Car Automatically Turned On While I Was At Work

Do you have smart precondition on?

The car is always "turned on". If it was making noise, it could have been a couple different things. I'm assuming it was hot, maybe the battery needed to cool, especially if it was charging. The 12v could have been getting a charge.

I can't really use the "you probably fed it after midnight" since we probably all feed our cars after midnight.

The smart precondition could explain the car being on, but it doesn't explain the radio being on. Now with that being said I have seen various reports of the slacker radio (or maybe it was something else) being on when it wasn't supposed to be. I don't know if that explains it. And it also doesn't explain the volume being at 10 unless the OP normally drives with her ears being blasted.

It seems like in the OP's case the SW just glitched somehow.

Your car is possessed. Nobody will want it. But out of the kindness of my heart I'll buy it for $500.

Most likely a software glitch.

A

What "emailed" you?

On edit: this was from a person?

Regarding "running". Could've been smart preconditioning. Someone may have heard the clicking and fan noise that goes off periodically when the contactors for the main pack are engaged in order to charge the 12V battery, and thought the car was idling.

Regarding music: when the car is waking up, if music is playing it can come on and start playing before the controls are responsive. So you sometimes get about 10 seconds of music playing before the controls are responsive to let you turn the volume down. The reboot may not have been necessary. You might have just been able to wait a few more seconds and you would have been able to pause the music or turn down the volume.

In the video business we had an expression for this scenario............"The electronics just got stupid". A reboot always fixed it.

I haven't had the music issue. But just this last Sunday, I walked into the garage at 3PM and the A/C was on full blast. Timing wasn't bad actually! But not anything that I had set. I just turned on preconditioning about 7 days ago. This was not a time when I would go to work. So...not trusting this SW yet. As with: lane departure, blind spot, collision avoidance or emergency braking. I have had so many falses that I have turned them off.

Patience, my young padawan.

40 miles? The A/C must've been on full blast almost all day for that kind of use.

Todd Burch said:

40 miles? The A/C must've been on full blast almost all day for that kind of use.

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no. the a/c unit can use up to 8.5kW/hr. max A/C for just 2 hours will do it for sure. I've intentionally used this method to drain my battery to 0 miles fairly quickly while just sitting in my garage. that a/c and heat pump is a killer on range.

Is it possible that one of the doors was not closed all the way?

yobigd20 said:

no. the a/c unit can use up to 8.5kW/hr. max A/C for just 2 hours will do it for sure. I've intentionally used this method to drain my battery to 0 miles fairly quickly while just sitting in my garage. that a/c and heat pump is a killer on range.

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I assume you had the doors or windows open? That's peak, which even on a hot day won't be sustained for that long if the doors/windows are shut, I'm thinking. But anyway, it's beside the point...I didn't do the math. My point was that the 40 mile loss wasn't just because the display was on, or due to vampire loss....the car was clearly using climate control.

This posed a theory in my mind, since I believe Smart Preconditioning turns off climate control after 30 minutes (someone correct me if I'm wrong), and usage (especially for a "not as hot" day) wouldn't be 40 miles over a 30 minute span:

There are scenarios with recent software versions in which walk-away locking doesn't engage. I've had it happen twice in which I've returned to the car and it's been unlocked. It seems to happen when you start to walk away from the car, the handles retract, and then you walk back to the car and open the door.

I've had this happen once when I was parking at the airport and forgot something--went back to the car to get it, and after a week-long trip to Vegas found that my car was unlocked in the airport parking lot all week(!)

Second time I was in a parking garage at a mall, but a similar scenario.

Anyway, my theory is that walk-away locking didn't engage, and someone (perhaps the person who emailed you?) found the door unlocked. They cranked up the volume and climate control as a joke, then emailed you. (Or perhaps someone else did it to be nefarious or try to run down your battery, and the person who emailed was a "good samaritan".

Anyway, it would explain everything. It's certainly possible.

Todd Burch said:

Anyway, my theory is that walk-away locking didn't engage, and someone (perhaps the person who emailed you?) found the door unlocked. They cranked up the volume and climate control as a joke, then emailed you. (Or perhaps someone else did it to be nefarious or try to run down your battery, and the person who emailed was a "good samaritan".

Anyway, it would explain everything. It's certainly possible.

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Not a bad idea! People all over the place are interested in these cars and it wouldnt supprise me if someone bold tried the door and found it unlocked and then played with it. Maybe they saw someone coming and left the volume up and bolted?

I walk back and forth to my car (passing it mostly) all day long on the weekends and haven't seen it unlocked. But after reading this and having my A/C on for no real reason, I'll keep an eye out for this. I constantly forget things and have to turn around.

Thanks for the insight guys.

CHG-ON said:

I walk back and forth to my car (passing it mostly) all day long on the weekends and haven't seen it unlocked. But after reading this and having my A/C on for no real reason, I'll keep an eye out for this. I constantly forget things and have to turn around.

Thanks for the insight guys.

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I haven't verified my theory with walk-away lock failure yet. I know a few others have seen it--but I haven't actually done any testing to explicitly try to reproduce.