A Tesla driver wants to open his car via an app. What he doesn’t notice at first: it’s not his car he’s getting into. Tesla is buttoned up.
A crack in the windshield that wasn’t there before. And then there was the missing cell phone charging cable, which was usually always in the center console: At this point, Rajesh Randev noticed that something was wrong in the white Tesla Model 3 that he had opened with his app and that he was driving. A call on his phone finally confirmed it: the electronic ignition key on his phone hadn’t opened his car – but that of a stranger.
The incident happened in the Canadian city of Vancouver, reports the Washington Post. Randev wanted to pick up his children from school after going to a restaurant and went to the car. A Model 3, also white, was parked nearby. By an inexplicable coincidence, the app opened this vehicle and not Randev’s. He got in without noticing the mix-up and drove off.
Looking for the actual owner
The person who finally made the crucial call is Mahmoud Esaeyh, the owner of the other white Tesla 3. His brother was driving and had parked it near the other white car. On his return, when he noticed that the interior of the car looked very different, he called his brother, who was able to locate his car via an app – but it couldn’t be locked from a distance. Esaeyh’s brother was able to open the strange Tesla with a key card and he went in search of clues to the actual owner – and found a phone number for Randev in some medical documents.
Finally the two men spoke on the phone, Rajesh Randev brought the car back after an hour and a half drive and they swapped vehicles after they caught the whole thing on video.
Tesla not responding
How exactly this incident could have happened is unclear. According to the newspaper, Tesla did not respond to a request by email from Randev or to a tweet to Elon Musk. Both owners still want to continue driving their cars. However, they no longer feel 100 percent safe, the newspaper quotes Rajesh Randev as saying: “Sometimes I find it creepy. I’m afraid it could happen again.”
Such a gap is at least not unrealistic: hackers have repeatedly proven that they can control vehicles remotely. However, such confusion within apps and between vehicles is unusual.
