Sleepy Door Handles

For the last couple of weeks, I was noticing that my door handles did not move when I approached the car.  I thought it was a bit odd, and I would double click on the roof of the fob, and the door handles would move to the open position.

When you have a fob with you, the door handles by default “auto-present” knowing that you are in the vicinity.  You can change this behavior by changing the settings on the touchscreen.

I did not fret the first time this happened, but then it happened several times more.  So I looked through the settings and they were still set to “auto-present”.  After some web research, I found a hint of what could be the problem.  If you have a key fob close to or in your car, the car will remain unlocked at all times.

My first thought was that the “junk drawer” with the key fobs is not that close to the car.   I’ve also left the key fobs in there for 6 1/2 years now, so why would this behavior just change now?

The second possibility that the secondary key fob was actually IN the car.  I couldn’t find the 2nd key fob in the junk drawer.  But low and behold, the key fob was just sitting on the driver’s seat.

So technically someone could have easily stolen the car for the last couple of weeks.  But then again, they would have to have actually touched the door handle to open the door.  Even then, the car could easily be found through the Tesla app.

autopresent

2 thoughts on “Sleepy Door Handles

  1. After owning three Model S’ I can most assuredly say that the Model S door handles, like those stupid Model X Falcon doors, are over engineered and problematic. If I ever buy a Tesla again, and that’s not guaranteed, it’ll be a model three or a Y.

  2. Change your batteries if you haven’t done so in a year or two.

    I used a spare fob and then noticed a night or two later that the binnacle display was ON. When I looked for my spare fob, it wasn’t in the house. Yep, it was in between the door and seat.

    Most people don’t want to steal a Tesla. Kathy in Payson got in big trouble a couple weeks ago taking one that wasn’t hers…the police were not amused.

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