The Tesla app outage caused some drivers to be locked out of their cars

The issue is due to a server issue affecting Tesla users distributed across multiple regions.

Image: Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)

High-tech automakers like Tesla let drivers experience today's future with a feature that frees them from the tedious, indecent shackles of physical car keys and instead opens their wings through the modern simplicity and ease of use of phone apps. But as with all application-based features, the key is only as reliable as the server it hosts.

The BBC noted that this is a bitter lesson for Global Tesla owners from Florida to South Korea, who reported a server issue that interfered with their phone app's ability to unlock vehicles. At least some of these customers apparently couldn't use their key cards and reported that they were completely locked out of their cars.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in response to a user encountering an error with the app on Twitter that the company "may have inadvertently increased the length of network traffic" and then apologized for the disruption. Tesla did not immediately respond to Gizmodo's request for more details on the issue.

About 500 users reported errors in the Tesla app on The Down Detector, a blackout tracking site on Friday, but it's unclear how many of them used the app to access their vehicles, the Guardian reported. The incident came more than a month ago when another driver told the gruesome story of his Tesla bricking in the middle of a six-lane highway.

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While Tesla drivers can also access their vehicles through key cards, some critics, such as Birmingham Business School professor and Tesla driver David Bailey, claim that users are locked in part because Tesla pushes users to use its apps and other technologies.

"It [Tesla] encourages its customers to use the cutting-edge technology it creates, but sometimes it goes wrong," Bailey told the BBC. "While of course you can also open a car with a key, the instinct of many Tesla drivers who buy one of the most high-tech models on the market is to rely on the technology."

Major software glitches have become a major problem for Tesla and other cars with increasing technology convergence, and may herald a larger trend of increasingly interconnected industries and acceptance of over-the-air updates.

Earlier this year, Tesla was forced to recall 249,855 Model 3 sedans and Model Y compact crossovers and 35,665 imported Model 3 cars in China due to a software failure that accidentally activated and accelerated its cruise control system. Recently, a glitch involved the use of automakers that caused accidental braking caused by Tesla's public beta test of all self-driving vehicles led by a recall of 11,704 vehicles in the United States. In both cases, the fault is resolved quickly with a wireless update, eliminating the need for the driver to send the vehicle for repair.

Regulators are also investigating other potential software issues. As early as 8 of this year, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Investigation was launched in August when Tesla's Autopilot driver assistance function returned to the following collision with an emergency vehicle spit out. Investigators, meanwhile, are currently investigating a crash report, which, if confirmed, could be the first time Tesla has confirmed a serious crash caused by a fully autonomous driving feature.

The shutdown fiasco adds to the already growing list of errors and reliability issues that Tesla owners have to endure. Just last week, Tesla ranked 27th in Consumer Reports' most recent reliability report, 27th out of 28 companies, just behind Lincoln, and yes, it still exists. The report is much the same as Tesla's, which also ranked last in JD Power's 2020 initial quality study. Tesla owners in the study reported reporting 250 problems per 100 vehicles in the first 90 days of ownership.

To be fair, these problems are not all glitches per se, but a combination of software and hardware problems. However, when considering buying an electric car, the designation is unlikely to have much of an impact on the average driver weighing reliability issues. And these questions are important. According to another JD Power report, quality and reliability are the two most important factors for buyers in a quality EV ownership experience.

In addition to software issues, electric vehicles have so far struggled with reliability issues, even though they have fewer moving parts than the average internal combustion engine, and Jack Fisher, senior director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports, told Forbes that this may be resolved over time as automakers become more experienced. "We're going to see some growing pain," Fisher said.