Tesla

 It is very difficult and to hack a Tesla Model S, but it's not impossible. Last week, researchers Kevin Mahaffey and Marc Rogers demonstrated that they were able to remotely unlock the Model S' doors, start the vehicle and drive away. They were also able to issue a "kill" command to a Model S to shut down the vehicle's systems, bringing it to a stop. Then, at this weekend's the DEF CON 23 digital security conference, they showed all in attendance how they did it.

This week, Tesla invited journalists to an announcement at the company's base in Hawthorne, California, in which Elon Musk is expected to give details about a new product unrelated to his line of electric cars. Tesla’s next big thing is widely believed to be a stationary battery, which will power homes, offices, and industrial spaces with stored energy.

A vulnerability in the Tesla Model S fully electric luxury car allows an attacker to unlock the vehicle, start the engine and drive away with it. The report is the second one from Chinese security company Qihoo 360 regarding the security of this particular Tesla model.

In a different demonstration, researchers managed to bypass the car’s protection systems and change the lock state, turn on the headlights, honk the horn, as well as open and close the sunroof.

As more public charging stations are built, electric-car drivers have access to increasingly-large areas of the U.S.

Owners of the Tesla Model S plug-in car largely rely on the company's Supercharger network, which can now facilitate a cross-country trip on one route, with more to come. But what does it actually take to build a Supercharger station? A lot of digging, apparently.

The Tesla Model S is essentially a computer on wheels, and as such, it has become the target of a hacking contest at the SyScan 360 security conference in Beijing. One of the contestants, Qihoo 360 Technology Co. apparently succeeded and were able to take over several of the car’s systems. While the car was in motion, the car’s locks, horn, headlights and skylight were all remotely operated by the contestants.

At the 2014 SyScan 360 Conference, being held July 16th and 17th 2014 at the Beijing Marriott Hotel Northeast in Beijing China. Security professionals and hackers paying $319 to attend the conference will have the opportunity to win $10,000 if they can compromise the security of the Tesla Model S.

While the official rules haven’t been released, one could surmise that this will involve remotely gaining control of the vehicle’s controls or physically via the 17 inch touchscreen in the Tesla.

Disappointed at the lack of charging stations for his Tesla S electric car in his home province, a Guangdong-based businessman has responded in typically Chinese fashion: he built his own. And not just one, either.

According to English-language news site Caixin Online, 44-year-old Zong Yi used his own money to buy and install an entire network of e-car chargers spanning 16 cities along a 5,750km (3,573mi) indirect route between Beijing and Guangzhong.

"Jailbreaking" used to mean... well, breaking out of jail.

In the modern world though, it typically refers to the process of cracking software codes to take greater control of applications and user interfaces.

A Tesla enthusiast has sparked a thousand variations on headlines saying “Tesla hacked” by working out that in-car network traffic is visible on a port designed for service access to the network.

The thread on the Tesla Motors Club forum begins in March, and reveals various traffic types that are visible on the network segment that connects the centre console (192.168.0.100), the navigation screen (192.168.0.101) and a gateway device (192.168.0.102).

While connected cars with more digital components is inevitable, what this means is that it could open up more cars to hackers who could find a way to take control of your car or access it remotely. Apparently Tesla’s electric vehicles exhibit such vulnerabilities, according to Nitesh Dhanjani, a corporate security consultant and an owner of a Tesla vehicle himself.