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> Waking up the car The native Tesla mobile application wakes the car by sending an SMS to the internal SIM card number. This number is registered in the Tesla database. When using a custom external SIM, you must manually send an SMS (with arbitrary text) to your SIM number. Any SMS will wake up the car, and it will be available via the Tesla mobile app. Don’t forget to unsubscribe your SIM from any newsletters to avoid false wakeups and extra power drain.

Wow..



Does it mean that if internal DB of internal numbers will be leaked anytime in the future, it will give to anyone power to wake up all Tesla cars in a few clicks?


Certainly sounds like it.


Does this mean spam sms could be waking up my car even without a sim swap?


If they did it right, these would be setup with their own range of numbers that can't be routed from anywhere outside of their carrier and servers.

Cell companies have a word for a setup like this but it escapes me.


Closed User Group (CUG)?


That's it!


Tesla has a custom APN


APN does not influence SMS (nor phone number routing) though.


I think about this every time my car is slow to wake or doesn’t wake when in a spot with poor signal, it’s SMS fuckery.

Regardless of all their problems now, decisions like this that made Tesla successful. Need a low power always on way to send the car a signal to wake from a mobile device? Don’t invent and build some complicated hardware and protocol, just use SMS and a small cell phone board.




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