Another Tesla Y owner opened mine with his phone

[babyduke]

Please, serious replies only. Thanks

Strangest thing. I was at a restaurant with some friends, of whom one person owns an identical black 2023 Y standard model like myself. He had to leave early while the rest of us were still there. I get a phone call from this friend who said " Guess what? So bizarre! I'm inside your car right now. I got in thinking it was mine then I saw your name on the screen." My car was clearly locked. So the next time I saw him, I tried opening his car with my phone and sure enough, I was able to! He stood far in distance to make sure that it wasn't his phone that activated the unlock. Although I wasn't able to start the car, it's alarming knowing someone can enter my car and steal belongings or tamper with it.

Any idea how this can happen and how to fix it?

 

[Tam]

Please, serious replies only. Thanks

Strangest thing. I was at a restaurant with some friends, of whom one person owns an identical black 2023 Y standard model like myself. He had to leave early while the rest of us were still there. I get a phone call from this friend who said " Guess what? So bizarre! I'm inside your car right now. I got in thinking it was mine then I saw your name on the screen." My car was clearly locked. So the next time I saw him, I tried opening his car with my phone and sure enough, I was able to! He stood far in distance to make sure that it wasn't his phone that activated the unlock. Although I wasn't able to start the car, it's alarming knowing someone can enter my car and steal belongings or tamper with it.

Any idea how this can happen and how to fix it?

It does happen with conventional physical keys as when the maximum uniqueness runs out, an old used duplicated combination would be used again but the chance for those 2 owners to meet at the same time, same place is rare.

My guess is that is what happens with electronic system as well. Manufacturers just have to increase the possible numbers of combination.

Are Car Keys Universal? - Keytek Locksmiths

If you've wondered whether your car key can open another car, or someone else's car key can open your key, read our blog to find out how likely it is.

www.keytek.co.uk

 

[EVRider-FL]

The phone key range is probably longer than you think, so it’s possible (and likely) both cars were within range of the owners’ phones when that happened. To be sure one of your phones could open a different Tesla, you’d need to temporarily disable Bluetooth on the owner’s phone.

For example, when I take my wife’s car without her, the car detects her phone which is in the house.

 

[Jrzapata]

If you want to test your theory, try again disabling bluetooth and making sure car is locked.
you might have been in rang of you bluetooth antena.
when the car is started with the car, the auto lock does not work, learned that the hard way

 

[fholbert]

The phone key range is probably longer than you think, so it’s possible (and likely) both cars were within range of the owners’ phones when that happened.

I don't know. Several times I've left my phone 40' and a wall away. Can't open the car door.

• Several years ago I had a new car. First time I cleaned the inside I found a key under the front seat, the cut was a little different than mine but it opened the door. Found out it opened many Chevrolet's of that year model. I guess it was a master.
• Installed a new garage door opener. Moment of truth: Stood in the driveway and pressed the button to close the door. It closed and my neighbor two doors down opened, same code. Funny part, my neighbor came out and stood in the driveway with a puzzled look on his face, I didn't really like the guy. I pressed the button again and his door closed, mine opened, he was none the wiser and I didn't feel the need to tell him. I returned to my garage, changed my code then put my tools away. Found out days later he didn't have his house keys with him, when I closed his garage door I locked him out of the house.

 

[babyduke]

The phone key range is probably longer than you think, so it’s possible (and likely) both cars were within range of the owners’ phones when that happened. To be sure one of your phones could open a different Tesla, you’d need to temporarily disable Bluetooth on the owner’s phone.

For example, when I take my wife’s car without her, the car detects her phone which is in the house.

I see your point but this is still not acceptable. Imagine you go grocery shopping and someone enters your car. That's just about the distance I was at (inside the restaurant) to the parking lot.

 

[MP3Mike]

Did you try turning Bluetooth off on your phone and verify that their car was locking?

Does your friend have walk-away locking turned on? Is it working? Maybe they just don't realize that they are never locking their car?

As far as distance, my car locks right as I walk up to my front door, which is ~15 feet from the car.

 

[Tam]

It has been well-documented that a stranger can open your car with the wrong key/fob/phone.

In this Vancouver case, the police were also called, so it's not fake!

Tesla Owner Unlocked And Drove Away Wrong Model 3 Using Smartphone App | Carscoops

Vancouver man claims he accidentally opened door of identical Tesla and drove for several minutes before realising error

www.carscoops.com

This thread is not the first case. Tesla has not addressed the issue so don't expect the case to be solved soon.

While waiting for a solution, you can start using the PIN-to-drive. A stranger's key/fob/phone can access your doors but not the glovebox or propulsion system without the correct PIN. Most likely, the stranger's PIN and yours are different. But if both of you use the same Year of Birth like 1970, then that won't help either!

 

[babyduke]

Did you try turning Bluetooth off on your phone and verify that their car was locking?

Does your friend have walk-away locking turned on? Is it working? Maybe they just don't realize that they are never locking their car?

As far as distance, my car locks right as I walk up to my front door, which is ~15 feet from the car.

We both tried on our cars again so yes we both made sure our cars were locked.
We have not tried turning BT off but like I said above, that does not justify. It's still unacceptable that someone else can open my car in the parking lot even when I'm well inside the building.

 

[E90alex]

That’s the downside of a Bluetooth based key system. There’s no proximity detection and BT range is much much farther than what a typical key fob would need to be.

 

[Tam]

We both tried on our cars again so yes we both made sure our cars were locked.
We have not tried turning BT off but like I said above, that does not justify. It's still unacceptable that someone else can open my car in the parking lot even when I'm well inside the building.

Some people love long-range BT to unlock the door for others or even a summon from the apartment window on the second floor.

 

[narkotic]

I'm sure at some point this will become Tesla. You just rent "tesla" and get in a random one in the parking lot (guaranteed to be 100 in the same color as "yours") and go to your destination. Like those dumb scooters you see all over the place on the sidewalks.

It's a feature, not a bug. duh.

 

[ucmndd]

It's still unacceptable that someone else can open my car in the parking lot even when I'm well inside the building.

If that risk is unacceptable to you, use the keycard Tesla gave you with the car or buy a fob. You have everything you need to fix this yourself.

 

[gsmith123]

If that risk is unacceptable to you, use the keycard Tesla gave you with the car or buy a fob. You have everything you need to fix this yourself.

Or turn off the Auto Unlock feature but manually open the app and unlock the car. Tedious but possible.

 

[sleepydoc]

I agree with the others - try it again, first making sure the cars are locked and BT is off.

Newer garage door openers use a rotating code with millions of possible combinations. One day one of our neighbors’ garage door openers started working on the other neighbor’s garage. What are the odds? Very small, but not zero. I don’t know the details of the BT key system but while BT is reasonably secure, as a digital system there are going to be a finite number of combinations.

 

[Foxsbiscuits]

Maybe I'm missing something here but the Phone as Key system uses Bluetooth signal strength to decide whether to unlock and lock the car, in my case I have to be pretty much touching my car for it to work and when I walk a few metres away it locks.
Yet I hear stories of people saying theirs unlocks/locks from much further away. To my mind something isn't working properly there, potentially in the phone itself. Such inconsistency cannot be by design...

 

[gsmith123]

Yet I hear stories of people saying theirs unlocks/locks from much further away. To my mind something isn't working properly there, potentially in the phone itself. Such inconsistency cannot be by design...

It's probably not by design, but determining distance via RF signal strength is a tricky guessing game. There are dozens (hundreds?) of different phones out there (across two major operating systems), and 10-20 major variations of Tesla vehicles that support phone key.

It would be a miracle if the exact distance to allow unlocking were anywhere near consistent. No way Tesla can thoroughly test and tune thousands of permutations of hardware accurately.

And that's not even considering how buildings, cars and other objections in between phone and car interfere with this.

 

[Foxsbiscuits]

Such variation seems really unlikely to be used for car security, no?
To clarify, because this is what OP made out, is unlocking using Bluetooth separate from driving? As in, for those users whose cars unlock at distance could anyone just get in and drive off or is there another layer?

 

[Tam]

Such variation seems really unlikely to be used for car security, no?
To clarify, because this is what OP made out, is unlocking using Bluetooth separate from driving? As in, for those users whose cars unlock at distance could anyone just get in and drive off or is there another layer?

The advantage of BT is convenience: Auto-lock/-unlock and drive away.

When it's within range, any stranger can access doors and drive away with no need for fob/card/phone/key inside the car.

If you want additional layer, add your own PIN-to-drive: in this case BT can Auto-lock/-unlock doors but a stranger has to guess your PIN correctly to access the glove box and propulsion.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Maybe I'm missing something here but the Phone as Key system uses Bluetooth signal strength to decide whether to unlock and lock the car, in my case I have to be pretty much touching my car for it to work and when I walk a few metres away it locks.
Yet I hear stories of people saying theirs unlocks/locks from much further away. To my mind something isn't working properly there, potentially in the phone itself. Such inconsistency cannot be by design...

The car will lock when you’re still within Bluetooth range, so you can’t base the range on that. If the car is locked and someone tries to open the door, it will unlock and open if the phone is still within Bluetooth range, which is what we presume happened in the OP’s case.