Key fob issues

I've found that my key fob is almost useless for opening my trunk. I have to actually walk away from the trunk toward the front of the car to get it to unlock. I can't figure out any use for that extra button except activating the homelink (because I'm inside the car when I activate it.)

The other buttons are useless for locking the car if I'm more than a few feet from the back of the car (the usual direction I'm walking as I leave the vehicle in a lot). I have to get used to standing beside the car to lock it. With my G-Wagon I can walk halfway across the lot and remember to lock the car from there, and it works every time. I can also use my key fob to find the car at the airport if I've been away for a week. Because of the battery issues and trunk space I probably won't be leaving the Tesla at the airport lot, but still, there always comes that time when you walk into a giant lot full of cars and wonder just exactly where you parked, right? The Tesla's extremely short range makes it almost impossible to use the key fob to find the car.

One more complaint... why are the buttons so darned hard to push? I actually have to hurt my finger to push the buttons sometimes, especially the third one, which is ridiculously hard to push. Combine that with the distance issue, and every time I look at the fob I shake my head in disappointment.

I find that I end up squeezing the heck out of them to try to get the car to open or lock... I think that's why they end up hurting my fingers. Compared to my G-wagon's fob, which is super easy to use and works every time.

When speaking to a technical person at Tesla about this, I was told that the problem is that Lotus's entire steering column (including the very long key and fob) is used in the Roadster. I would tack on "unfortunately."

I wonder if the glider's aluminum box is acting as a Faraday cage? Perhaps we could find a way to move the antennas for the fob signal receiver and FM antenna out of the cage and into the windshield area?

Within five feet of the driver's door, I've found. I often can't get the trunk to open using the fob if I'm standing at the trunk.

Yep. When I walk away from my Mercedes I press the lock button, it goes into the fob softly and I hear the reassuring "click!" as the locks go down. When I walk away from my Roadster I press the lock button, look over my shoulder to see if the brake lights flash, they don't, so I return to the driver's side door and press the button again, but now I can't see the lights flash, so I press it again to see if it honks, it doesn't, so I walk to the front of the car, press the button again, ad nauseum. It's ridiculous. R-I-D-I-C-U-L-O-U-S.