Hackers break into Tesla autopilot with €600 equipment

A team of German computer science students have broken into Tesla’s in-car operating system and autopilot with basic equipment that cost only €600.

For some years hackers have been testing the electric carmaker’s defences, usually without much to show for their efforts.

In March one group of cybersecurity experts based in France took less than two minutes to gain access to some of a Tesla vehicle’s onboard computers from a distance, allowing them to turn the lights on and off, honk the horn and activate the windscreen wipers.

Five months later security researchers in Germany cracked the processor in another Tesla system, highlighting a vulnerability that could allow technologically adept or unusually parsimonious drivers to trick the system into unlocking features they have not paid