Live data from Hacker News

Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

tiremeetsroad.com

171–180 of 383 posts

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#171
post #4

While this is an "interesting" story, I'd love to get some verification on it. It sounds plausible, but almost illegal ? I'm in EU so don't know how really things work over there, but I would assume Tesla would need a judicial order siding with the bank to be able to do this ? I mean it's probably not the wild west over there. Or is it ?

This is a report based on a Facebook post by a random person telling a story about her repo friend who once told her that Tesla could help him get control of the car. Until someone reports this happening first hand, I'm going to assume that either a lot of details are missing or that the story is straight-up fake.

There are far too many articles or tweets or stories they get traction with zero attempt at verification. I do not understand why people upvote it.

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's two sides to the same coin. The stuff that makes this possible is the same stuff that makes all the futuristic tech on a Tesla possible. So you could theoretically jailbreak it (Rich Rebuilds probably figured it out by now) disabling the stuff that would allow this to happen would also disable half the futuristic features on your car.

> disabling the stuff that would allow this to happen would also disable half the futuristic features on your car. Why? When you jailbreak an iPhone you don't loose features.

No but you (most of the time) lose the ability to get software updates which are a pretty significant feature of Teslas.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Tesla locked out your sim if they found you to be abusing it so you'd have to try to get a new one (not sure how that works with eSims).

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#173
post #159
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t usually vote up comments that are mostly humorous on HN, but there’s always an exception. To me the problem isn’t that they might, but that they can. I guess the fault is technically on the person who rented something under terrible terms, but the problem to me is that over time terrible terms seem to win out over reasonable ones. Not to mention, if Tesla is capable of doing this for rentals, I have to assume…

Or that any hacker that gets into Teslas system will have a field day.

Mass theft, bricking, or actual crashing potential. It's a Futurama episode/ Sword of Damocles waiting to happen.

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but with DMCA (and probably other laws) our concept of ownership is gone. Any music one buys that has DMCA, isn’t owned it’s just rented, and yet most people don’t realize that. So there’s a precedence for thinking we own something when in practice we just rent it. I can see that happening with cars. For example the law that was just passed that new cars will have to come with alcohol detectors https://www.wa…

> that has DMCA Do you mean DRM?

I suspect that's what the OP meant. (I'm also not sure anyone sells digital music files with DRM anymore -- books and movies, yes, but not music. But I think it's kind of become cemented as the go-to example in a lot of people's minds.)

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A first step. Won’t be long before the car goes to the repossession lot itself. Tesla is evolving country music: not only will your girl leave you, so will your truck.

I'm hopeful that by the time cars can be automatically repossessed without a human operator they'll have set up a network of on-demand rentals and I won't have to worry about car ownership and all the nonsense it entails.

Usually rental anything is a lot more costly in the long run than outright ownership. So someone getting his Tesla repossessed probably wont be any better of trying to rent one. Thought my biggest problem with large scale car rentals are times like rush hour where nearly everyone needs a car at the same time, so there either has to be a giant capacity or you have to rely on most people still having their own car.

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#176
I think the personal freedom and privacy implications of self driving cars with centralized communication are rarely talked about. What happens when your vehicle decides you can't travel to an area of civil unrest (for your safety), or refuses to drive you to the gun store?

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A first step. Won’t be long before the car goes to the repossession lot itself. Tesla is evolving country music: not only will your girl leave you, so will your truck.

Ha. Though my guess is, once self-driving is reliable enough to do that, the economics of car ownership are going to flip completely. It won't make sense anymore to have a car that spends most of its time sitting unused in your garage.

Imagine, now, that self-driving combined with Uber pool, so that people who need to get from and to the same destinations at the same time (as is typical for commutes) would be able to share the ride.

Imagine then making those vehicles larger to enable not only a decrease in traffic, but an increase in housing density, local infrastructure in walking distance, and economic growth.

Imagine if we then realized we could charge that elongated car as it's driving if we put electric lines above streets.

Oh, and why not increase rolling efficiency while we're at that, and make the task of self-driving simpler by embedding signaling infrastructure into the road itself.

You just imagined buses, trolley buses, and streetcars respectively.

Which is what makes the most sense, and will continue making the most sense for vehicles that don't sit in your garage most of the time.

There's more to car ownership than being able to get from A to B in principle.

Once you add immediate availability, individual vehicle preferences, having your stuff in the car already, the ability to keep your stuff there once you arrive at your destination, never having to think about small, but normal usage damage (especially if you have kids), or, conversely, having the vehicle just as clean as you want it...

...you will see that garages aren't going anywhere any time soon, self-driving cars or not.

And that we'd be wise to develop actual public transport infrastructure for the people who really do only care about getting from A to B, with some acceptable wait time. It's a win-win for everyone.

My pessimistic prognosis is that the development of the self-driving car will make the taxis slightly cheaper, but instead of paying your Uber driver, you're going to be paying engineers, maintenance, and cleaning staff.

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, though I think that ideally companies are advocates for their customers. For example, companies have to turn information over to courts, but they can push back on some, and publish transparency reports for others. Yes, they have to comply with the law, but imo a company has an obligation to advocate for their customers.

Well, technically, the bank owns the car till you pay it off. So, maybe they are advocating for their customers?

In nine states, this is not legally accurate.

In those states, you have the title and the bank has a lien on the title.

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#179
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's quite right, you own the vehicle legally and you owe the bank the loan. However as soon as a repossession takes place the legal title to the vehicle does change.

If you finance a car through a bank the bank owns the car, they have the title (US).

In nine states, this is not the case. The buyer has possession of the title (or electronic), and the bank has a lien on the vehicle.

Re: Tesla remotely unlocks Model 3 car, uses smart summon to help repo agent

#180
post #104

The police should also have the capability of remotely stopping a running away car. Hopefully this feature will be standardized.

I completely disagree, I cherish my personal freedom and will not be buying any connected vehicle for as long as possible because of that.
Post reply on HN