
Dismantled Tesla Model S found in truck - OMGWTF
https://electrek.co/2017/05/31/tesla-model-s-stolen-parts/
======
marssaxman
> always-on advanced GPS tracking feature

No thank you - oh my god, no thank you _very much_.

It's a real shame that Tesla has wedded their beautiful drivetrain engineering
to such a creepy, cell-phone-esque system of automatic software updates and
GPS tracking and giant touchscreens; I'd like to like their cars, but I want
absolutely none of that.

~~~
politician
Do you carry your smartphone with you in your car?

~~~
jacquesm
Is having a smartphone mandatory now?

~~~
politician
Well put; I suppose I should have referred to "a" smartphone rather than
implied ownership of a smartphone. On the other hand, the smartphone installed
base is on the order of 3.4B devices, so I'd ask that you give me the benefit
of the doubt for assuming that an HN reader owns a smartphone.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't, and for precisely those reasons. Actually I do own them for testing
and dev purposes but never ever carry them with me, my regular phone is an
oldie from just before the smartphone hit. I fear the day that it will die.

~~~
politician
Honestly, I'm jealous. While I find them convenient, I also find them
troubling.

------
janwillemb
> it’s not clear how the vehicle was stolen in the first place.

> For owners, it’s important to make sure that your Tesla account is secured
> with a strong password and to keep your key fobs in a secure location at a
> safe distance from the vehicle when parked.

The insinuation here is that owners had weak passwords and/or kept their keys
in an insecure location at an unsafe distance from the vehicle. Another
explanation could be that hacker-thieves found a way to access Tesla's without
keys and/or passwords.

~~~
gnicholas
What is the range of the key fob, and does Tesla warn customers to keep keys
far away from the car (not in rooms adjacent to the garage, for example)?

I have a friend who bought a late-model BMW and accidentally discovered that
her keyless ignition is also fobless — if unlocked, her car will start even if
the key fob is miles away. Not an easily discoverable bug, since she typically
has her key with her when she approaches her car.

~~~
valuearb
All keyless gobs have the same problem, a thief with a repeater can extend the
signal range and steal your car while you are at dinner, even if blocks away.

~~~
SOLAR_FIELDS
Could you build a portable faraday cage of sorts to carry in your pocket that
effectively reduces the range to zero when the fob resides inside it?

------
teilo
I would imagine the easiest way to steal a Tesla is to create a make-shift
faraday cage in a truck bed and then disconnect the power.

~~~
lawless123
I was about to say that is a lot of effort.. but for a 100k car it would be
worth it.

What do they do about software updates though? They would probably have to
break the firmware to if they still want any updates.

~~~
Zikes
I wonder how long until someone "jailbreaks" Teslas.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
If Tesla remains as controlling over the Model 3 as they are over the Model S,
you'll see a HECK of a lot more "jailbreaking", reverse engineering, and third
party knock-off parts. A big reason Tesla has likely been successful so far
controlling so much of the market around the Tesla is the high price: People
who have them can afford Tesla's services and will be averse to risking the
car with unsupported work, and there aren't all that many of them out there
(comparatively) to begin with.

With the Model 3 hitting a much wider consumer market, you'll see a lot more
interest in ways to get around Tesla.

I am actually expecting you may also see more lawsuits regarding things like
software activation requirements vs. holding the title to the car and such.
Tesla treats these cars like they're still Tesla's property, and if anything
I'm shocked it hasn't been tested in court more already.

~~~
elihu
There's been a big legal battle between John Deere tractors and farmers who
want to fix them. I haven't been paying close attention to that case, but it
seems like a very similar situation.

~~~
jacquesm
Big difference between business operators and private individuals consuming
goods.

Besides there being many more of the latter they also have special legal
aspects in the form of all kinds of consumer protections.

------
gambiting
I know someone who had their Tesla stolen in Belgium, never to be recovered.
The car just vanished from the system, no connection to the network and the
last known location was in front of their house.

I always wondered what thieves do with these vehicles though.

~~~
jonknee
Probably a chop shop. Tesla parts are hard to get, they probably have decent
resale value.

~~~
mjs
Can you get a Tesla serviced anywhere other than a Tesla dealership? Does
anyone do this? Seems like it's going to be difficult to consistently sell
$100k of Tesla parts for even 10% of their value.

~~~
ocdtrekkie
Tesla forbids any unauthorized party from even seeing a repair manual for the
car, except where they're legally forced to by "right to repair" laws. (In
those jurisdictions, they charge a high price for time-limited access.)

But, bear in mind, the difficulty in getting access to Tesla service or parts
outside of the official methods is what makes the parts so valuable: There's
almost none on the market to begin with. Those who need them (for whatever
reason) will have to pay big to get them, since competition isn't driving down
the prices. And most Tesla owners can obviously afford it.

------
codedokode
GPS and GSM signals can be easily jammed, and such devices don't cost much in
China.

