Researchers jailbreak a Tesla to get free in-car feature upgrades

"you wouldn't download an in-car feature"
- I'd do it even if I didn't want the feature.
  
  You are stealing that feature. Because of you some innocent tesla owner will have their in-car features taken away by the piracy enforcement team.

I'm amazed that it's legal for a car company to sell you something, and then after you own it, remotely disable xyz aspects of the functionality unless you pay them more. How can that be legal? I own the car, it's MINE now, how can I not use every single thing that's in it?
- Same reason it's legal for HP to brick your printer if you use third party ink. You violated their shitty TOS that none of us read because it's 80 pages of legalese, but you agreed to it.
  
  hmmm yes I suppose that's true. Okay so let me rephrase: I'm amazed it's legal for a car manufacturer to even HAVE a TOS like that when you purchase a car. It shouldn't be legal to write language like "you are purchasing this but agreeing that you can't use it" ... wtf?
  
  Lets be fair
  TOSs you need two lawyers and an ai chatbot to explain to you, shouldnt be legal vs regular citizens.
  They cannot expect anyone to read all TOS they get thrown in their face throughout a lifetime. Let alone understand them. Its often not written super clearly and not all users can even read the language very well to begin with.
  
  I really wonder if there's a way to use LLMs just to point out every concerning thing in a EULA/TOS
  
  Lobbying.
- The captalism, American politics bought and paid for.
  
  I mean you are correct to some extent. But I'm curious, how does this not happen in a system where the state has full control? The only difference is the consumer has no other choices and the "politics" don't have to be paid for as they are already fully in control.
  Unless you mean to say that by the good graces of the government they'd never do that in a state run economy because it's morally wrong. In which case... Lol
- Unless you pay them more every month. Not everything needs to be a subscription and they'll keep doing it unless people stop buying.
- the state does not look out for the interests of the people, so it makes perfect sense really.
- Because you don't own the car, you're just leasing the use of it.
- I've seen a bunch of lab equipment do this as well. For some, there are firmware hacks available to enable features only available on models twice the price.
- It's a bit inevitable. There's a market for a range of features - i.e. some people don't want to pay extra for extra features. But it's simpler (i.e. cheaper) to produce all models with the same hardware. So, to fill the market, some features are simply disabled in software.
  
  Imagine buying a house but you didn't want to pay extra so one room is padlocked, or several windows boarded up, or a pool walled off.
  
  So, when Tesla installed a rear seat heater module that's unusable by the car owner because they didn't pay for it, is the heater module actually legally owned by the car owner (even though it doesn't work), or is it still owned by Tesla? If the module is legally owned by the car owner, does Tesla in this case only sell ability to turn on the heater module?
  
  Oftentimes it's done because it's cheaper, though oftentimes it's actually more expensive but they calculate that money from licenses post initial sale gets them more revenue and margin in the end anyway.
  Still, even if it always was cheaper for the manufacturer this way, the point here is companies should not be able to control something you physically own once you have purchased it. It's a dangerous precedent to set and things like this will creep into more and more products if we let it.

- consumer activism, rich people that think they're helping the world and feel good about themselves by buying a brand new electric car. also most people are just technologically illiterate so yea.
  
  Champagne socialists.
- I’m not defending this practice (it’s gross), but ~~people and critics almost universally love~~ many people and critics who actually own/drive Teslas love them.
  So, you’re kind of mischaracterizing them as “worse than other cars.”
  edit: it’s unsurprising that this comment is downvoted in a thread hellbent on shitting on Tesla. I don’t know what I expected.
  
  This is an interesting comment to make. For years I've seen people shitting all over musk and Tesla, specifically because they have a ton of build quality issues
  No, it's not "almost universal". Even before musk becomes public idiot number one, there was a lot of hate for these cars
  
  …people and critics almost universally love Teslas…
  Not sure where you get that from. Elon and Tesla cult members might have you think so but a Google search on Teslas reputation show differently. Consuser affairs showing about 60% positive.
  https://www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/tesla_motors.html?#sort=top_reviews&filter=1
  
  How high are you right meow?
- Most car manufacturers charge money for those kind of upgrades. The difference is they specifically build or do not build the features into the car. If Tesla doesn't charge meaningfully more and if they do not turn it into a subscription, I wouldn't knock them for it.
  There's a lot to bitch at Tesla about, but being able to decide after the fact that you want a heated steering wheel isn't one of them. FSD being bullshit even if it was free (and it is far from free!), the refusal to allow Android Auto/CarPlay, the intentionally rosy range estimates, the association with Musk... those are what I'd focus on. Unlockable steering wheel heating is not an issue.
  
  but being able to decide after the fact that you want a heated steering wheel isn't one of them.
  No one is bitching about being able to decide that you want a heated steering wheel. You can decide to install it on literally any car brand or model.
  People are bitching about the hardware that they have paid for and they own being locked behind by a software paywall. This would cause a riot with practically any other consumer electronics. Imagine if the fingerprint scanner on your smartphone was an extra $50 to unlock? Or quick charge being an extra $75?
  That would be the most anti-consumer horseshit we've seen, and that's exactly what Tesla is doing.
  
  You know what? I am going to just maintain my old economy car until I die. I am out of the system. I don't want a touchscreen or a subscription or vendor locking. I want a machine that takes me from place A to place B when mass transit or my bicycle isn't practical. That's it. You people enjoy your car as a service bullshit model. Don't come crying to me when the batteries light on fire and the brakes require you to upgrade flash.

good. software locks are anti human and anti consumer. everyone inherently feels ripped off by them, but the more capitalist minded think 'oh that's the company's right to do'
if it's my property in my house I can fuck with it to do whatever I want
- Unfortunately because most of this is locked behind DRM you may be subject to crimes best described by someone else as "felony contempt of business model".
  
  How dare people find ways around our artificial scarcity. /s
- So you think you should be able to pay for a base model and get all the features of the top of the line model? Try that at a Toyota dealership and let me know how that goes.
  
  Flipping a bit in software doesn't cost Tesla anything, the hardware is already installed.
  It would be totally different if Tesla didn't install the hardware by default, and you had to pay to have it put in.
  
  If they put the premium shit in the car and software locked it out, fuck them. It's part of the car I paid for, I'll do whatever the fuck I want with it. Don't like it? Don't put the premium shit in a base model.
  
  I think that if they're letting those cars go out the factory door with the parts for heated rear seats, then I own those too, and I'll do with them what I please.
  
  I love that you think Tesla isn't pricing the premium features into the base model.
  
  At Toyota, you pay for the premium shit to get installed, you most certainly do not pay a fee (recurring or otherwise) for them to turn it on.

Yes! Back to jailbreaking!

The future sucks.
- Hardware companies trying to copy the software companies with a subscription model really sucks. What's next? Intel charging a monthly fee to unlock 5 GHz boost? Nvidia charging a monthly fee if you want to do anything AI-related with their GPUs? Samsung and LG charging a monthly fee if you want to use a TV or a monitor for more than 2 hours a day? Greed knows no bounds.
  
  Funnily enough, Intel tried something similar already in 2010 (way before their pay-as-you-go bullshit). It was a Pentium that you could unlock hyper-threading on for $50.
  
  That model is here already for cloud computing, literally dollars for CPU cores and bandwidth and memory. But that only works out well for renting other people's servers and would be bad for any product that you purchase outright. I suggest we all not buy those products if they do that.
  
  Pretty sure intel do something like that with their server CPUs.
  
  I hope no execs are reading this thread because if they had these ideas they'd have no qualms about implementing them
  
  This isn't unusual for Enterprise grade IT hardware. Mainframes have been sold/licensed that way for decades. I recently dealt with a performance issue that we solved by buying a license to use more of a piece of hardware that was already in our data center (we didn't realize the piece we owned had twice the capacity that could be unlocked just through licensing till we engaged the vendor)
  
  Is that not what the K versions of their processors are? Pay more for the ability to overclock and get good speeds
  
  Don’t give them ideas!

of course it was the PSP. I’ll say it again and again; secure computing is like adding a back door that you know about. Fuck intel me, fuck amd psp, fuck apple sep, fuck microsoft tpm, and fuck anyone who wants to have control over a device I own.
- Google: time to add DRM to chrome
  
  Google has betrayed Google.
  As all corporations eventually do.
  Google is eating its children.

Can somebody build & sell a dumb electric car? Or at least one not permanently internet-enabled and/or that has no functionality and capabilities locked behind software and subscriptions?
- Ive been genuinely thinking about getting into business selling dumb stuff exclusively. Dumb tvs, fridges, washers, phones, printers watever. Just a safe online vendor where you know that what you buy wont connect to the internet, need a subscription, or require a credit card on file to work. I just need a business name.
  
  That's a neat idea, and definitely a product group that I've been actively looking for. But I do find it ironic that your business model is of an online vendor that sells offline versions of online appliances haha
  
  Dumbly: Uncomplicated Technology for a Complicated World
- The Dacia Spring fits the bill out of necessity (price). It is not fast, it has low range, uses cheap materials and it is rather small.
  But I don't think it can spy on you and it's charming through its simple honesty.
  
  I'd download it alright
  
  Assuming you are in the part of the world where they are being sold
- You can do it yourself!
  
  https://openinverter.org/wiki/Main_Page

- The "you wouldnt pirate a car" crowd will be shook when they finally realize " yes we would"
  
  I used to think " I wouldn't because that's a stupid metaphor" but now that it's not a stupid metaphor oh yes the fuck I would.
- Or just don't buy a luxury car

This is the best summary I could come up with:
A group of researchers said they have found a way to hack the hardware underpinning Tesla’s infotainment system, allowing them to get what normally would be paid upgrades — such as heated rear seats — for free.
This may also give owners the ability to enable the self-driving and navigation system in regions where it’s normally not available, the researchers told TechCrunch, though they admitted that they haven’t tested these capabilities yet, as that would require more reverse engineering.
“We are not the evil outsider, but we’re actually the insider, we own the car,” Werling told TechCrunch in an interview ahead of the conference.
Werling explained that what they did was “fiddle around” with the supply voltage of the AMD processor that runs the infotainment system.
With the same technique, the researchers said they were also able to extract the encryption key used to authenticate the car to Tesla’s network.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
- Good bot

Researchers jailbreak Tesla to allow usage of the entire car they purchased. FTFY

- Why would you want to be behind the heated seats? Seems like it’d be warmer on the seat, not to mention that there’s no 3rd row in a Tesla so you’d be in the trunk…
  
  Oh, you!

This looks to have already been discovered years ago as this company sells an OBD2 plug that can toggle all of this stuff, as well as highjacking some controls to add new functionality, as well as adding 50HP to those cars with a specific rear motor version https://ingenext.ca/products/ghost-upgrade
Is this method software only? Because the upgrades on that site are pretty expensive and proprietary.
- as well as adding 50HP
  Holy shit, IRL health buffs to mounts
  
  Takes pay-to-win to the next level
- If you read the article it is different. This relies on physically bringing connections to gain root access to the file system.
  It's also unlikely Tesla can't just watch for modified files and update them everytime the car goes into drive or something. They probably won't do it, but to claim it's impossible is just disingenuous
- If I hear I can solder a modchip to a Tesla to get free features, bypass paid subscription stuff, I totally would.
  
  I guess? But I also would never, ever, buy a Tesla.
- Teslas have x64 CPU's? What the hell?
  
  It does have the letter x in it...
  /s

- Please don't call him the r word, that's an insult to the mentally challenged
  
  His intelligence and reasoning skills are hindered or reduced in performance; i.e. retarded.

This is great. When you buy the car, you own it. I don’t care what kind of weird licenses and contracts they put together. If I buy the car and there is hardware in the car that allows for heated seats, there is no reason why I shouldn’t be able to enable it myself, tear it out, or do whatever I want with it. It is mine.
I can understand there being safety concerns for modifying a car. But the owner of the car already accepts liability for the operation of that car. If I do not modify the car and I get into an accident due to Teslas auto pilot feature or another thing baked into their system, does Tesla accept liability? No, they do not. If it is my responsibility for the safe operation of the vehicle, then it is also my responsibility to modify a vehicle in a safe manner.

Never buying any car with this type of tech.
If it's "our future" then I'll stick to used cars for life
- I have on old car. I should replace it, but it doesn't have a lot of mileage. I'm honestly dreading the purchase of new car because of this practice, not just the subscription features, but the control the maker has by being networked to it. I love my old dumb car.
  
  Just buy a used car instead, as it's actually better nowadays with the insane dealer markups

"Researchers remove limits that shouldn't be there on features that are already part of the car"

Elon's going to have a hissy fit
- He has one every X minutes anyway, an extra one is not going to make any difference.
  
  Ha, X
- **continue his current hissy fit, but with a renewed purpose

Can't imagine a bigger "fuck you" to give to the Muskrat... other than when Xtwitter finally implodes.

"how to jailbreak your Mr coffee grinder and grind any beans you want!"
"5 hacks to get your doorbell to keep working without a subscription!"
"How to beat Microsoft Office drm to turn in assignments for free!"
"4 clever ways to keep your AC running all summer long for free, no CC required! #3 will shock you!"
- Whoa there.
  Any beans?
  Garbanzo beans? Lima beans? Pinto beans? Kidney beans? So any bean I can find on Wikibeania?
  
  100% Mr coffee drm go byebye

GOOD!! I despise it when hardware features are held at ransom!

Quick question: Couldn't Tesla's telemetry servers detect this kind of jailbreaking and, say, remotely disable the device? I'm kind of thinking of Nintendo consoles and their bans on some jailbroken consoles (typically the ones that play pirated games online).
- I'm guessing they spoofed the telemetry in order to enable said features. It doesn't say in the article the method, so I could be wrong.

Why the heck would they install the equipment in the first place if it's only to block it???? Is that why the base model is so expensive? You're basically buying the deluxe version but are simply stuck using basic features because of the software???
- Because it’s cheaper for them. Building all the cars the same simplifies production and inventory management. They don’t have to configure each car for the end users requirements; they just use software to turn these features on.
  The question that should be asked is if they can put these features into the car and still make a profit why are these added features so expensive as all the fees are 100% profit!
  
  Then just sell that one model and enable everything. Otherwise don't complain when hackers crack the box and enable the features.

It’s ridiculous how nowadays a lot of hardware car features are locked behind a simple software switch. Feels like both a massive waste of resources for people that don’t buy the upgrades, and like having to pay for a feature that is already physically present in your car. Software-only upgrades like full self driving are understandable, hardware upgrades locked behind a software gate aren’t.
[cross-posted from my reply to the same article on c/news]

https://youtu.be/PWQL_XORalY
- #thank you
  I was afraid I'd get to the bottom and not find the perfect song.
- Yeeesss first thing I thought when I read the title lmaoo
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/PWQL_XORalY
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
- Y'all should check out their new single too: https://youtu.be/rpsKDDGcDpw
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/rpsKDDGcDpw
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.

How long the instructions would last if posted on Twitter?

“Researchers”
You mean Tesla job applicants.
ftfy
- They're university students

Muskovite builds vehicles with a built in micro-transaction PTW scheme? Hilarious.

This song was ahead of its time https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PWQL_XORalY and that time is now
- RIP Groggs
- It's such a banger too. First thing I thought of when I read the title

You mean I don't have to pay for the fart sound now?!

A lower hanging fruit is usually present in systems like this. I wonder if they've tried glitching because thats what they were familiar with it, or if the software was not easily exploitable.
- Typically low level attacks such as these is where it starts because they grant access to parts that can be used to learn more about the system as a whole.
  This understanding then can be used to find easier to exploit avenues.
  A good example of this is the history of exploits on Nintendo hardware.
  They almost all started with finding an exploit at the hardware level, which then subsequently lead to finding software exploits and ways to leverage them in an easy way for end users.
  
  That's interesting. In a world where everything runs webkit, I thought it would work the other way around.

- All four seats are heated for free if the battery explodes.. /s

So they did pretty much this https://youtu.be/vXe8pe18MNk