Two Teslas, much alike in appearance, drivers get into the wrong car and drive away!

[thewayne]

This is amazing. Tesla has wireless entry through their smartphone app, or you can wave a bar code under a scanner built in to the driver's mirror. They might also have a fob, I'm not sure. Anyway, Driver A walks up to Car B, it unlocks and starts for him. And he drives off. Then he notices a huge crack in the windshield and his phone charging cable isn't there!

Driver B walks up to Car A, it unlocks and lets him start it. He drives off, notices the crack in his windshield isn't there and there's other stuff in his car that he didn't recognize!

Fortunately Driver B found a piece of paper with A's name and phone number, called him, and eventually they got together, exchanged cars, and had a laugh and lots of puzzlement. They contacted the police who said 'no harm, no foul' and to go away.

But guess what. Now that this flaw is known, every criminal hacker is going to be probing for how to exploit it. And they will succeed.

The ridiculous thing about this is that it was so easily preventable. Presumably Tesla has some sort of an encrypted key exchange going on to try to prevent it, and clearly failed. All they had to do was add the VIN to their secret key and you'd be largely guaranteed that only people whom you wanted to have access to your car would be able to unlock it and drive it.

I sent this article to a friend who had one of the first generation Tesla Roadsters, back before the Muskbrat turfed the inventors. He sold it after I told him about a serious flaw that was threatening all Teslas, which would cost him probably $4,000 or more to remedy. He bought a maxxed-out Toyota Avalon Hybrid, which he absolutely loves. It has a very interesting security feature: lock the door with a key, and the wireless remote won't work!

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/canadian-motorist-unknowingly-opens-wrong-tesla-allowed-drive-away-rcna74872

Comments

[disneydream06]

WOW, every times you turn around, there seems to be another problem with Teslas. :o :o :o
I "love" the fact that the steering wheel just comes off while you are driving. :o :o :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Someone else, I think it was Nissan, just had a recall for a similar problem: the steering wheel nut not being properly tightened or torqued. Tesla further screwed the pooch with a previous steering wheel that was much smaller and rectangular.  It made navigating parking lots and restricted spaces like that a huge challenge for those cars!  A lot of people went to junk yards and bought full-sized steering wheels from totaled cars and replaced their own.

[disneydream06]

A small rectangle steering wheel?
That sounds horrible. :o

[thewayne]

Yeah, I think it's similar to the style used by top fuel dragsters, the ones that do the quarter mile runs with the humongoid tires on the back?  Ludicrously impractical for a street car.  The dragsters only need limited steering - when they are turned around, pit crew just picks up the front of the dragster and pivots it. And belated Happy Birthday, Jon!  I hope you had some fun.

[disneydream06]

Thank you so much.
I did some retail therapy and spent money like I had it.
And thinking about more. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thewayne]

I dropped $2500 last week on new hearing aids, and am doing another $900 to replace my car stereo in advance of a drive up to Salt Lake City.  I was going to replace it anyway.

[disneydream06]

WOWZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I thought I spent money. lol.....

[thewayne]

It got worse Saturday.  Had to order a replacement computer to the tune of $2600.  Fortunately I had $200 in points on my credit card, that cut the sting of it a bit.

[disneydream06]

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thewayne]

Yeah, not pleasant.  And it'll be a couple of weeks to get here.  It is one heck of a rig and I should get a lot of years out of it, plus it's further expandable, upgradeable if I choose to do so.  It'll definitely be the most powerful rig that I will have ever owned.

[disneydream06]

WOW........

[thewayne]

And here's the really cool part: it's water-cooled!

[disneydream06]

Water cooled?
How does that work? :o

[thewayne]

The CPU normally has a heat sink and fan to remove excess heat from it.  With a water-cooled system, a block is mounted atop the CPU with hoses or pipes and it literally cools the CPU with water!  Water circulates, moves the heat away from the CPU, and I guess there's a reservoir and heat sinks to cool down the water.

[disneydream06]

To somebody like me, that is a really wild concept. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

It's pretty wild, period.  The process of water-cooling CPUs has been around for ages and gotten progressively better.  This is the first time that I'll have one, though I think some friends have tried it with varying levels of success.  Since I'm buying this computer from a store and not building it myself, I have support and a warranty if there are any problems.!

[disneydream06]

YAY for warrantees. :)

[mtbc]

That's quite a screw-up on their part.

Admittedly I wasn't thrilled to discover with my old Subaru that if I lock it with the fob then unlock with the key then the alarm sounds.

[thewayne]

A lot of cars do that.  And it makes sense: the fob disables the security system.  My Subaru is a level up with an engine immobilizer added.  Do it right, or the car ain't going anywhere!

[mtbc]

It makes sense if one has the correct mental model, at least: if you were thinking fob and key simply both lock and unlock then, at best, it's a puzzling surprise for which no explanation readily offers itself! It'd probably help if the state of the security system were more obvious.

[felisdemens]

I am SO GLAD J got over his Tesla enthusiasm in the early days. Yeeeeesh.

[thewayne]

The two things that really turned me off about Teslas, aside from their price being out of reach, first was the speed.  They kept hyping how fast they were, and the amazing 0-60 times.  I do not want that!  I almost never go over 80, speed is not a factor as all cars are fast and quick enough for my needs - I want range.  Which granted, Teslas had pretty good range.  The other is that they have horrible parts provisioning.  It's possible to get a Tesla and each door has a different window lift mechanism!  Not to mention how terrible it is to get them repaired after an accident, even if it's just body work.  And the windshield price!  Ho, you don't want to know!  It's one of the most expensive windshields out there!

[felisdemens]

Oh yeah. There are a number of levels on which I am glad we never got involved with them!

[thewayne]

Volkswagen just announced they're going to release an EV in about two years that should be priced under $30k and have a range of 280 miles.  It will be the first consumer price-friendly EV going.  It's just a concept car at this time, and I would not buy a first generation EV, but it's a promising beginning.  Oh, and it'll support quick charge!  From 10% to 80% charge in 20-30 minutes, I don't recall the exact time.

[mtbc]

I definitely want good acceleration/deceleration and good handling in fast turns, exactly for crash avoidance: when idiots do things that threaten my safety, more performance makes rather more paths through spacetime available to me for evasion!

(Not buying a Tesla though. (-:)

[thewayne]

I agree with you re accel/decel, but you don't need a 3 second 0-60 for that IMO.  My Subaru's acceleration is sufficient, I find - at least for me.

[silveradept]

Sounds like an easy way for a Tesla owner (or even renter), to get themselves into anyone else's Tesla with the use of the app. Boy, Elon looks pretty stupid at this point, doesn't he?

[thewayne]

While the Muskbrat may not be an idiot, I think he is too much of the opinion that "I'm rich, ergo I am super-smart!" when all of his seed money came from the family mines.  He started rich and became richer.  It's like the saying that it's easier to turn a million dollars into two million than one dollar into a million, even though the amount of increase is the same.

[silveradept]

It is easier to turn one million into two, the rules are different at that point to make it easier to keep accumulating wealth. Of course, being able to turn riches into more riches does leave a lot of people believing they are smarter at other things as well, and that usually turns out poorly for anyone who has that assumption tested and doesn't have insulation between them and the products.