‘Always Sunny’ Star Tesla Stuck in Garage Because No Internet

Dennis Renyolds is not a man to be trifled with, and apparently neither is the actor who portrays him, Glenn Howerton. The It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star recently told listeners of his “The Always Sunny Podcast” about a – let’s say difficult – situation he experienced with his Tesla Model X.

The “Golden God” told his podcast (and IASIP) co-stars that he was locked out of his Tesla for over 24 hours in the bottom floor of a Los Angeles parking garage after his key fob broke without warning. He originally thought perhaps a dead battery was to blame, but sadly it was not.

Howerton said he wasn’t able to connect to Wi-Fi since he and the car were so far underground. If he had been able to connect he could have used Tesla’s app to access the vehicle, but alas.

“It sent me into a rage,” Howerton said jokingly on the podcast.

Tesla’s website says that if you’re not not able to connect to the internet, you can’t connect to the car. Which, I suppose does make sense, but it could prove to be annoying in a situation just like this.

Howerton Ubered home and left the Model X in the parking garage overnight. While he was home, he was able to figure out that there were designated places on the exterior and interior of the Model X that you could place your key to gain entry and drive off.

But, not so fast! Even though Howerton was able to get into the car, but it wouldn’t start once he placed the fob in the designated spot in the interior. He said he tried this for about 20 minutes.

“Every step of the way throughout this journey, every single thing that could go wrong went wrong,” he said.

Eventually Howerton gave up on trying to get the Model X out of the garage under its own power, went back to ground level so he could get reception, and then called AAA. He then went back to the car to put it in tow mode, but the vehicle wouldn’t let him do it.

“I don’t want to derail the story, but like, fucking keys man man. What was wrong with a key?” Charlie Day asks his co-hosts. “It was a great system. You put it in the thing. You turn it, and the car went.”
So true, Charlie, so true.

The fob just refused to talk to the car.

Howerton continues his story, explaining the pitfalls he faced trying to speak with Tesla support. He claims to have been on the phone with them from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday. In fact, he says he had a hard time even getting through to Tesla support and Tesla roadside, having to contact Tesla’s sales to get him through to the right people.

“[I was] lacing into this guy, and I was like ‘you guys lost a customer today.’ I’ve been a Tesla customer for 10 years. You lost a customer today. This is fucked up,” Howerton recounted.

“He added, ‘we’d get to the end of the call and they’d go, ‘I guess there’s nothing we can do.” You can imagine why this would be puzzling for an owner.

After that back and forth, Howerton once again abandoned the car and went home. Finally, he was able to get in contact with someone who could set him up with a tow truck that would fit in the 6’6” garage while wheeling the Model X out. Around 9:30 p.m. that same day, the car was finally freed from its parking garage prison.

He’s now driving it around once again, but with a broken key. Oh, and he’s actively avoiding parking garages.