Does Checking on the car in the Tesla App drain the battery?

[user47592]

Please humor me for a second.

I'm curious about 1 mile drops on my SOC after I park. I don't have sentry mode on, nor do I have cabin overheat protection on.

When I do park, whether it's at home or work the car is in the immediate vicinity.

My Tesla phone app would show connected in the notification (on Android).

I sometimes switch over to the Tesla app to see where my current SOC stands. The app would transition from "last seen 1 hour ago" to parked and refresh to the current SOC.

When either of this happens, when the car is connected or the app refreshes the SOC, does this "turn" on my car or initiate some kind of the car's battery usage? Is this why I see these 1 mile drops?

Also, should I turn off Bluetooth connectivity to the car? Would that eliminate these 1 mile drops?

Thanks.

 

[jjrandorin]

When either of this happens, when the car is connected or the app refreshes the SOC, does this "turn" on my car or initiate some kind of the car's battery usage? Is this why I see these 1 mile drops?

Yes, every single time you do that, you wake the car up from sleep, unless it was already awake. I dont think you need to turn off bluetooth to the car, but if you are concerned about this, use a phone widget for the Tesla app. Looking at the widget doesnt wake up the car, interacting with it / issuing a command through it will, though.

 

[user47592]

Thanks, how long does it stay "up" before it goes back to sleep?

 

[jjrandorin]

Thanks, how long does it stay "up" before it goes back to sleep?

Depends on what the car decides to do while its awake. Somewhere between 10 minutes to an hour, if it decides it needs to do something while its awake.

 

[Watts_Up]

To have the option not to wake up the car when opening the phone App
was mentioned (last April 26, 2023) as new App improvment: Tesla App 4.8:

Tesla app may load vehicle data instantly in an upcoming update

In an upcoming update you'll be able to view information about your vehicle such as the charge level instantly.

www.notateslaapp.com

 

[gsmith123]

Is this why I see these 1 mile drops?

The other answers are correct. Furthermore, it's completely normal for the battery management system to reevaluate it's estimate of state of charge after parking. So, if you park, wait an hour, and check the state of charge the estimate can go up or down by 2-4%.

(If you think the car is having abnormal phantom drain you need to verify it happens over a longer time frame, rather than immediately after parking)

The amount of energy stored in the battery isn't changing; the car is just reevaluate it's guess. The car can't directly measure how much energy is in the battery so it makes a quite complex guess based on the measured voltage, load, temperature, tracking current going in and out, etc.

 

[nicksp]

So on my iPhone if I don't close the app by swiping up to close but leaving it on in the background then the car stays always awake?

 

[Lance From Jax]

Depends on what the car decides to do while its awake. Somewhere between 10 minutes to an hour, if it decides it needs to do something while its awake.

Sounds like me lol

 

[DeltaOne]

So on my iPhone if I don't close the app by swiping up to close but leaving it on in the background then the car stays always awake?

It's not necessary to swipe up and close the app. In fact, Tesla advises to leave the app running for the best "phone key" experience (i.e., to unlock/lock the vehicle).

Just leave the app running. Each time you tap the app it'll wake the vehicle and get data. So only do that when necessary.

There's been some talk about a Tesla app update that won't have to wake the car...but we don't have that feature yet.

 

[stopcrazypp]

To have the option not to wake up the car when opening the phone App
was mentioned (last April 26, 2023) as new App improvment: Tesla App 4.8:

Tesla app may load vehicle data instantly in an upcoming update

In an upcoming update you'll be able to view information about your vehicle such as the charge level instantly.

www.notateslaapp.com

This was never released, at least the live data part. It does retrieve server cached data, as for example if the car woke up after you since looked at it and reported that to Tesla's server, opening the app will immediately retrieve that "latest data" from Tesla's servers. But this is not the data from the car at the time you opened the app. That still requires the car to wake up first.

 

[gsmith123]

So on my iPhone if I don't close the app by swiping up to close but leaving it on in the background then the car stays always awake?

There's different levels of "Stays awake". Sure, the low power Bluetooth transceiver and control unit stays on and connected to your phone. I wouldn't classify that as the whole car staying awake though and it doesn't meaningfully impact battery drain. Wifi stays on too.

But to be really pedantic... the bluetooth key probably consumes some tiny amount of energy.

To be honest I think people substantially overthink this. The car has an energy app that tells you what it uses energy on when parked. If you care about phantom drain, keep an eye on that and adjust your app usage only if you actually see an impact.

 

[Bike22]

We have a Powerwall as well as the car. If we open the app to check on the Powerwall capacity will that also wake the car?

Just thinking ahead to when I have the leave the car at the airport.

 

[cbdream99]

We have a Powerwall as well as the car. If we open the app to check on the Powerwall capacity will that also wake the car?

Just thinking ahead to when I have the leave the car at the airport.

When you first open the app, the car always come up first before the PW, and this always wakes up the car. If I swiped to PW and then leave the app opened, then I don't think it will wake up the car.

 

[Bike22]

When you first open the app, the car always come up first before the PW, and this always wakes up the car. If I swiped to PW and then leave the app opened, then I don't think it will wake up the car.

Not for me. The app always starts on the hardware that was last viewed. Just checked again after restarting my phone (Android) and it still starts the app in PW screen after it was last closed in PW screen.

So I guess my final question is - if the app is not viewing the car screen, has it still woken the car in the background?

 

[stopcrazypp]

Not for me. The app always starts on the hardware that was last viewed. Just checked again after restarting my phone (Android) and it still starts the app in PW screen after it was last closed in PW screen.

So I guess my final question is - if the app is not viewing the car screen, has it still woken the car in the background?

My experience seems to suggest if you are very quick and don't dwell on the car screen, it doesn't seem to wake the car (at least as it pertains to putting app in background).

You can test this yourself actually if you are near your car and it's asleep. You will hear the contactors if it is waking up.

 

[cbdream99]

Not for me. The app always starts on the hardware that was last viewed. Just checked again after restarting my phone (Android) and it still starts the app in PW screen after it was last closed in PW screen.

So I guess my final question is - if the app is not viewing the car screen, has it still woken the car in the background?

Sorry, should have said sign out.