How one woman’s Tesla was remotely controlled – and used to harass her – by an abusive ex-partner

“You thought you’d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps,” he shouted at her, according to the police records.

Over the coming days, Stacey found that the parental control profile, to which she had no access, could almost entirely control the car, including its speed, climate control, lock and curfew hours, determining when the car could be driven.

Between 6 and 12 November 2025, Pucci remotely alternated the car’s temperature setting between extremely cold and extremely hot.

“The victim has not been able to drive certain speeds and on most recent occasions throughout this period, [the accused] has turned on ‘Valet Mode’ which immediately reduces the speed to 40km per hour causing significant safety issues for the victim on the road”, the police documents stated.

“The victim has not had any control of her vehicle since she noticed the parental control profile added on the 1st November 2025.

www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/sep/09/how-one-womans-tesla-was-remotely-controlled-and-harass-by-her-abusive-ex-partner-ntwnfb

I hate Elon, but, this is quite clearly the fault of the abusive partner, NOT Tesla, which is why the partner is in deep shit

It’s not like it was open access for everyone in public to change those settings, and those features clearly weren’t intended for that purpose. A good example is a baseball bat. Yes it could be used for crime, but its not the primary purpose… If they sold them with nails at the end though, the manufacturer would clearly be partially to blame.

If he wasn’t controlling her car, it likely would have been different abuse (gps tracker on the car). Unfortunately, we have more s**theads here in Australia than most other countries. And, most of the time it’s thanks to Murdoch media and facebook making people feel unhappy, play victim, etc.

Hopefully, the new laws against facebook get introduced, and it stops a lot of the ragebait that have made people like this worse.

And yes, I dated someone whose ex-partner basically stalked her, until we realised. We can’t blame apple because he used “find my phone”

Imma be real chief, if my car can be controlled by anyone but the driver, it’s an unnaceptable product. I even disagree with parental controls - if someone isn’t mature enough to drive without their parents, they don’t get their license.

Sounds like you’re blaming Elon, not the person doing the abuse. Technically, the driver ONLY had access. The problem was, she was conned by the abuser into giving him access too.

You’re trying to phrase it in a way that is bullshit honestly… Like handing over your computer credentials and then whining “only the user should be able to access the system”. Yeah, the user did… Until you gave them access.

The level of the control they had remotely was limited. They weren’t turning the wheel. And even the claim that slowing the car down to lower speeds is causing safety issues honestly, is a fairly sketchy one…

Yes, I hate Elon too… But, sounds like you’re more upset at Elon, than the abusive asshole… This is ENTIRELY the abusive assholes fault.

You don’t need to buy a car with connectivity, but that won’t stop abusive shitheads from messing with your car (i’ve been threatened 3-4x seriously in my life). Trust me