Hackers may be on their way to bringing to life Elon Musk's worse fear of a fleet hack as thieves have found another way to hack into and steal Teslas undetected.
Dutch news site nrc.nl reported a group of thieves in Europe have found a way to circumvent the vehicle's GPS tracking system and may have stolen as many as nine Tesla's within a week.
It's unclear what method is being exploited to steal the vehicles however, last September a Chinese security firm discovered multiple security vulnerabilities that allowed them to manipulate various components of the car, although Tesla has since patched the flaw. It is unclear whether or not the stolen cars were updated.
There have also been reports of white hats simulating smart key fobs by mimicking their signals which would allow a thief to start a vehicle and drive it short distance before being unable to restart the vehicle and reports of attacks exploiting Android flaws to get into a driver's Tesla app to remotely control the vehicle.
Tesla battery and motor components are valuable and one chopped-up Model S was discovered, by authorities, in the back of a truck attempting to enter Germany from the Netherlands leading some to believe other stolen Teslas may have suffered similar fates.
Tesla is reportedly working on a patch that would better secure its vehicles but it is unclear when it will be available. Last week, Musk told the National Governors Association that his greatest concern for his autonomous vehicles was a fleet hack.
