Researchers in Berlin say they found a way to circumvent that, and get new features for free.
The doctoral researchers used a hack to "attack" Tesla's systems.
Tesla owners use in-car purchases to unlock all sorts of vehicle features and upgrades.
The researchers say they "attacked" Tesla's embedded car computer — known as "jailbreaking" — giving them the ability to run arbitrary software on the infotainment system, activate or disable features, and circumvent payment.
Using a voltage-glitching vulnerability in the electronic control unit, the researchers bypassed Tesla's MCU-Z processor.
Persons:
Tesla, Tesla's
Organizations:
Technical University Berlin, Tesla, TU Berlin
Locations:
Berlin