A Tesla software hacker discovered a secret driver mode named after the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, that allows for hands-free driving in Tesla vehicles.
According to The Verge, the hidden feature named — “Elon Mode”, was discovered by a Tesla software hacker known online as @greentheonly.
For years, the anonymous hacker dug deep into the vehicle code and discovered things like how Tesla can prevent you from using your power seats or the Model 3’s centre camera before it was officially activated.
After discovering and activating Elon Mode, the hacker went out to test the system and posted some shaky footage of the experience on Twitter.
“Impressions after nearly 600 miles on 11.4.3 with Elon mode (could not get a non-Tesla car to try in time). It went much better than the prior experiment obviously. Many contributing factors. I was not as late so I did not mind as much,” it tweeted.
The hacker did not share the literal “Elon Mode” setting on the screen but maintained that it was real, the report said.
The hacker discovered that while using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) software, the car did not require their attention.
FSD is Tesla’s vision-based advanced driver-assist system, which is currently in beta but is available to anyone who paid up to $15,000 for the option.
In May, challenging Elon Musk’s full self-driving claims, a Tesla whistleblower reportedly leaked 100GB of data to a German media outlet that contains thousands of customer complaints about the automaker’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) features.
The documents obtained by Handelsblatt detail about 2,400 self-acceleration issues and more than 1,500 braking problems with Tesla cars.
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