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wat? so if you are out of cell phone coverage the ap won’t start? ?



Yes, but that doesn't stop you from using the car. The app is for remote convenience functions.


But it isn't strictly just for that. For example, I can quickly check the VIN of the car, and what version of software was on the car the last time I was able to connect. It also seems to wake up the bluetooth on my phone on occasion.


> For example, I can quickly check the VIN of the car, and what version of software was on the car the last time I was able to connect.

which you can also check by opening the settings menu on the car screen itself with a couple of clicks or, if you need just the VIN, the driver side door of the car (just like any other car). So, as the parent comment said, using app for this is just a remote convenience function.

There are plenty of other places where you can check your VIN number too, like the insurance card (which you are supposed to have on you at all times while you drive btw)/website or your vehicle registration paper.


Yeesh. It's fine for us to admit that things sometimes have flaws which could be improved.

The app not opening without network connectivity just seems like one of those, we can acknowledge that without conceding the whole concept and/or ecosystem.


It isn't the ecosystem, you are not conceding anything.

The app is just an additional extra service, it isn't crucial for anything. All of those things you listed that are affected by the app not working can be looked up the exact same way they could be looked up on any other car, no app needed.

I agree with you overall though, it could be improved, but I am struggling to think of a better solution to this that they could implement, aside from caching the vin number and the software version on the client (which i totally agree with, would be a good solution for that specific issue). The rest of the functions like remote controlling the car from the app obviously won't work with that approach, but that's not a trivial problem to solve (if possible at all), and their current solution seems to be very reasonable (talking about them refreshing certs in the background once in a while).


The app clearly does cache a ton of information locally already. The "must call out to the network" thing is pretty clearly just to simplify the design of the app so they don't have to worry about conditions where the app hasn't authenticated itself and grabbed the latest information from Tesla.


Right, but when I'm filling out an insurance form, I'm usually not in my car, so the settings screen in the car is even less useful than the app. The website does totally work, but then again that also requires an Internet connection so...

Again, there are ways to deal with this stuff, but my point is just that the app is helpful in more ways than just remote control of the car.




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