about other cars, or shown it at car shows, or met other local owners of the same brand, or went to a convention of owners (TMC Connect) to talk about the car, or answered questions from prospective buyers that the employees weren't allowed to answer (this is Texas), etc., etc. I suspect many on this board are the same.

dsm363 · May 26, 2015

tmc2015 said:
My parking garage is underground - no wifi, no 3G. I am trying to figure out how to get wifi down there, but I am a tenant not an owner and having my car connected to wifi isn't a priority (and shouldn't be) for the building.

Today I got in the car and had a 'parking sensors disabled' warning. No problem, car drove fine, I called the 877 # and they are sorting it out.

I did search the forums about the parking sensors issue and read several things about people's MS not starting. So now that has me worried. I bought a new car because my old one was unreliable, and I don't want to be late because of my vehicle. I know gas vehicles can have problems too, but I rarely hear about a new car not starting and of course troubleshooting one of those vehicles is easier. This is all complicated by the fact that service won't be able to 'read' my vehicle when they can't 'see' it on their system because of where it is parked. I don't want to have to plan on leaving an hour early to get anywhere on the chance that today is the off day the MS doesn't 'fire' up.

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

I went through this for a year as well. It does suck that you can't monitor your car easily but otherwise car functions normally.

See if you can push the safety issue for the need to have cellular signal in the parking deck. People currently can't make an emergency call in the parking deck if there is an emergency safety issue and might not be able to run upstairs to make that call in time. See if the building listens to that argument as just doing it for your car likely won't move the needle.

tmc2015 · May 27, 2015

Thanks for the feedback everyone. The service team confirmed that the car has to have a 3G or wifi connection in order to update, so I just set that to update while I was at work. I wish it would have emailed me the details of the update because I had to click off the update on the screen to drive right away. I am sure I can google and find it, but maybe someone knows of a place to opt in to get an email like that? I'd also love to get a daily or weekly driving summary via email - anyone know if that exists?

I am looking forward to the first door ding to get that out of the way, haha. I also have my first long distance trip tomorrow (140 miles), so we'll see how that goes. No super chargers on the direct route, but will know if I need to go out of the way (20 miles) on the return once I get there. So far, it seems like I'm not getting rated range, I guess I like it too cold in the car. I overheard at the service center the other day someone on the phone that was having all kinds of issues and that made me nervous

As for the frunk, I still haven't opened it haha. Not because of the forum, I just learned about that issue from this thread. The dealer said the proper way to close it is with two hands, but I don't really need the storage I guess. I wish there was a place inside for the charging adapter. Definitely still getting used to the interior storage.

Overall, the garage will be an issue even if it isn't a freak thing, so I need to figure something out there.

TexasEV · May 27, 2015

tmc2015 said:
The dealer said the proper way to close it is with two hands

I know I beat this to death whenever I see it, but Tesla does not have dealers. There are Tesla stores and Tesla service centers, and if you're in a state that bans direct sales there are Tesla galleries. We're so used to calling the place where you buy a car a "dealership" because that was the only business model for many decades that we forget that a dealer is a business that represents one or more brands and is no longer synonymous with "a place to buy cars". Avoiding dealerships is one of the best things about Tesla.

Cyclone · May 27, 2015

tmc2015 said:
I wish there was a place inside for the charging adapter. Definitely still getting used to the interior storage.

Most use the driver side "cubby" at the edge of the trunk to put the bag with the charging cord and adapters in the car. They "sit up" enough that they don't fall into the footwell. If you do NOT have the upgraded sound system, then you also have a passenger side cubby you can use instead if you prefer.

tmc2015 · May 28, 2015

TexasEV said:
I know I beat this to death whenever I see it, but Tesla does not have dealers. There are Tesla stores and Tesla service centers, and if you're in a state that bans direct sales there are Tesla galleries. We're so used to calling the place where you buy a car a "dealership" because that was the only business model for many decades that we forget that a dealer is a business that represents one or more brands and is no longer synonymous with "a place to buy cars". Avoiding dealerships is one of the best things about Tesla.

While Tesla does not have "dealerships," they do have dealers (people who sell things). There are also dealerships that sell Teslas - 2013 Tesla Model S for Sale - Airport Marina Honda.

Cyclone said:
Most use the driver side "cubby" at the edge of the trunk to put the bag with the charging cord and adapters in the car. They "sit up" enough that they don't fall into the footwell. If you do NOT have the upgraded sound system, then you also have a passenger side cubby you can use instead if you prefer.

Thanks for the suggestion - that's where I will leave it. I'd like to not have to get in the trunk to charge. I had it in the glove box but it was rattling around too much.

davewill · May 28, 2015

If you have a window that overlooks the parking structure, you might try an access point in that window to see if you can get access. If handy, you might try building a directional antenna to get your car online when parked.

Search

Parking in area with No Wifi/3G - Worried if service can't read car

tmc2015

Member

TexasEV

Well-Known Member

mgboyes

Member

Cyclone

Cyclonic Member ((.oO))

SabrToothSqrl

Active Member

TexasEV

Well-Known Member

dsm363

Roadster + Sig Model S

tmc2015

Member

TexasEV

Well-Known Member

Cyclone

Cyclonic Member ((.oO))

tmc2015

Member

davewill

Active Member

Similar threads