[Vespasian]

I think there is a difference between hacking (or even exploring) something like a phone, game console or router and a car, plane or any other thing that can immediately put in danger the live and health of many unrelated persons.

Therefore I thinks Tesla acts as responsible as they should when detecting and reacting upon active (as opposed to passively analyzing radio transmissions) manipulation of their cars inner systems. As other comments have pointed out you don't want to find out about bugs in critical systems triggered by your entertainment system jailbreak when driving with 100km/h+ on a crowded highway.

Your phone hack / mod fails badly => Buy a new phone Your car hack fails badly => People die

It's simply not worth it.

[kalleboo]

Car modification has been around since cars started coming off assembly lines - everything from purely aesthetic stuff to lifting or lowering the suspension, turbos, nitrous oxide etc. Software is just the next step. There are even open source ECUs now http://hackaday.com/2014/01/01/building-an-engine-control-un... https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/312898525/rusefi-gpl-au...

[kybernetikos]

> Tesla... of their cars

This is the key point. If I've bought it, the car does not belong to Tesla anymore and they have no valid reason to be policing what the owner of the car is doing with it. If there should be rules against modification, then that should be the purview of vehicle licensing, not Tesla (and while you're at it, you should probably outlaw people maintaining their own cars or building them from scratch too.) The most that is reasonable is for them to refuse to honor the warranty if I've damaged it while modifying.

[bloat]

You don't have to outlaw homebrew vehicles. The car already has to pass an inspection to be allowed on the road. I guess, if it doesn't already, that the inspection will soon have to include that any safety critical software is unmodified. And when people are making their own fly by wire cars, and writing their own software - who knows how they'll certify it.

[Vespasian]

It's certainly true that the manufacturer should have no say over what you do with your car (if they had what would stop them from going the way of the printer industry and force you to only use their tires etc).

I might have misused the words "their" in this sentence so what I was trying to say is that since modifying software can very easy (no special tools, garage or knowledge required, just an unchecked download and a 5€ self made adapter of ebay) I'm in the favour of locking down security critical systems (the WHOLE car) as much as possible since not only you but everyone around you is concerned at least until checks associated with getting a valid license are updated and enforced.

What would be really great is if manufactures where to offer an API to allow developers and hackers customizations where they make sense (like adding your favourite online service) and not forcing them through the whole process of trial and error.