We’re at the beginning of a ‘connected car’ era and it’s starting to look like a sci-fi thriller. Imagine being in your car and the side mirror mysteriously adjusts itself, the sunroof opens on its own or even scarier, the car suddenly brakes without reason. That’s what a group of Chinese security researchers from Tencent’s Keen Security Lab discovered they could do with a Tesla Model S.
While there have been past cases of Tesla hacking, this is the first time it’s been done remote
This type of thing is expected with any new technology as people get itchy fingers and prod the system to find holes. Even computers get hacked all the time. But thankfully, this hacking was done by a team of security researchers to highlight vulnerabilities.
The researchers had documented their hack and notified Tesla of it to give the company time to rectify this weakness before going public. The car maker promptly fixed this with an over-the-air software patch. According to Tesla, this remote hack only happened in a very specific circumstance i.e. when the car was connected to a malicious WiFi network and the in-car web browser is in use, and that this security risk is low, in reality. On the positive side, this type of exposure only serves to strengthen the software that control’s the car’s vital functions and make them less vulnerable.
Nevertheless, Tesla is planning to reward the researchers under the company’s bug bounty program, for helping it uncover software problems; this is a common practice in the technology sector but a first in automotive. An uncovered bug is worth US$10,000 to Tesla so (responsible) hacking pays.
Watch the video below to see how the researchers did it:
Keyword: Tesla Model S Hacked Remotely