“You thought you’d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps,” he shouted at her, according to the police records.
Over the coming days, Stacey found that the parental control profile, to which she had no access, could almost entirely control the car, including its speed, climate control, lock and curfew hours, determining when the car could be driven.
Between 6 and 12 November 2025, Pucci remotely alternated the car’s temperature setting between extremely cold and extremely hot.
“The victim has not been able to drive certain speeds and on most recent occasions throughout this period, [the accused] has turned on ‘Valet Mode’ which immediately reduces the speed to 40km per hour causing significant safety issues for the victim on the road”, the police documents stated.
“The victim has not had any control of her vehicle since she noticed the parental control profile added on the 1st November 2025.
The fact these controls exist at all is a fucking nightmare. How are these vehicles legally sold? This technology should illegal I’m vehicles.
This is why we reset our vehicles when an employee leaves. Probably should do the same when you have a messy breakup.
My significant others just got a bunch of ford app notifications for a vehicle at a job he left 6 months ago. Not everyone takes these things seriously. I had no idea he even still had the app on his phone lol.
Made a video about this story for my channel this week, but it’s just a good reminder to be extra-cautious with anything that can be operated remotely: Revoke unauthorized profiles, change passwords often, check for hidden profiles, etc. If you don’t know how to do that yourself, go to the dealership and get help.
Knowing nothing of Tesla would she have been able to gain control back AFTER the lock was put on?
For example you can reboot an Android to safe mode and wipe back to factory.
I’m not sure if that’s possible on tech heavily cloud controlled through apps and online accounts.
What the hell? Why hasn’t she changed her password yet?
Aha, the article explains:
After having trouble navigating the technology, Stacey was offered help from Pucci, who said he would need the car to be registered in his name so “he could take control of the Tesla app to ‘assist her’”.
the scammers playbook
Oh look another reason for my “reasons to not buy modern cars” pile.
Add it to the ever-growing pile of why fly-by-wire for cars is and always will be a bad idea.
I think the problem here is more that the car has a network connection. I’m not sure how you could feasibly have an EV that isn’t fly-by-wire (meaning controlled by a computer or microcontroller).
Even something like a BMS is, in and of itself a computer.
The only wireless connectivity a car should have is Bluetooth to connect your phone to the head unit that is disconnected from the rest of the car.
It’s be nice to see some kind of modern EV run fully open source software.
This is why I like my old Jeep. It’s manual. It’s got great “security”. I always say it’s got an alarm system; because any small time thief would yell out of frustration. When I travel, I pull out the clutch pedal and take fuel relay out and unplug the battery and leave it in 4lo lol. Oh yeah and you have to unplug the clutch pedal fuse for it to start. If the battery has been unplugged, then you got remap the ECU which takes like a half hour of my shovel wedged against the gas pedal unless you want the engine stalling out every time you take your foot of the pedal. It’s also one of the rare colors, as in only 2000 made with dicks, I’m very childish, carved in hard to see spots to make it a nightmare for part thieves. So if you steal it, pretty much with a tow truck, it’s like putting a bullseye on yourself.
The point was, there’s no controlling that. I don’t like all the new tech put into cars.
Awesome. Love the tactics. :)
Hahah thanks!
Sorry, what’s 4lo?
4x4 vehicles can be put in 4hi or 4lo. 4lo is slow as hell.
I’m sure there’s some online fora and FB groups for absolute psychofuck narcissists who will go to great lengths to terrorize their supposed partners and children, and exchange awful ideas on how to keep them on a leash, and this includes the above takeover of a fucking Tesla.
And here I was mad that I could only find Android Auto head units when the radio in my 15 year old car died.
This sounds like a nightmare.
BTW pioneer does good generic non smart radios
Trade in the f’n neo-Nazi vehicle! There are plenty of better EV’s on the market.
We need a “right to be treated as an adult” affirmed by Congress that prohibits use of parental controls against users who can demonstrate adulthood by presentation of ID
Oh hooray another mandatory ID checkpoint! Don’t resist, it’s only for your safety and convenience, no other reasons!
/s
No /s needed mate. A car checking ID is laughable.
Why wouldn’t your management account for a car need to know whether you’re a licensed driver?
Because it’s neither the cops nor fucking human??
Why would it be legal for you to drive a car without a license
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Why should an App be even allowed to judge over legality?!
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In cases of emergency (life threatening injuries, or to escape life threatening situations) you are allowed to drive whatever if you have to.
An app should be allowed to manage the legal exposure of permitting you to use it to do something illegal, if we’re going to permit apps to be sued because they didn’t stop someone from doing something illegal.
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I’m not saying you should be required to show it; just that if you can, and do, they should be barred from applying juvenile controls to the account held by you, an adult.
And this is why both my cars are 40 years old.
Parental controls? On a car? Are you fucking kidding?
Serves her right for buying a Tesla IG.
As someone who changes oil for a living, I can confirm it’s in more than just Teslas.
Consider, an abuser will use any means or method within their power to inflict fear on their victims. It’s one of two languages they tend to speak; Intimidation or Flattery.
This woman was refusing to play his game, so he used the most effective means within his ability to hurt her; hacking her car. The obvious solution is to not associate with abusive people, but in the event that it’s already happened or otherwise unavoidable, the second solution is to remove their tools and create distance.
This represents an abuser being given tools to harass or even try to kill a victim by a company that prioritizes marketability and convenience over safety. If Tesla had been more thorough, this man wouldn’t have total control over this woman’s car.
I hate Elon, but, this is quite clearly the fault of the abusive partner, NOT Tesla, which is why the partner is in deep shit
It’s not like it was open access for everyone in public to change those settings, and those features clearly weren’t intended for that purpose. A good example is a baseball bat. Yes it could be used for crime, but its not the primary purpose… If they sold them with nails at the end though, the manufacturer would clearly be partially to blame.
If he wasn’t controlling her car, it likely would have been different abuse (gps tracker on the car). Unfortunately, we have more s**theads here in Australia than most other countries. And, most of the time it’s thanks to Murdoch media and facebook making people feel unhappy, play victim, etc.
Hopefully, the new laws against facebook get introduced, and it stops a lot of the ragebait that have made people like this worse.
And yes, I dated someone whose ex-partner basically stalked her, until we realised. We can’t blame apple because he used “find my phone”
I reckon there’s enough blame to go around for everyone in this case.
If you drive a swasticar, maybe don’t expect any privacy or ownership. That’s not how Nazi’s work.
Its not just these cars and not a new thing.
https://fractionalciso.ca/the-groundbreaking-2015-jeep-hack-changed-automotive-cybersecurity/
