I wouldn't consider this an article that of journalism...more as a TMZ-esque story. Although the event occured, they did nothing but cherry picking tweets and paste them to fill in space. The truth is that Tesla Key-app feature, although convenient (I use it all the time), it is NOT supposed to be the primary mean of accessing the vehicle. The key card and they fob are the only 2 reliable ways to properly use the vehicle. Tesla has made this very clear in the past. Even mentioned during the walkthrough at car delivery.

This is a pretty surface level piece, using tweets to fill out much of the content. Although it's an interesting story, I can't help but read it as just another of the many articles written about Tesla in a negative light, holding them to a much higher standard than any other car company.

Placing this the blame on the auto manufacturer here is incorrect. From the article: "While maintenance downtimes are normal, Tesla should’ve accounted for situations like this and ensured their vehicles were accessible to owners, downtime or not." The Tesla Owner's manual clearly states: "Caution: Always carry your key card with you in your purse or wallet to use as a backup in case your authenticated phone has a dead battery, or is lost or stolen." https://www.tesla.com/sites/default/files/model_3_owners_manual_north_america_en.pdf Perhaps a better statement is that Tesla should have a warning in their app/car about this when it notices you aren't carrying the backup method.

No real sources to substantiate the presented claims. Clearly, the situation happened; having said that, where is the information to substantiate this being a frequent occurrence?