Hacker News Reader

Comment by john37386 | Hacker News Reader

Why do owners of Tesla cars need an App to use their car? What is the advantage of needing a central infrastructure + app just to start your car?

View on HN

They don't, the cars come with (RFID?) key cards that work without a server. These people had left their key cards at home and relied on their phones probably just so they could have thinner wallets. Which is pretty stupid, it means you can't even unlock your car in a basement parking garage with no signal to the car...

Non-tech people don't know that a phone might not work to unlock a car in and underground garage.

Tech people would assume Tesla built this thing to work without network availability. Maybe via Bluetooth with some key exchanges?

This assumption by coder and companies that services are always available is a nightmare. How many sites completely stopped working last time Facebook login went down? I am not saying build for every possible situation but don't assume the service you are relying on is always available.

It's not stupid. The app could easily unlock the car using Bluetooth. Why does it need a server?

Seems very fragile considering how sensitive a phone can be to water, drops, shocks, and battery failure.

I agree and I don't understand the point. There might be something that you and I don't see. Anyone has a clue on why it's important to have such a huge infrastructure just to start a Tesla car?

Be glad - you are seeing into the future.

you don't? unless they changed something, they also give you cards you can use to unlock your car.

Tesla's don't score very highly on reliability

https://insideevs.com/news/549130/consumerreports-tesla-reli...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com