Pwn2Own is upon us again, and Tesla gave away a Model 3 for being hacked twice!

[thewayne]

Tesla is a sponsor this year and gamely threw their hat/car into the ring. And were hacked twice by the same team of security researchers.

The first hack involved the charging system, and enabled them to open the doors and the frunk (front trunk). They were awarded the car for this particular hack. The second hack was through the infotainment system. Either hack was enough to render the car unsafe.

One of the key elements of this competition is the teams reveal all their hacking techniques for this attack to the system owners so they can improve the security of their systems. And the teams are pretty well compensated for their work.

This is nothing new with Tesla, their cars have been hacked before, and I just posted the article about the two guys parking side by side and driving away with each other's cars.

https://gizmodo.com/tesla-hack-hackers-model-3-elon-musk-hackathon-1850263319

Comments

[disneydream06]

Oh please, let my buy a Tesla.
NOT...
Give me a less technical vehicle any day. :o
Power steering/brakes, CD player, AC/Heater and I am pretty good. LOL.......
Hugs, Jon

[mtbc]

Simplicity sure has its virtues, especially in an age where production software bugs surprise nobody.

[disneydream06]

Amen. :)

[thewayne]

If someone were to give me a Tesla, I would drive it to experience it, then I'd sell it.  I read an interesting road test article comparing the Tesla Model Y, and a BMW and Mercedes at similar price points.  And it had repeated comments about terrible fit and finish of the Tesla and the utter barrenness of the interior.  You're spending $60k more or less and could be in the Mercedes with much better polish and construction.  The Y was better on a couple of points, such as speed and range, but that was about it. Tesla had the EV market pretty much to themselves for several years, and haven't done a thing to improve their products.  Now other companies are going to eat their lunch.

[disneydream06]

I get the feeling that Musk could care less as long as the money keeps flowing in. :o

[thewayne]

Pretty much.

[silveradept]

Well worth the bounties, I suspect. And I wonder what you can do with Teslas now that they're popular enough to be targeted.

I'm also waiting for the first set of mods for EVs and other cars so that you can run something other than the manufacturer's software on your systems and therefore have a chance of keeping them properly patched.

[thewayne]

Good points.  I believe Volkswagen announced that they're going to keep their cars patched for 15 years.  While that won't cover all cars on the road, I would imagine that only 5-10% will be on the road after 15 years.  Myself, especially with EVs, I'd definitely leave that to the manufacturer to patch.  While I appreciate the concept of FOSS, the reality is that 99% of the people out there - me included, and I am an IT professional and programmer - cannot evaluate source code for validation.

[silveradept]

There is that part. I'm expecting car patches to be for about as long as phone patches, with the same thoughts about buying new ones to upgrade them and keep them patched, rather than buy and hold until the wheels fall off. If car manufacturers are willing to keep the cars patched for the length that some of them will be driven for, them there won't need to be a thriving scene. I don't expect them to, so I'm betting there will be alternative firmwares available eventually for cars that are still on the road but have been abandoned by their manufacturers.

[thewayne]

There is some talk that car makers will stop SELLING EVs and will instead lease them to people.  The points being newer tech, and the ability of the car maker to recover costs from salvaging the battery.  Hard to say where things will go.