whenTesla Motors has promised to fix any “legitimate vulnerability” after Chinese hackers reportedly discovered a flaw which allowed them to honk the horn, unlock the doors and flash the headlights of its Model S electric cars.
Tesla Motors has promised to fix any “legitimate vulnerability” after Chinese hackers reportedly discovered a flaw which allowed them to honk the horn, unlock the doors and flash the headlights of its Model S electric cars, even while they were moving.
The news emerged from the SyScan360 conference (motto: “I hack, therefore I am”), which is intended to be a “platform for the international security community to interact with the Chinese security community”. A post on the social network Weibo said that the IT department from Chinese company Qihoo 360 Technology Co had been able to take control of the car’s door locks, horn, headlights and sunroof.
No details of the hack have been disclosed, but the functions which claim to have been attacked closely match those which are made available through the Tesla smartphone app. Drivers can download an app which connects to their car via Bluetooth and allows the doors to be locked and unlocked, the headlights to be flashed, the horn honked and the sunroof opened.
The app also allows the air conditioning to be controlled, offers GPS tracking and allows the owner to monitor the progress of charging. This means that a user can park at a charging spot and run errands until it reaches 100 per cent charge.
If hackers had been able to hack this app, or some layer of communication between it and the car, then all of these functions would be available to them – just as the Chinese group is claiming.
The current version of the app, 1.2.2, was released on June 6. A Tesla spokesperson said that if a real flaw had been discovered the company would work on a fix, and added that they hoped that if that was the case that the hackers hand over information on the flaw to allow this to happen before releasing it publicly.
A Tesla spokesperson told the Chicago Tribune: “While Tesla is not associated with the conference and is not a sponsor of the competition, we support the idea of providing an environment in which responsible security researchers can help identify potential vulnerabilities. We hope that the security researchers will act responsibly and in good faith.”
The first right-hand drive Model S cars were delivered in the UK personally by chief executive Elon Musk last month. The company plans to expand rapidly here by opening Tesla shops and service centres across the country. It also began selling cars in China in April, claiming that the market had the potential to match US sales by the end of next year.
Billionaire PayPal founder, electric car creator and space exploration entrepreneur Elon Musk recently donated $1m to help create a museum in honour of the inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla after a plea made via an internet cartoon.
Musk's electric car company Tesla Motors is named after the engineer whose work included electric motors, X-rays, radio and the eponymous Tesla coil. Matthew Inman, who draws the online cartoon The Oatmeal, made a plea for cash in a cartoon which described how much he enjoyed driving his electric Model S.
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