Car theft video reminds Tesla owners that relay attacks are always a thing

Image: Stefan Gruber / getty

The crooks have certainly not forgotten.

Despite a wave of advertising last year warning Tesla owners about the risk, another unlucky individual appears to have been the victim of a so-called relay attack – thus losing his expensive car electric. In the surveillance video posted on YouTube (integrated below), it appears that thieves are amplifying the signal issued by the car owner's keychain (located inside his home) in order to make him believe to the vehicle that he was present.

And, after having first struggled but managed to unplug the vehicle in charge, the two car thieves manage to get away.

"My @tesla was stolen this morning, with just a tablet and a phone extending my cantilever reach to the back of the house," tweeted Anthony Kennedy October 20th.

Mashable has not independently confirmed that this video is real. We know, however, that such attacks have occurred in the past.

In what will come little consolation for Kennedy, he could have prevented the attack in several ways. And although we can not in any way blame the victim, the loss of Kennedy could perhaps help inform other Tesla owners how to better protect their rides.

The easiest way to stop this kind of attack would be to store your Tesla keychain in a faraday pouch when it will not be used. This would have prevented thieves from picking up and amplifying the signal from the real key.

However, a recent update of Tesla's software would probably also have prevented the theft, albeit in a different way. Tesla recently launched an update of the S-model cars, offering owners the ability to set a PIN on the car. Just as you can set an authentication code to lock your smartphone, this allows you to set a four-digit code that you must enter before you can drive the car.

In other words, even if crooks had managed to relay the signal from the keychain, the car would not drive.

Kennedy did not have this feature enabled, which he now regrets.

"I understand that I should enable PIN access," he notes. in his tweet about the flight.

So here is. You can bet that Kennedy's next race, assuming he gets a replacement Model S, will have PIN protection activated from the first day.

Tesla owners should learn from Kennedy's misfortune and remember that software updates designed to protect cars from theft do not work if they are not activated. Thieves on the lookout for their next Model S rely on you to forget. Try to disappoint.