How to add a driver to your Tesla and share access without handing over your key

If more than one person in your household is going to drive the Tesla, you don’t need to share a single phone key or key card. The Tesla app lets you add other people as their own drivers, each with a phone key and access tied to their own account.

How to add someone

Per Tesla’s support page, from the Tesla app: open the app, select your vehicle, tap Security & Drivers, tap Manage Drivers, and follow the prompts to send an invitation. You can add up to five drivers per vehicle.

The person you’re adding needs their own Tesla Account and needs to have downloaded the Tesla app before you can add their profile — you can’t just hand someone your login. Tesla also recommends both the owner and the new driver keep the app updated to its latest version for the feature to work correctly.

What an added driver can and can’t do

Added drivers get vehicle access through their own phone key, plus service scheduling and history, in-app messages, roadside assistance, and the car’s location. What they don’t get: the ability to add or remove other drivers, manage payment methods on the account, purchase upgrades, view charging history, or see insurance information. In other words, someone you add can drive the car and deal with a service visit, but they can’t rack up charges on your card or start inviting more drivers themselves.

Why this beats sharing one key

A shared physical key card or a single phone key logged into everyone’s phone works, but it means anyone with it has the same access as you — and if you ever need to cut someone off, you’re stuck re-keying instead of just removing them from the app. Adding drivers individually means each person’s access is separate, and pulling it is a two-tap process in Manage Drivers rather than a physical key swap. It’s worth setting up in your first week of ownership, before you’re relying on it in a hurry.

Photo by Erik Mclean.