Tesla Model 3 owner unlocks wrong car and drives off

14 March 2023

Another day, another Tesla story - this time all the way from Canada. It all started with a little confusion about which car belongs to who but ended up in an accidental theft of a vehicle and Tesla’s advanced security system did absolutely nothing to stop it.

According to a report from Global News, a Vancouver business owner somehow managed to unlock someone else’s Tesla Model 3 with his phone and drove it away. The mix up started with two identical Teslas parked side by side.

It should have never happened. The only possibility for this to work is if the keyfob was already in the car and the car itself was unlocked. Both owners claim that wasn’t the case and the first owner just unlocked the Model 3, jumped in and went to pick his kids up from school. He only noticed something was up when noticed a crack in the windshield and tried blaming his wife for it on the phone.

She wouldn’t have any of it and then he started getting text messages from the actual owner of the car. That owner apparently got the phone number of the guy who was in the wrong car, from a piece of paper left in the other Tesla. Did the other Model 3 unlock as well for the wrong owner? Or was it left unlocked by the first guy, who jumped into the wrong car? This is a Monty Python migratory swallow situation all over.

What is unusual though, isi the fact that after driving away and then stopping and leaving the car, the guy who mixed up the cars in the first place was then able to get inside the Model 3 again and drive it back without any issues. This only could have happened if there was a keyfob somewhere in the car or Tesla’s security system failed completely.

It is a sign of our times, modern cars look very much alike, Tesla doesn’t offer that many different colors - unless we look at the new Ultra Red offered for Model S and Model X - and there are tens of thousands of identical cars. Once you’re inside they all look identical and it’s possible that the seat position and everything else will be just as it would in your car.

We have a simple solution - a pair of giant fuzzy dice hanging off the rear-view mirror. Obnoxious - sure, low tech - heck yeah, does it work though? You bet, nobody in their right mind will ever mistake their car for one with a pair of fuzzy dice.

Via