Preventing a “Fleet-wide” Hack is Tesla’s Top Security Priority

Preventing a “Fleet-wide” Hack is Tesla’s Top Security Priority

Elon Musk commented on Tesla’s cybsersecurity during his talk at the National Governor’s Association this weekend.

  • Jul 17, 2017

These days, the more connected a product is to the internet the more vulnerable to hacking it is. Musk has made it his business to ensure that the Tesla is the most connected vehicle on the road today.

That means Tesla’s are prime targets for whitehat hackers and security researchers to demonstrate possible vulnerabilities.

Over the weekend, Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk gave a talk at the National Governor’s Association where he gave some comments on Tesla’s approach to cybersecurity including what the company’s top concerns are if the vehicles become fully autonomous.

“I think one of the biggest concerns for autonomous vehicles is somebody achieving a fleet-wide hack,” Musk said. ““If someone was able to say hack all the autonomous Teslas, they could say – I mean just as a prank – they could say ‘send them all to Rhode Island and that would be the end of Tesla and there would be a lot of angry people in Rhode Island.”

Musk continued to talk about how Tesla’s priority is to make a fleet-wide hack impossible. He spoke about including a way for people inside the car to have override authority no matter what the car is doing.

“You can press a button that no amount of software can override,” Musk said. “And ensure that you gain control of the vehicle and cut the link to the servers.”

Even within the car itself, the company has put in failsafe features to make sure that no one can mobile gain access to the power or braking system while the car is in motion.

“Within the car, there are multiple sub-systems that have specialized encryption, like the powertrain for example,” Musk said. “Even if someone gains access to the car, they cannot take control of the powertrain or braking system.”

Musk finished up his talk by adding cybersecurity is one of the company’s top priorities and that it should be for other companies as well.

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