Okay, thanks, that makes a bit more sense, but also still the wrong way to handle this. It should work like SSH where the car accepts certain (digital) keys that can be revoked...
I was thinking the car would contain the set of acceptable keys. If you get a new phone, the car accepts the new phone's key. If you loose that phone, you set the car to stop accepting that key.
Imagine a scenario where you realize you've lost your phone, but you don't have physical access to the car to remove the phone as a key.
For example, you've parked your car in long term parking at an airport, then accidentally leave your phone in the airport bathroom and didn't realize it until you were already on the plane. Whoever finds your phone can now steal your car. If you want to use someone else's device to disable your phone's key remotely, the car needs to be able to connect to the Internet to sync the list of authorized keys.
I don't see how this is more risky than traditional car keys. You've parked your car in the airport parking lot, then accidentally leave your keys in the airport bathroom. Whoever finds your keys can now steal your car.
That's not to say that this isn't a problem, but if the only way to fix it is to make access to your car dependent on Tesla's servers, that does not seem like a good trade-off. Especially since if the app can randomly stop working one day, car owners basically required to carry their keys too as a backup, and as discussed, those cannot be revoked.
I don't own a Tesla, but I hope that you have to unlock your phone to be able to unlock your car? If you left your phone in the bathroom...it should be locked. If it's not locked, then you're going to have bigger issues like someone having access to your e-mail and ability to reset bank passwords, etc...
Additionally, if you can disable your phone key remotely using someone else's phone...technically, a hacker who has phished your credentials can also disable your phone key? Scary.
> I hope that you have to unlock your phone to be able to unlock your car?
Nope.
Is that really any different from someone finding your car keys? These days, with every car including a remote, if someone did find your key fob, they could press the panic button on it as they strolled around the parking lot to easily find your car. At least with the Tesla phone key, they'd still have to walk around and try to open up every Tesla on the lot, unless they were able to unlock your phone.
It's not that different. But for a company that's trying to be better than a traditional car, maybe it should be? If you need to unlock your phone before unlocking your car, then you don't need to be able to revoke your key remotely.
