The articles seemed strange to me, in that they were composed of info taken from social media sites without actually talking to anybody.  They also jumped to weird conclusions, like "somebody in South Korea tweeted about this, therefore it's a worldwide problem".

I was curious about this and a little suspicious of the article, so I posted the article and a question to Tesla owners in another forum I read, as to whether having the server down would actually prevent you from being able to drive your car, or if it was just misinformation... and this was the reply:

There's some definite misinformation here. Here's the way the car works in the absence of keys:

1. You have an NFC credit card device linked to your car. Like a transit card. I touch this to an area on my car and it unlocks. Functionally this is like a key.

2. You can link 1 or more phones to your car via bluetooth. When they are in proximity to the car it will unlock when you grab a handle. It will also come out of sleep, mirrors open, etc. When you leave proximity, the car auto locks (and a quick horn beep).

3. You can "remote start" the car. Your friend is standing beside your car with no keycard or phone, and needs to drive it. I can do this from anywhere I have a cell connection, and the car is also connected.

4. Tesla does sell a fob that functions similarly to #2 if you have an old phone that doesn't support the right BT level. This is rare but some people bought them.

1 and 2 work without Tesla's server infrastructure. They have to. I park in a deep parkade with no cell service.

My family uses #2 all the time. It works 99% of the time now, my wife had some issues on her older phone a few years ago but not anymore. I also carry the credit card in my wallet just in case. A dead phone battery would be a problem.