One woman's Tesla was remotely controlled by an abusive ex-partner

ggradschool about 3 hours ago 19 commentsRead Article on theguardian.com

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Discussion (19 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

ctkhn•about 2 hours ago

I don't think it's JUST Teslas, any car with its own cellular link is a total non starter for me after that Jeep article 10ish years ago. Give me a key fob, carplay for my music and maps, and that's all the smarts I need. Keep the heated seats.

randycupertino•about 2 hours ago

Sorry heated seats now behind $13.99/mo paywall.

kotaKat•19 minutes ago

That's why I'll drive my Slate down to AutoZone and grab the 12v heated seat massager pad and strap it to the drivers' seat.

Take that, paywalled subscriptions.

lolc•about 2 hours ago

Choice quote from the article:

    Three days later, Pucci, now 50, followed her in a car and started to yell at her about a man she was dating.

    “You thought you’d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps,” he shouted at her, according to the police records.

    [...]

    “The victim has not been able to drive certain speeds and on most recent occasions throughout this period, [the accused] has turned on ‘Valet Mode’ which immediately reduces the speed to 40km per hour causing significant safety issues for the victim on the road”, the police documents stated.

Of course this incident shows why I wouldn't want a car with this capability. Because when an asshole like Pucci can do it, the operator of the remote services can do it too!

chmod775•31 minutes ago

> I am in your car. I am in your maps.

That's the worst villain monologue I've ever heard, but unintentionally funny. Somehow appropriate for someone sharing his name with a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure villain.

aftbit•about 2 hours ago

Remotely controlling or even accessing location info from a car should show a little popup on the infotainment system, if not live, at least when you park or next start the car.

dylan604•about 2 hours ago

I'm both surprised and not that this is not present. It took iOS how many versions before showing the icon when some app somewhere is using the location? These are the kinds of things that the system designers are so focused on getting it to work that thinking of protecting the users from abuse is just not part of the roadmap. It makes sense, except in today's times. There have been so many examples of systems being abused and examples of the solutions put in place that we don't have to start from a blank sheet of paper. Designers should look around at what is normal and start from there. Designing v1 with less features than everything around it is just lazy

moepstar•about 1 hour ago

Lay down the pitchfork, this _is_ on the dashboard - and has been since sometime in 2023: https://tesla-info.com/release/2023.38#Location%20Sharing

apearson•about 1 hour ago

This is already a feature in the software and has been for years. Anytime the car is accessed remotely a phone icon is shown on screen and you can click it to see what is accessing.

iAMkenough•about 1 hour ago

It’d take the form of a disclaimer that you eventually tune out because it appears every single time you start the car because Nissan wants to sell data about you.

kotaKat•17 minutes ago

Ford takes that approach. Every time you hop in one with the location/telemetry services on it gives you a big distracting "Location and connected vehicle/usage data collection active" message.

ratelimitsteve•about 2 hours ago

As soon as I saw the title I was like "There's gonna be a long history of abuse before this that has yet to see any consequences." Then I open the article and there's a whole section called "History of Abuse".

languagehacker•about 2 hours ago

"I got this car before my ex went crazy"

chrisjj•about 2 hours ago

But how did he get admin access?

josefritzishere•about 2 hours ago

Terrifying. I never want want a car with this risk.

GuinansEyebrows•12 minutes ago

i wonder what the venn diagram of "downvoters terminally incapable of placing themselves in a dangerous hypothetical in which they are not in control of a life-threatening situation" AND "people on hn who work on these products" looks like.

hopefully it's small. realistically... i'm scared.

xutopia•about 2 hours ago

I would not buy a Tesla because the owner of the company does Nazi salutes but I feel like this is more or less like someone forgetting their ex is on their Spotify family account.

dspillett•about 2 hours ago

> but I feel like this is more or less like someone forgetting their ex is on their Spotify family account

Yeah, if victims can't keep a cool head and properly do all their admin just because they are in a very stressful, perhaps even dangerous, situation, they should just accept the responsibility for being so lax instead of expecting any sort of empathy.

[just in case this is needed, because distressingly it sometimes is: that sound you may hear isn't tinnitus, it is sarcasm detectors going off]

mikestew•about 1 hour ago

Trivializing the problem and victim-blaming? You’re off to a great start, maybe finish up with how the victim should be prosecuted for leaving the account unsecured?