A Tesla owner unknowingly unlocked someone else’s Tesla in a parking lot last week and the app allowed him to drive it, with the incident stirring concerns about technical malfunctions in Elon Musk’s electric vehicles.
Earlier this month Rajesh Randev, an immigration consultant, got in someone else’s white Tesla Model 3 mistaking it for his own while in a rush to pick up his children from school.
After 15 minutes of driving, Randev realized something was wrong – noticing a crack in the windshield that hadn’t been there before and failing to find his phone charge, which he kept in the center console.
A message reading: “Do you drive a Tesla?” then came through from an unknown number on his phone, followed by: “I think [you’re] driving the wrong car,” after Randev asked who was messaging him.
Notably, the glitch worked in the opposite direction, with the other Tesla driver involved in the mixup able to unlock Randev’s parked car using his Tesla key card, according to a report by the Washington Post.
He then managed to find Randev’s phone number in the car and text him.
Tesla Mixup Stirs Safety Concerns
The incident left Randev concerned about the security of his own Tesla, he said to The Washington Post, noting that he hasn’t received any replies from the manufacturer after reporting the incident to the company.
“It’s such an expensive technology,” Randev said. “More than $70,000 to get this car. And my family is not feeling safe right now.”
Randev, after asking the other Tesla owner for permission to use his car to pick up his children, was able to drive the Tesla for about 90 minutes to pick up his kids before returning it.
While Randev shared a laugh with the other Tesla owner as they returned each other’s cars and talked about the strange incident, he mentioned that bad actors could potentially take advantage of the flaw. He said:
“If just a normal person was able to get access [to someone else’s car] due to malfunction or software or whatever reason… the hackers can do anything, right?”
Tesla has been under increasing scrutiny over technical malfunctions in recent times.
The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has launched a new probe into Tesla after complaints that steering wheels have fallen off some of the cars while driving.
Furthermore, Tesla recalled more than 360,000 vehicles over crash risks associated with its Full Self-Driving Beta software earlier this year.
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