Tesla Motors Inc has rolled out a new security patch for its electric cars because Chinese security researchers revealed the vulnerabilities in the car. Tesla said that it was able to remedy the bugs uncovered by Tencent using an over-the-air fix to its vehicles, which saved customers the trouble of visiting dealers to obtain the update.
The car hacking has surged since the last year, when Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million U.S. vehicles to fix on board software bugs uncovered by two researchers. They demonstrated that they were able to remotely control of a Jeep traveling at high speeds in a dramatic video posted on Wired.com.
On its blog, Keen Security Lab of Tencent said that its researchers were able to remotely control some systems on the Tesla model S sedan in both parking and driving modes by exploiting the security bugs that were fixed by the automaker.
The blog said that Tencent believed its researchers were the first to remotely control of a Tesla car by hacking into an on board computer system known as a CAN bus. Tencent researchers remotely engaged the brake on a moving Tesla S, opened the trunk and turned on its windshield wipers in a demonstration video.
The statement said that our realistic estimate is that the risk to our customers was very low, but this did not stop us from responding quickly. It said that the attack could only be triggered when a Tesla web browser was in use and the vehicle was close enough to a malicious Wi-Fi hotspot to connect to it.
