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Teslas Can Still Be Stolen With a Cheap Radio Hack—Despite New Keyless Tech

EXCLUSIVE: Ultra-wideband radio has been heralded as the solution for “relay attacks” that are used to steal cars in seconds. But researchers found Teslas equipped with it are as vulnerable as ever.

In a video shared with WIRED, researchers at the Beijing-based automotive cybersecurity firm GoGoByte demonstrated that they could carry out a relay attack against the latest Tesla Model 3 despite its upgrade to an ultra-wideband keyless entry system, instantly unlocking it with less than a hundred dollars worth of radio equipment. Security researchers have long recommended that carmakers prevent relay attacks by developing keyless entry systems that more precisely measure the timing between a key fob or phone sending a signal and the car receiving it. In 2020, Tesla even wrote in a filing to the US Federal Communications Commission that it would be implementing ultra-wideband in its keyless entry systems, and that the ability to far more precisely measure the distance of a key fob or smartphone from a car would—or at least could —prevent its vehicles from being stolen via relay attacks.

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