Software plays an important part in ensuring that your Tesla electric car functions normally, and it goes without saying that the company has a much better understanding of software and the challenges associated with it as opposed to more conventional car makers. So when news broke that a Tesla Model S had been hacked the company was quick to roll out a software update over-the-air which leaves no time for the vulnerability to be exploited at scale.
One of the advantages of owning a Tesla is that it receives software updates over-the-air, it’s just like updating your phone or tablet. You don’t have to take it in at the dealership or receive a USB stick from the company like many other manufacturers require you to when a vulnerability in discovered in their cars.
The Tesla Model S hack was demonstrated by Kevin Mahaffey of Lookout and Marc Rogers of Cloudflare at the DefCon security conference in Las Vegas. Once they broke into the system they were able to manipulate the speedometer and other readouts and even turn off the car at low speeds.
This particular hack can’t be done remotely since it requires physical access to the car’s onboard ethernet port, you’re obviously not going to drive the car if there’s an unknown person sitting inside with a laptop plugged into the ethernet port.
It’s also not as dangerous as it might sound because when the Model S is turned off at low speeds the parking brake is automatically engaged while at higher speeds it shifts into neutral and allows the driver to steer it off the road safely. The car doesn’t stop abruptly.
Researchers say that they’ve discovered five other vulnerabilities aside from the one showcased at DefCon which is actually them more severe vulnerability, Tesla has already released an OTA software update to patch this.