Tesla Model S prone to password hacking?

Mon, 31 Mar 2014

As more and more technology gets crammed into our automobiles, replacing once simple mechanical systems with electronics and other such wizardry, hackers and people much smarter than ourselves are finding more and more ways to exploit them. The latest such case comes from a man named Nitesh Dhanjani, who has reportedly managed to send wireless codes over the internet to the Tesla Model S that can unlock the car's doors.

According to an article from Reuters, the six-digit passcode required to gain entry into Tesla's electric sedan isn't the only flaw in the car's security Dhanjani – himself a Tesla Model S owner – has found. That said, the car's electronic key fob is still required to start and drive the vehicle, meaning thieves would only have the ability to steal things left inside the car and wouldn't actually be able to operate it or drive it away.

"It's a big issue where a $100,000 car should be relying on a six-character static password," said Dhanjani, who has shared his findings with Tesla.

We agree, sort of. While we certainly don't like the idea of unlocking anyone's automobile for nefarious means, nobody can deny that thieves and other not-so-pleasant people have been breaking into and stealing cars ever since their invention. Ford has used manual-entry keypad entry systems for decades, remote access keys have been hacked in the past, and, of course, the old-fashioned brick-through-the-window approach happens more times every day than we'd like to think about...

Still, this potential security flaw is worth investigating, especially, we'd imagine, to current and future Tesla owners. We've reached out to Tesla for comment and will update this story if and when we hear back.

By Jeremy Korzeniewski