The keyfob can still be used by holding it to the door like the NFC card, even if the battery is dead.

Yeah, this is industry standard stuff. Nissan keys act the same way.

I have been locked out of my car before. I would be very pleased with the service where remote unlocking is as easy as calling a phone number and convincing the operator that you're the owner. Of course, that comes with one important condition: Tesla would have to be the one who absorbed the risk that the authentication was false and the car gets stolen.

> Tesla would have to be the one who absorbed the risk that the authentication was false and the car gets stolen.

Couldn't they just claim that "someone stole your identity" because that seems to works for banks and similar institutions?

Except that this clearly doesn’t work for banks, as they foot the bill when such things happen.

A lot of times they kick that financial responsibility down to the merchant.

> I'm surprised remote unlocking is as easy as calling a number and convincing an operator that you're the owner

I've consulted on on stolen luxury vehicle cases and I can tell you this isn't unique to Tesla. If you know what to say and can say it convincingly you can locate, disable, and unlock a higher end car pretty easily.

> I'm surprised remote unlocking is as easy as calling a number and convincing an operator that you're the owner. Another reason to avoid the brand, I suppose.

You probably want to avoid cars altogether if this bothers you. For basically all cars, there are far easier and less time consuming methods to unlock the doors.

Reminds me (strongly) of a scene in die hard 4.

https://youtu.be/2830e75aAOk