TESLA

Tesla hacker discovers secret “Elon Mode”… Which is incredible (Video)

Can Tesla cars do more than what they currently “offer” drivers? Yes, apparently there is a secret mode that gives the car unprecedented autonomous driving power. But what is the reason for hiding the so-called “Elon Mode”?

A Tesla software hacker discovered the “Elon Mode” driving functionality. This seems to allow the electric vehicles in question, with Total Autonomous Driving, to operate without any driver control.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have his own super secret driving mode that allows hands-free driving in Tesla vehicles. The hidden feature, aptly named “Elon Mode”, was discovered by a Tesla software hacker known online as @greentheonly.

The anonymous hacker has been digging deep into the vehicle’s code for years and has discovered things like how Tesla can block the use of electric seats or the central camera in the Model 3, before it is officially activated.

After finding and activating Elon Mode, greentheonly ventured out to test the system and posted some close-up screenshots of the effort. He didn’t share the literal setting of “Elon Mode” on screen, but claimed it’s real.

The hacker discovered that the car required no driver attention when using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. FSD is Tesla’s vision-based advanced driver assistance system that is currently in beta, but is currently available to anyone who has paid around €13,000 for the option.

The software was the subject of an internal report released last month that indicated the FSD had received thousands of customer complaints about hard braking and abrupt acceleration.

Tesla’s Autopilot, the automaker’s first-generation driver assistance system for highways, requires the driver to touch the steering wheel to confirm they are paying attention during use. Owners mostly complain about the frequency of system checks, which leads some to call it “annoying”.

FSD users are also subject to this frequent touch and, sometimes, to “silence” the alerts, the driver has to exert a little more force on the steering wheel, which, in some cases, even leads to inadvertently turning off the system.

In addition to confirming hand steering, vehicles that have a central interior camera (above the rear view mirror) watch drivers to make sure they are looking straight ahead – but that too is quite demanding.

Some drivers have found, for example, that they can’t wear a cap with a larger peak without the system constantly warning them to “watch the road”, seeming not to notice that the driver’s eyes are looking straight ahead.

There are reports that even claim that at one point, the system even deactivated and said that it would lose FSD privileges if it did so four more times. A kind of punishment for being a bad enforcer! However, in the test of almost a thousand kilometers carried out by greentheonly in Elon mode, there was no such problem.

The test was performed on what the hacker claims is a company-owned vehicle based on your comment that you “couldn’t get a non-Tesla car” to try in Elon Mode.

In the video, it looks like greentheonly is driving an old Model X, which could be old enough to not have an interior camera. It’s not clear if this model has the camera or how greentheonly gained access to the car.

Musk’s FSD is a box of surprises...The hacker also said that the system seems to change lanes randomly and ends up slowing down his lane. It is unknown whether this version of the FSD will be available to regular owners.

Greentheonly adds that Tesla’s software is more secure than ever compared to 2017 when the hacker started inspecting it. Despite its ability to consistently circumvent Tesla’s security, greentheonly notes in its tweet that the level of care Tesla puts into its software is rare to see compared to other cars it’s had access to, and it’s a “nice break -head that keeps getting better”.

by: Pplware