Tesla drivers have been reporting that they were locked out of their electric vehicles as a result of a Tesla outage in the company's app.

Several owners reported receiving an error message on the smartphone app that prevented them from connecting to their cars.

Elon Musk, the CEO and founder of Tesla Inc, announced on Friday, November 19, that the company's mobile Tesla app will be returning to service after a server outage earlier this week, which prevented many Tesla owners from connecting to their vehicles.

Tesla outage update

Musk was reacting to a tweet from a Tesla owner in Seoul, South Korea, who reported he was having trouble connecting his Model 3 to the iOS app due to a "500 server problem."

The famous billionaire then replied, "Should be coming back online now. Looks like we may have accidentally increased verbosity of network traffic".

However, at roughly 4:40 p.m., about 500 individuals reported issues.

According to Reuters, DownDetector an outage tracking website that records outages by compiling status updates from a variety of sources, including user-submitted faults on its platform, said that the issue started ay around 4:40 p.m. ET (2:40 p.m. GMT). 

By 9:20 p.m. ET, there were little over 60 reports.

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Tesla App: Locked on Electric Vehicles

Musk said the Tesla app outage that caused hundreds of drivers to be locked out of their cars has been addressed.

Tesla's smartphone app is an essential component of the Tesla ownership experience.

The owners can use their phones as a key to unlock and start their vehicles, and the mobile app gives them access to a variety of functions.

As reported by the Insider, Tesla users in the United States and Canada are currently facing a complete app connection outage, leaving them unable to start their electric vehicles.

Tesla EV owners should be able to use their phones as a key over the Bluetooth connection if they don't disconnect from the app. However, for safety purposes and for times like this, it is still advisable for owners to keep the keycard with them or key fob if they have one.

This disruption occured just days after Tesla released a fresh upgrade to its mobile app.

It offered additional tools for owners, as well as a slew of new options for purchasers to manage the buying and delivery process.

Cause of Tesla Outage

Tesla has been encountering difficulty with these new features for buyers who integrate into their own system, according to Electrek.

Tesla's app server went down completely across the country shortly after that. However, It's unclear whether the update is connected to the new outage.

Furthermore, Tesla did not release any official statement regarding the Tesla app outage, Even if it holds significance to Tesla customers since most Tesla owners use the mobile app to unlock and enter their cars instead of carrying the key.  

Users of the Tesla Model 3 can also unlock their vehicle using "phone-as-key" technology, which links to the car via Bluetooth.

Owners should be able to access this service even if the app is unavailable.

Although outages of Tesla's systems are uncommon, there have been notable incidents in the past.

This Tesla outage isn't the first time Tesla experienced a service error. In the past, Tesla's systems have encountered issues. Customers stated that when the app ceased working in 2019, they were left "stranded."

Furthermore, Tesla's network appeared to be down for a brief period last September, forcing some customers to rely on their physical keys.

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