Hardware requirements
The hardware list is short. That is the point.
0
Hardware to buy from us
1
Shop phone per car-mover
5
Drivers Tesla allows per vehicle
3
Bluetooth keys live per car
The full list
Four things, three of which you already have.
Each row is one job. Nothing here is sold by us, and nothing is proprietary.
- Hardware, by job
Counter device — any browser
Runs PorterKey: check-in, Today board, hand-back. iPad, phone, or desktop.
Whatever the counter already has
Shop phone — Tesla app, one shop account
The physical key. Accepts driver invitations and unlocks or drives the specific car it is standing next to, over Bluetooth.
One per person moving cars at the same time
Owner's key card
The no-digital fallback. Tap the reader, short drive-away window, no phone or app involved.
Comes with the car
Printed QR kit
Counter card, window sign, table tent, key tags. The owner authorizes from their own phone.
Prints from the app on paper you have
The phone math
Phones scale with movers, not with cars.
This is the part vendors get wrong, so here it is precisely.
- Tesla allows up to five drivers per vehicle, added from the owner’s Tesla app. The shop account occupies one of those seats for the visit.
- One shop account can be an added driver on many customer cars at once — Tesla does not publish a limit on vehicles per account.
- A Tesla holds up to 19 keys total, at most 4 fobs, and speaks to at most 3 Bluetooth key devices at a time.
- A phone key works over short-range Bluetooth. It unlocks and drives the car it is physically next to — never a car across the lot, never a car across town.
- So the number of shop phones tracks how many cars move at the same moment. Most shops: one. A high-volume collision floor: two.
- Removing the shop’s access at the car takes effect immediately. Revoking it remotely from the owner’s Tesla account page can take a couple of hours to sync — Tesla’s number, not ours.
The question we get
No, a cloud phone cannot drive a car. Good.
We are sometimes asked to host “virtual phones” so a shop can skip the phone entirely. The honest answer is that physics forbids it, and you should distrust any vendor who claims otherwise. A Tesla phone key is a short-range Bluetooth credential — the phone must be at the car. That proximity requirement is not a limitation of GuestLot; it is the reason a stolen login on the other side of the world cannot drive your customer’s car off your lot.
- What needs no phone at all: our server side. Unlock, lot-watch alerts, access revocation, and remote start where the owner has enabled Keyless Driving all run as signed API commands.
- What the phone is for: the last fifty feet. A human walking to a car, unlocking it, and moving it — with the record of that movement landing in the visit log.
- We will not simulate phone keys in a data center, and we publish that refusal here so you can hold us to it.
- We do not promise remote driving, remote Service Mode, or remote key-card wipes. Tesla’s platform does not offer them — the full list is on security and limits.
Questions
Hardware questions, answered plainly
Do we have to buy an iPad?
No. PorterKey runs in any modern browser — the iPad at the counter, a phone in a tech's pocket, the desktop in the office. If you already have a device at the counter, you have the counter device.
Does every advisor need the Tesla app?
No. Advisors use PorterKey with their own GuestLot logins — unlimited, no Tesla account involved. The Tesla app matters on exactly one device: the shop phone that physically walks to cars, signed into one shop Tesla account.
How many shop phones do we need?
One per person moving cars at the same moment — not one per car, and not one per account. A Tesla phone key works over Bluetooth and only works standing at the car, so the number of phones should track simultaneous car movements. Most shops run one; a busy collision shop might run two.
Can one shop phone hold keys to many Teslas?
Yes. Tesla caps drivers per vehicle at five, but does not publish a limit on how many vehicles one account can be an added driver on. One shop account on one phone can hold invitations from every customer car currently on your lot; the Bluetooth key still only operates the car the phone is standing next to.
Can GuestLot host a virtual phone for us, so we skip the shop phone?
No, and nobody honest can. A Tesla phone key works over short-range Bluetooth — the phone has to be physically at the car, which is exactly why it is safe. A phone in a data center can never unlock or drive a car. What needs no phone at all is the server side: unlocking, alerts, revocation, and remote start where the owner has enabled Keyless Driving all run as signed API commands from our backend.
What if the owner declines everything digital?
Then it works the way your shop works today: the owner's key card. Tap it at the reader, and the car allows a short drive-away window — the same mechanism Tesla uses for its own keyless start. GuestLot still records check-in, custody, and hand-back; the telemetry lines read not recorded.
If you own a browser, you own the hardware.
Fourteen days, no card. Set up the location in about ten minutes on whatever device is already at your counter.