Tesla App Failure Locks Owners Out of Cars

Elon Musk shrugs
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Following problems with Tesla’s car app, many owners found themselves “locked out” of their vehicles. Although Tesla offers key fobs and cards for its vehicles, many owners are in the habit of accessing their vehicle only using the smartphone app instead of carrying the physical key.

The Next Web recently reported that many Tesla owners use a smartphone app to gain entry to their Model 3 vehicles. This is usually a convenient and interesting way to gain access to your car — until the app suddenly stops working and you’re unable to drive to work. Due to recent problems with Tesla’s phone app, a number of owners were unable to gain entry to their vehicles and took to Twitter to express their frustrations:

Gizmodo spoke with a Tesla representative who clarified that the app was temporarily unavailable this week but full functionality would be restored soon. Tweets from affected users appear to show that the app was down for approximately three hours. Tesla confirmed that owners were still able to access their vehicles with a physical key fob or key cards which the company encourages owners to carry with them in case of app failure.

The company’s other online services have faced issues recently, such as the company’s new insurance program. Tesla vehicles are often more expensive to insure than regular cars, as a result, Tesla has introduced its own insurance product simply called Tesla Insurance. Tesla stated that the program was designed to give customers a discount of as much as 30 percent allegedly made possible by Tesla’s greater understanding of its vehicles safety features and repair costs.

Maryann Keller, the principal at consulting firm MK&A, commented on Elon Musk’s insurance business stating: “A very high percentage of Tesla owners have another car, and this insurance will not cover the other car if it’s a brand other than Tesla. In the grand scheme of their overall insurance planning, is this going to be worthwhile?” Currently, it is not possible to insure a Tesla vehicle and a non-Tesla vehicle together on the same Tesla Insurance policy.

But, just hours after the launch of the new system, sales were stopped by the company stating that an “algorithm update” was needed. The official company Twitter account stated in a tweet posted just four hours after the new Tesla Insurance program went live: “We’re making some updates to Tesla Insurance and will be back online shortly.” The firm added: “Algorithm update in progress.”

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or email him at lnolan@breitbart.com

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