Model 3 Key Fob is here: $150

[BioSehnsucht]

haha come on now. It's a 60k car. If this was BMW we would be incredibly thankful if it was 'only' $150. Tesla is giving us an alternative option for $150 is a good deal imo

2018 Mazda 3 is a lot cheaper than the Model 3 and has passive entry with included fobs.

As do plenty of other vehicles on the market!

The cost of buying it isn't even that big a deal, if it was actually useful. Without summon for our Canadian friends and passive entry period, what's the point, other than a more valet friendly option than the key card?

 

[crackers8199]

LOL at having my comment about expecting the primary method of entering and driving a $60k car to actually work 100% of the time "disagreed" with. thank you for proving my point.

 

[Swampgator]

LOL at having my comment about expecting the primary method of entering and driving a $60k car to actually work 100% of the time "disagreed" with. thank you for proving my point.

I disagreed with your comments because of the hostile tone you struck towards me. Search my posts in general and you will see plenty of negative comments as well. Paint with a broad brush much???

 

[roblab]

Hmmm. I ordered a fob, but it's not worth $150. My phone works, and it's always with me. Why carry a lump in my pocket with only one (rare) use? I already have that with my S. My pocket knife does more than a fob. So does my wallet. I don't see the rabid need of a fob at all. Sure, the S has one, but the 3 unlocks when I walk up with the phone. Every time.

What's the big problem? Might as well use a key... which would be another lump in my pocket.

 

[crackers8199]

I disagreed with your comments because of the hostile tone you struck towards me. Search my posts in general and you will see plenty of negative comments as well. Paint with a broad brush much???

my "hostile tone" was due to you pushing the nonsensical idea that i shouldn't have bought the model 3, as if i was supposed to expect the primary method of entering and driving the vehicle was going to be so unreliable. such a ridiculous comment deserved every bit of hostility and incredulousness you detected in my tone.

 

[Swampgator]

my "hostile tone" was due to you pushing the nonsensical idea that i shouldn't have bought the model 3, as if i was supposed to expect the primary method of entering and driving the vehicle was going to be so unreliable. such a ridiculous comment deserved every bit of hostility and incredulousness you detected in my tone.

Isn't the internet wonderful? You would never speak to me in person that way. Have a great day....if you can.

 

[crackers8199]

Isn't the internet wonderful? You would never speak to me in person that way. Have a great day....if you can.

if you told me face to face that i shouldn't have bought a car because i should have been able to foresee that, again, THE PRIMARY METHOD OF ENTERING AND DRIVING A $60K CAR would not work reliably...you're right. i would be so dumbfounded i would probably just laugh and walk away.

let us get one thing straight...i LOVE the car, but that does not mean that i think it's OK for a car this expensive in this day and age to not have reliable entry available. unlike you, apparently.

you have a good night too in your "tesla can never do anything wrong" bubble.

 

[Swampgator]

if you told me face to face that i shouldn't have bought a car because i should have been able to foresee that, again, THE PRIMARY METHOD OF ENTERING AND DRIVING A $60K CAR would not work reliably...you're right. i would be so dumbfounded i would probably just laugh and walk away.

let us get one thing straight...i LOVE the car, but that does not mean that i think it's OK for a car this expensive in this day and age to not have reliable entry available. unlike you, apparently.

you have a good night too in your "tesla can never do anything wrong" bubble.

Well, I love my wife...very much. She does have some faults though as do I. I would never say any of those is "inexcusable" Because the sum total of her is more than enough to overcome the faults. Maybe I'm just quibbling over semantics?

 

[UnknownSoldier]

The Model 3 is my third Tesla. I have been driving and advocating for Tesla since 2013. I bought the M3 to replace my wife's 2011 LEAF and took delivery in December 2017. The phone as key option has never worked reliably for her (Galaxy 5) and she is seriously fed up with the car. It works with my Galaxy 7 about 90% of the time. Multiple visits to the Service Center with no success though the Galaxy 5 supports the correct bluetooth version. Given the multitude of phones and implementations of bluetooth this has been a major design fail. Clearly, Tesla did not adequately test this function on a wide range of phones. I was told early on that Tesla would provide a fob at no cost when they were available. Now it appears that the fob, which should always have been available, will cost $150 and will not support essential functions of hands free unlocking and locking based on proximity, or summon. This is a major fail. At the least Tesla should have informed us that we may need to purchase newer phones to operate the car. We are very environmentally conscious and my wife refuses to replace a perfectly functioning phone because of Tesla's lack of testing. As a long time Tesla advocate and TSLA owner I have accepted reduced customer service as the user base grew; however, I now find myself reassessing my enthusiasm for Tesla. I have in the past spent countless hours at various car shows displaying my Teslas, especially the M3 in the early days, and sharing my experience driving electric. I am truly and advocate of electric cars and really want Tesla to succeed, This bump in the road is only going to anger more and more people. We early adopters have been extremely tolerant of quirky design choices, always confident that they would be address, and thy always have been. I doubt that new buyers who are not hard core EV advocates will be as tolerant. Hopefully this fob issue will be addressed as other issues have been in the past.

The reality is that the function was probably only really tested in iPhones at Model 3's launch. Android was in a very bad state at launch and for many months afterwards. It was probably at least 6 months later before Android was really in a non-beta condition.

 

[Dmagyar]

They're likely using an RF signal, not bluetooth.

My lexus had a keycard with a battery in it, you'd need to replace every 2 years or so, could still work with a dead battery via induction to start the car, and it gave me passive entry, never needed to come out of your pocket besides changing batteries, and was awesome. But it used RF to do it.

The Model 3 doesn't have an RF transmitter or receiver in it so they can't do that.

So all I want is something that reliably opens and operates the car I just purchased, something that doesn’t run the main battery down while waiting for me to return and claim said purchase (car). I’d expect “newer” application of existing technology to be able to make that happen, without fuss and certainly without another $150/$300 hit just for the pleasure.

 

[Qian]

Can Canadian use the fob to get summon feature?

 

[Need]

The way summon works on S/X fobs if memory serves is press and release and then press and hold in on the frunk button for forward, or trunk button for reverse

It is press and hold the roof until the emergency light started blinking. Then if you turn off continuous press, you could just hit the frunk or trunk button once and it will move forward or backward the "set" number of feet or until it detected obstacle.

 

[SageBrush]

This is part of what baffles me. They have BLE prox for the phone as key functionality already

I keep wondering about this also. The simple explanation appears to me to be that the phone has functionality the fob does not. If not BLE, then security related like a hardware identifier ?

It would not be surprising to learn that Tesla implemented the passive open/close with a phone that does not have the security vulnerabilities present in the Model S/X and they decided not to carry those vulnerabilities over into the Model 3 fob. If so it leaves hope that a future fob will regain that functionality either through software or hardware. If this is case I agree with the Tesla decision to not regress to a less secure system. The little inconvenience is worth it to me to avoid car theft.

 

[Need]

I keep wondering about this also. The simple explanation appears to me to be that the phone has functionality the fob does not. If not BLE, then security related like a hardware identifier ?

Maybe even though it is low-powered, it is still too much for the keyfob's battery to handle for an extended period of time. Smartphone battery is like 2000+ mAh while the battery in the keyfob is like 160 mAh. Lets say the the phone uses 5 mAh per day for the BLE. It is nothing for the phone as the battery is so huge and you recharge it when it is low. But with keyfob, the battery will run out in a month. I am just guessing here though.

 

[TT97]

The fob has both BLE and RFID. The only reason it does not have passive entry is software restriction, it has nothing to do with the hardware of the car or the fob. My assumption is Tesla did it that way due to thefts.

I am hoping that they will eventually have PIN to drive for the 3 and add passive entry to the fob.

 

[TT97]

Maybe even though it is low-powered, it is still too much for the keyfob's battery to handle for an extended period of time. Smartphone battery is like 2000+ mAh while the battery in the keyfob is like 160 mAh. Lets say the the phone uses 5 mAh per day for the BLE. It is nothing for the phone as the battery is so huge and you recharge it when it is low. But with keyfob, the battery will run out in a month. I am just guessing here though.

The fob BLE power output is 3.8 milliwatts.

 

[SageBrush]

The fob has both BLE and RFID. The only reason it does not have passive entry is software restriction, it has nothing to do with the hardware of the car or the fob. My assumption is Tesla did it that way due to thefts.

I am hoping that they will eventually have PIN to drive for the 3 and add passive entry to the fob.

That makes a lot of sense, and I hope you are right that PIN to drive will be an option.

 

[BioSehnsucht]

Maybe even though it is low-powered, it is still too much for the keyfob's battery to handle for an extended period of time. Smartphone battery is like 2000+ mAh while the battery in the keyfob is like 160 mAh. Lets say the the phone uses 5 mAh per day for the BLE. It is nothing for the phone as the battery is so huge and you recharge it when it is low. But with keyfob, the battery will run out in a month. I am just guessing here though.

If that was the case, then Model X BLE fobs should have the same problem.

 

[Need]

If that was the case, then Model X BLE fobs should have the same problem.

I thought I read someone said that BLE is 2-way communication. So for Model X, I think the car sends out signal to the keyfob within a certain radius. And when keyfob get the signal, it will respond and the car is unlocked. So most of the time, the keyfob is just in listening mode. And the Model 3 is lacking the first step, so the keyfob won't know it's close to the car unless you tell it by pressing a button.

 

[sduck]

So all I want is something that reliably opens and operates the car I just purchased, something that doesn’t run the main battery down while waiting for me to return and claim said purchase (car). I’d expect “newer” application of existing technology to be able to make that happen, without fuss and certainly without another $150/$300 hit just for the pleasure.

Didn't your car come with the cards? Or am I missing something that happened earlier in this thread...