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Vancouver man claims he accidentally opened door of identical Tesla and drove for several minutes before realising error
by Chris Chilton
6 hours ago
by Chris Chilton
Many of us have walked up to to the wrong car in a parking lot at some point only to realize out mistake when the remote or keyless entry function refuses to work. And with so many Teslas now on the street and so few color and wheel choices to distinguish them, an EV like the Model 3 is a prime candidate for that kind of mixup.
But one Vancouver Tesla owner’s muddle didn’t come to light until he’d unlocked the wrong car and managed to drive several miles down the road. Immigration consultant Rajesh Randev told Canada’s Global News that the comedy of errors began when he went to get into his car and found it parked next to another Model 3 in the same color.
Randev claims he was in a hurry to pick his children up from school and managed to open the door of the wrong Tesla using his smartphone app. He climbed into the EV and drove away, only beginning to suspect something was wrong when he spotted a crack in the windshield that he didn’t remember seeing on his car before, and noticed that his phone charger wasn’t where he’d left it.
Related: Tesla’s New Hardware 4.0 System Includes A Dummy Camera
The accidental thief then received a text from a number he didn’t recognize asking if he was driving a Tesla, and urging him to get in contact. The sender, who you’ve probably guessed was the real owner of the joyriding Tesla, had apparently spied Randev’s phone number on a document he’d printed out and left on the seat of his own car which was still parked where he’d left it. Randev carried on to the school to pick up up his kids then circled back to return the car to its rightful owner.
“We were both laughing and I called the police as well,” Randev told Global News. “The police said they have my statement but they cannot give me a file number because nothing happened.” He says he has since reached out to Tesla to alert them to the problem but has not heard back. We’ve also contacted the email address that passes for a Tesla press office these days but have also yet to hear back.