According to a group of researchers, they have successfully hacked the hardware in a Tesla vehicle, granting access to normally paid upgrades. They claim to have “jailbroken” the car, allowing them to unlock specific features that are typically unavailable in that particular model. The researchers also suggest that this vulnerability may enable owners to access self-driving in regions where it is not normally accessible, but further testing is needed to confirm this. The research will be presented at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas. Titled “Jailbreaking an Electric Vehicle in 2023 or What It Means to Hotwire Tesla’s x86-Based Seat Heater,” the session discusses the attack that requires physical access to the car. By using a technique called voltage glitching on the car’s AMD processor, the researchers were able to run arbitrary software on the infotainment system, unlocking features such as rear heated seats. They also claim to have extracted personal user data, including the phonebook and calendar entries.