Automotive

Hacked Tesla pulled out of garage using Amazon Echo

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Tesla Model S owners now have autosummon capability
Tesla Motors
Amazon passes on the command to roll out of the garage to the Tesla
YouTube Screenshot/Jason Goecke
Code written for the cloud makes the hack possible
Jason Goecke
Tesla Model S owners now have autosummon capability
Tesla Motors
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Jason Goecke has provided us with a little glimpse of the future, that's actually possible right now. The California developer hacked together a way to command his Tesla Model S to pull itself out of his garage using his Amazon Echo.

You can see a demonstration of Goecke telling his Echo to "Ask Kitt to pull the car out of the garage" in the video below. As Alexa confirms the command, we can see the Model S starting up, the garage door opens and then the Tesla drives itself down the driveway, all while a drone gives us a second view from outside the garage.

Goecke explains that this was accomplished by writing a few bits of code that is all cloud-based.

"I am using the Amazon Echo's Alex Skill Kit to trigger on a keyword ('ask KITT') and send the resulting event to AWS Lambda," he writes on Teslarati. "Lambda then executes my code where I use the Tesla Golang library I recently published. The Golang code on Lambda then calls the unofficial Tesla API which in turns triggers the car to take action. In this case, to open the garage door via Homelink and drive on out using the Summon capability."

Code written for the cloud makes the hack possible
Jason Goecke

Tesla made it possible earlier this year via an over-the-air update for all Tesla owners to summon their Model S on private property.

While Amazon has officially opened its voice-operated Alexa platform to developers, Tesla has not yet put out its own API for developers. Unofficial ones like the one Goecke used are available for Tesla owners to tinker at their own risk.

Source: Teslarati

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3 comments
Mel Tisdale
Adding "at their own risk" does not absolve Tesla from at least partial culpability for any harm that results from this driverless car's behaviour. I assume it uses the 'parking assist' sensors to stop it hitting things like toddlers and pets, which is all very well until the sensors fail. Unless someone puts a stop to this behaviour, these cars will become potentially lethal as they age and the sensors fail, which is inevitable.
Until we have fully assessed all the potential dangers that autonomous vehicles pose for us - even if it only entails applications like this one - it should not be possible to move them without a driver at the controls. Two tons, or thereabouts, moving even very slowly can kill. The slower it does so, the more horrific the death.
Before Messrs Musk, Goecke and those like them develop any more apps like this, I hope they have considered all the dangers involved.
Tanstar
Mel, my Mazda 3 has obstacle avoidance that beeps at me if I'm backing or turning toward traffic. If one sensor goes offline the entire system shuts down to an error message. If these programs take similar precautions, where the automated actions cannot activate unless all sensors read as good, then they'll be fine.
Stephen N Russell
Love 2 sample the new Tesla systems but need backup mode 2.