Still, it would be nice if they gave us a read-only mode. Not as many would be interested in messing with the settings compared to those who would just like to see them (and maybe download them for tracking). A read-only mode would also ensure against accidental changes.
That's what I'd like, certainly.
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The problem is, if it's a static code per Ranger it's just bad security. Sooner or later someone's going to watch what their Ranger typed in and post it online. I assume Tesla could push out an update to disable that particular code, but how long will that take. If they don't want us to get in there, in which case they should implement some type of time-based password system. While this is a little concerning to me, it raises deeper concerns over Tesla's information security program in general.
I would just assume that Tesla has bad information security on the cars. But whatever. There's a basic principle that the person who possesses the physical car can do whatever he likes with it, given time; there's no point in trying to secure it against anything except accidents.
I also don't think trade secrets are worth much in Tesla's case, so I'm not really worried as an investor about Tesla's information security, either; it's culture and attitude which are differentiating Tesla. Anyone, given enough money, could have built an electric car from the ground up, used a squirrel-cage motor, picked commodity battery cells, temperature-regulated them using a heat pump, placed the battery under the floor for a low center of gravity, etc., but every other company made *choices* to do it a different way, and Tesla is now years ahead on setting up mass production.
EDIT: Of course, I just thought of the worrisome scenario (stupid me, this is probably the one you were thinking of): someone figures out how to distribute bogus updates over the air, and kills some or all Tesla drivers using hacked firmware.
Yeah, this is a real worry. It would be very nice to know what the over-the-air security protocols are. Personally I'd rather not have any over-the-air connectivity for exactly this paranoid reason.