iphone x & tesla bluetooth issues

Question

iphone x & tesla bluetooth issues

my iphone x is paired with my Tesla model S (2016 model).

Music plays just fine and I can hear my calls perfectly fine but people complain that I sound distorted when I am speaking via bluetooth in the car. Both while the car is stationary and moving.

I have now tried calls in the same car with:

iPhone 7S Plus : works great

Pixel 2 XL : works great

my new beloved iPhone X: does not work - everyone complains of distorted sounding speech

I got a new iPhone because the old one had some issues from the apple store: this one also has the same distortion problem on talking into the car bluetooth

To be doubly sure, I tried pairing the same set of phones with a loaner tesla and can confirm that the problem only exists with the iPhone X.

I've been trying my best to debug this and provide some helpful data for a fix.

Can someone from apple please advice that you are aware of this issue and there will be a software fix for this issue at some point?

Thanks,

Kiran

iPhone X, iOS 11.2.2

Posted on Jan 18, 2018 9:33 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

KingofMac

Level 1

14 points

Feb 25, 2018 10:37 AM in response to ctf2

I found the issue. Apparently, if I have my Apple Watch connected to my iPhone X and make or receive a call, my voice sounds robotic to the listener on the other end in my Tesla X - their voice sounds fine. BUT, if I put my Apple Watch in Airplane mode, then the call sounds fine on their end as well. There is something up with the iPhone and Apple Watch that interferes with my Tesla Bluetooth call quality. I am not sure if this is an iPhone X specific issue, or this also happens with an iPhone 7 connected to the Apple Watch.

Apple should look into this issue and try and solve it.

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Answer 2

Jan 19, 2018 8:26 AM in response to skewler

This is exactly the same issue I am facing. Tesla also kindly replaced my mic to make doubly sure but that didn’t solve the problem.

I’ve since tried adding additional friends iPhone xs to my car to check if the problem exists on all iPhone xs and can confirm this to be true

After a lot of reading online I began to assume that this is because of electromagnetic interference inside Tesla’s due to the large amount of battery surface area - the only way to confirm this is by testing in other evs and in non evs.

Recently, I have tested this in a Chevy bolt which has the same issue with just the iPhone X and with a non ev car the Volvo suv and the problem exists only with iPhone X

Hope this helps and reduces frustration for people.

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Answer 3

Jan 19, 2018 8:44 AM in response to skewler

Apple needs to fix this issue. First, I just want them to acknowledge the issue.

Tesla has gone over and above with diagnosis and trying to identify where the issue is. Now, someone at Apple should just acknowledge that the most expensive phone they have ever built has some serious design flaws.

As someone who loves Apple I’m honestly disappointed with the level of service and general hand waving that has become a pattern with geniuses at the stores. They were unable to go deep into the issue and refused to acknowledge that the problem is with ALL their iPhone X devices!

For someone like me that’s on the phone a lot and I’m my car a lot this is a completely **** experience.

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Answer 4

Jan 19, 2018 10:39 AM in response to skewler

So what you want is a magnetic IPhone x case that limits the Tesla interference (joke ;-) ... or not)

Or put your IPhone X as high as possible when in your Tesla car ...

Does a Tesla have a sun visor ?

Anyway I hope you get a solution soon ...

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Answer 5

Jan 23, 2018 8:26 AM in response to roundfrommountain view

Count me in as someone having the same issue. My voice is garbled with my iPhone X on my Model X. My daughter's SE and my wife's 7+ are both crystal clear. Frustrating.

I emailed audio sample files to Tesla. I'll see what they say but my gut tells me this is an Apple problem...

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Answer 6

Jan 23, 2018 8:47 AM in response to Chris Brestle

More debugging on my end and I seem to have found something absurd:

Airpods and iPhone x seem to be the culprit. This is not a Tesla issue since it is happening in many cars.

Try this and let the thread here know if it worked for you:

Place airpods in the boot.

Enter car. Turn off Bluetooth on your iPhone x.

Reconnect to Tesla Bluetooth

Make a couple of calls to see if garbled distortion goes away.

It worked for me this morning but the workaround is quite stupid. Airpods cannot be in the cabin And cannot be connected.

Apple needs to fix this in a software update asap.

Hope this helps.

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Answer 7

skewler

Level 1

4 points

Jan 23, 2018 8:50 AM in response to roundfrommountain view

I am pretty sure I had the issue happen with no AirPods in the car. And I am pretty sure when I tried to originally troubleshoot with reseting the car and bluetooth connection, the AirPods weren't in the car.

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Answer 8

Jan 23, 2018 9:55 AM in response to Chris Brestle

Ok. Back to the drawing board.

Does turning Bluetooth off and reconnecting help the garbled distortion for anyone?

Essentially, we are getting to the point where the iphonex is the issue. Bluetooth on a $1200 device works worse than all the cheaper options.

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Answer 9

Jan 23, 2018 3:31 PM in response to Chris Brestle

Another update...had to take the Model X in today for an unrelated issue. Bluetooth audio is garbled in my loaner Model X as well. So it's not vehicle specific. It's either Telsa or Apple software specific. And given that it seems to only be iPhone X, I'm assuming it's Apple.

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Answer 10

jtwamley

Level 1

4 points

Jan 23, 2018 4:42 PM in response to roundfrommountain view

I have this issue as well. There is a Tesla blog that refers to it. There are actually 2 issues with the iPhone X and Tesla (I had a 2014 Model S and just got a 2017 Model S and both have the same problems:

1. My voice is distorted for people I am speaking to. The sound coming back the other way is fine.

2. The phone Bluetooth disconnects and has to reconnect approximately every 7 minutes. It takes about 30 seconds to reconnect. This occurs during phone calls and when streaming audio from the iPhone X.

Please work with Tesla to fix this problem. It only seems to happen with iPhone X interfacing to Tesla's Bluetooth. I expect that there must be a software fix but that the two companies will need to cooperate to resolve it.

Thanks!

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Answer 11

Jan 23, 2018 5:18 PM in response to jtwamley

UPDATE! Apple released an iOS update today and it seems to have fixed the garbled voice issue. I can't fully confirm as my Model X is in for service and I have a loaner, but the test call I did on the loaner seems much better than the one placed a few hours ago. Will be interesting to see over long-term usage if it has fixed it.

I'm not having the disconnect/reconnect problem so can't test that.

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Answer 12

ctf2

Level 1

4 points

Feb 3, 2018 9:09 AM in response to roundfrommountain view

Wow this is a problem. Everyone I speak to can not hear me on my iPhone X. at least let me have the option to just take calls on my airpodS Without deleting the phone completely from my car. Apple/ Tesla needs to fix this. Maybe this is one of the reasons for all the rumors about discontinuing the phone this year.

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Answer 13

Feb 7, 2018 9:06 PM in response to roundfrommountain view

Same here. Model S 100D and iPhone X...new Mic in car thanks to service center after the tech heard the distortion. Updated iPhone to latest software and it seemed to work for a day or two but now I sound garbled and distorted to my listeners though they sound fine to me. Extra frustrating to not know when the problem is occurring. I now start out every call saying let me know if I sound distorted so I can take the phone off bluetooth.

Any advice or solution appreciated.

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Answer 14

Feb 25, 2018 10:36 AM in response to roundfrommountain view

switching apple watch into airplane mode when I'm in the car fixes this issue for me 100% of the time.

It isn't an issue with AirPods as I had previously thought but definitely something to do with the apple watch, iphonex and tesla in combination.

oh well!

Hope this helps everyone and thanks for letting us know about the apple watch issue - don't know who it was that first brought that up in this forum, but, that fixed it for me.

Thanks!

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Answer 15

Mar 10, 2018 3:13 PM in response to roundfrommountain view

I also have this problem with my wife’s iPhone X trying to pair with Tesla models.

the Tesla has the latest software update.

even after resetting the Tesla screen, removing my wife’s iPhone X as a recognized device and trying to to install it again.

the iPhone shows Tesla when Bluetooth is enable but car and phone won’t pair.

I have and iPhone 7 and I have NO PROBLEMS pairing my phone.

So I doubt this is a Tesla issue and more likely an Apple issue.

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