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As Cars Get More Connected, Cars Are A Soft Target For Hackers

Collin Woodard
·1 min read
Tesla Model 3
Tesla Model 3

If you want a Tesla with heated rear seats, you have a couple of options. First, you can pay Tesla $300 to have them activated. That’s the easy route, but it’s also frustrating to know your car is equipped with heated seats that you have to pay to use. Alternatively, as Patrick George reports in The Atlantic, you can simply hack your way in and activate the heated rear seat option yourself. That’s the option three Ph.D. students from Technische Universität Berlin and an independent researcher went with recently.

Hacking into your own car isn’t exactly easy if you don’t know how to use computers, but it’s an exciting option for those who have the skills to break into automakers’ software and unlock free options that otherwise would have been paywalled. It’s also likely to become more common as more automakers roll out subscription features such as additional power and hands-free driving.

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