Photo: YouTube Screenshot
Somewhere in Europe, a new Tesla Model 3 owner was flabbergasted because the functions on their car weren’t working when using the commands. They tried opening the trunks, turning on the A.C., and even opening their garage door, but to no avail. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean in the U.S., someone else’s Model 3 trunks were opening all of a sudden, the climate controls were turning on and off, and even their garage door was going up and down, multiple times a day. This was no mere coincidence.
In a Reddit post, a software engineer, who is known for previously reverse engineering the Tesla Key Card, said how he was amiss one day when his partner told him that the garage door was open. The software engineer initially blamed his faulty memory for leaving the garage door open and didn’t think twice about it.
However, on a different occasion, his partner was walking by their Model 3 and she noticed the trunk and frunk were up, with the AC on, cranked up to the max. As anyone would normally do, she closed the trunks and turned off the air conditioning system. After this bizarre incident, they both started to get a bit worried about what was going on.
At the same time this was happening in the U.S., someone from Europe had bought a used Model 3 and was trying to figure out why their Tesla wasn’t responding to basic commands. While imagining this scenario side-by-side like in a movie would be funny, the American owner was not thrilled one bit.
Suspecting that his car got hacked somehow, he logged into his Tesla account and saw the page was blank. Like his car never even existed. Thinking perhaps the site was acting up, he then tried to double-check his phone app. For a couple of milliseconds, there was indeed the picture of his car on it, but it quickly vanished, confirming the website was right all along, and that he did not own a Tesla anymore. To add insult to injury, the app even suggested purchasing a new vehicle. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the software engineer knew this was no server error or delay.
After replaying all the probable and improbable scenarios in his mind, he took action and called Tesla’s customer service. A thing that was pointed out in his Reddit post was that the manufacturer’s website was obtuse in making their service number easily accessible and had to resort to a good old-fashioned Google search to find it.
After calling in, he gave the customer service lady all the details she asked for. He then noticed a surprised reaction from her, and soon after, she needed to talk to her manager about the problem. Things were escalating, to say the least.
After getting back on the phone with him, she said one of their European employees accidentally entered the wrong VIN while registering a vehicle sale. It turns out they gave out his number as the sold car. That’s why the commands were transferred to the new owner, even though the input was for a completely different car, on a completely different continent. They also didn't have the same type of charging ports.
Tesla managed to move the VIN back into his account and thankfully, there was no harm, no foul. But this was an extremely fortunate turn out of events. No one got hurt, and no property was stolen or damaged, but all of this could happen again to not so fortunate conclusions. If the European owner was in proximity to the Model 3 from the U.S., nothing would have stopped them from getting in the car and driving it into the sunset.
An internal investigation was opened at Tesla after the incident.
However, on a different occasion, his partner was walking by their Model 3 and she noticed the trunk and frunk were up, with the AC on, cranked up to the max. As anyone would normally do, she closed the trunks and turned off the air conditioning system. After this bizarre incident, they both started to get a bit worried about what was going on.
At the same time this was happening in the U.S., someone from Europe had bought a used Model 3 and was trying to figure out why their Tesla wasn’t responding to basic commands. While imagining this scenario side-by-side like in a movie would be funny, the American owner was not thrilled one bit.
Suspecting that his car got hacked somehow, he logged into his Tesla account and saw the page was blank. Like his car never even existed. Thinking perhaps the site was acting up, he then tried to double-check his phone app. For a couple of milliseconds, there was indeed the picture of his car on it, but it quickly vanished, confirming the website was right all along, and that he did not own a Tesla anymore. To add insult to injury, the app even suggested purchasing a new vehicle. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the software engineer knew this was no server error or delay.
After replaying all the probable and improbable scenarios in his mind, he took action and called Tesla’s customer service. A thing that was pointed out in his Reddit post was that the manufacturer’s website was obtuse in making their service number easily accessible and had to resort to a good old-fashioned Google search to find it.
After calling in, he gave the customer service lady all the details she asked for. He then noticed a surprised reaction from her, and soon after, she needed to talk to her manager about the problem. Things were escalating, to say the least.
After getting back on the phone with him, she said one of their European employees accidentally entered the wrong VIN while registering a vehicle sale. It turns out they gave out his number as the sold car. That’s why the commands were transferred to the new owner, even though the input was for a completely different car, on a completely different continent. They also didn't have the same type of charging ports.
Tesla managed to move the VIN back into his account and thankfully, there was no harm, no foul. But this was an extremely fortunate turn out of events. No one got hurt, and no property was stolen or damaged, but all of this could happen again to not so fortunate conclusions. If the European owner was in proximity to the Model 3 from the U.S., nothing would have stopped them from getting in the car and driving it into the sunset.
An internal investigation was opened at Tesla after the incident.
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