Hackers Figured Out How To Unlock Costly Tesla EV Options With out Paying

In line with the report, this new exploit may additionally allow hackers to activate the $15,000 self-driving characteristic in areas the place it is locked out, although the researchers have not tried that themselves but. However for the reason that vulnerability — whereas affecting software program capabilities — is hardware-based, Tesla cannot patch it, with the researchers telling TechCrunch {that a} repair would require changing the affected {hardware}. Tesla didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s request for touch upon the exploit.

That is removed from the primary time that Teslas have been hacked, however the results are a lot further-reaching than previous exploits allowed. Previous hacks embody discovering the power to do a focused takeover of a selected Mannequin S automotive, shutting it down by way of a related laptop computer, and rooting the Mannequin 3 to run Ubuntu on it, amongst different tweaks each innocuous and malevolent. Tesla tries to control such efforts, although, as one driver came upon in 2014 when the Tesla service heart known as him after he used an exploit to put in Firefox on their Mannequin S’s dashboard shows.