However, Mahaffey and Rogers plan to share their most recent findings during the upcoming Def Con event; thus, enabling Tesla developers to improve their system.
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But the week wasn’t over for Tesla yet. Investors were looking forward for Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk to confirm the previous projection of delivering 55,000 vehicles this year.
“Modern cars have more in common with a laptop than they do with the Ford Model T”, Mahaffey stressed.
Tesla, which has committed to ongoing security checks, said on Thursday that a patch for the vulnerabilities identified by Mahaffey and Rogers has already been sent to all vehicles via an over-the-air update.
The pair were also able to raise and lower the windows, lock and unlock the Model S, and even turn it off or on at low speed, which they did during a controlled 5-mph (8-km/h) test, remotely activating the handbrake. Meanwhile in Europe, orders for the Model S also grew by more than 50%, despite the said vehicle increasing its price twice in a span of six months.
The hackers were able to interfere with the entertainment system and the onboard controllers of the Model S. Following this, they were able to direct commands to the vehicle and tamper with its functions. “We continue to develop further ways to harden our systems, informed by ongoing discussions with the security research community, as well as our own internal analysis”. Cars are no longer standalone devices; they are part of the Internet of Things, the concept of using sensors and other tech to connect everyday items to the Web.
Tesla was quoted by the BBC as saying: “Our well-developed safeguards protect every layer of our vehicle and network security system, including for the mobile app, Tesla’s servers, and the auto itself”. While there are still potential issues with Tesla’s technology – the researchers aren’t clear how safe the car’s drive system is from remote hacks – this hack shows it’s still got a leg up on the competition when it comes to security.
“Simply put, in a choice between a great product or hitting quarterly numbers, we will take the former”, Tesla said in a letter to shareholders.
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Tesla Model X electric crossover, which broke cover back in 2012 and was originally supposed to go on sale in late 2013, will finally be delivered to its first customers in the US by September 30, 2015.
