“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.
the parental control […] could almost entirely control the car, including its speed
They assume kids in the driver seat who need to be controlled? How weird is that??
It’s wild to me the extent of control that hides under remote capabilities for Tesla. I could never drive one of these knowing it.
Basically all modern vehicles unfortunately.
Yeah. :(
I live in a city with a central (free) street car line and have a Segway, so I almost never drive, though I own a 2013 Kia. Stories like this are far more interesting to me than most, I’d imagine, given my general lack of familiarity with how advanced auto tech has become.
I feel you, I’m working on getting a 1984 Honda ct110 to stop being stupid and drive an 01 Tacoma, basically every car I’ve driven has been older than 2010 with a heavy bias towards early 00s and 90s and everything past that point deals psychic damage just looking at it. I don’t need cruise control and I sure as shit don’t need a fucken iPad mounted in the dash.
I have never, and I will do my absolute best to never even ride in a Tesla.
They are simply unsafe
Super unnecessary and dystopian. If you‘re a minor with a driving license your parent should either be by your side or you know what you‘re doing since you have a drivers license. If those systems fail you need a better system rather than parental control software in a vehicle.
Rich people treat their kids like adult sized tweens until they turn 40.
The fact these controls exist at all is a fucking nightmare. How are these vehicles legally sold? This technology should illegal I’m vehicles.
To paraphrase Strong Bad: “Your [car] has too much computer in it…and not enough typewriter.”
I love seeing strong bad references in the wild!
Virus equals very yes? Computer over?! What does that mean?!
Really, we should have heeded his warnings.
I did say “if you fall in a bottomless pit, you die of starvation” out loud today and no one got it
The car hacking scene is growing in response. More and more, it’s becoming possible to disable/circumvent these remote capabilities. Not that the car makers are making it easy.
So are actors like Putin. I doubt these systems exist in the presidential motorcade.
I honestly don’t know, they’re death traps
What the hell? Why hasn’t she changed her password yet?
Aha, the article explains:
After having trouble navigating the technology, Stacey was offered help from Pucci, who said he would need the car to be registered in his name so “he could take control of the Tesla app to ‘assist her’”.
the scammers playbook
Remember kids, if you give full control of you car to someone else you will have a bad time.
Remember, Tesla added this feature after widespread demand for parental controls on use following an incident in which a teenager killed themselves by driving too fast. People asked why they couldn’t override the car with parental controls if that feature was a technical possibility and there was even talk of using legal force to make them do it if they didn’t voluntarily comply.
Tesla requiring proof that the limited account belonged to a minor was not going to be permitted. Parents did this to us.
I doubt it was parents. It was probably the same people that run all the parents rights groups: fundamental Christian extremists.
It literally was the parents
“Valet mode” also exists because valets were joyriding people’s Teslas
this is how so many marriages end with abusers.
but ok…i guess we just blame the victims for abusers who own the ultimate choice over their own behaviour
You’re right, it’s better to pretend abusers don’t exists and don’t take any precautions. Leave our door open, use single password for everything and carry wallets in our back pockets. When something bad happens we’ll just blame the criminal and everything will be fixed.
wow ok i get it. you hate victims. you know who else hates their victims? abusers. you talk like an abuser there with how much you hate victims.
I’ve seen dozens of cautionary tales written by abused women, telling others how abusers operate, what to look out for and what to do to stay safe. I guess all those women hate victims too.
wow so you cant see the difference there either. you abusers sure all love telling on yourselves.
I see prejudice, that’s enough.
I see so if your parents get scammed for every last penny leaving you no inheritance because they were too embarrassed and felt a bottomless pit of shame and humiliation to come forward about scam artists because no one can be vulnerable around you because you blame them for any misfortune. They can’t turn to you just for some strength or advice to do next steps for disaster management because disasters, challenges and growth aren’t permitted in your world.
And let me guess: everyone in the world ‘annoys’ you.
Wonderful relationship and empathy material of a typical npd.
Remember kids, if you give full control of you car to someone else you will have a bad time.
This isn’t advice, it’s victim blaming. It’s Pucci’s fault that he took control of her car and terrorized her.
Yes, I know, woman would have to say it to for it o be an advice. If a man says it it’s victim blaming.
It has nothing to do with gender and everything with you literally blaming the victim instead of the abuser.
Musk should have to write a check for $1 billion to her.
I’m not kidding. That’s how we have to punish billionaires. Every infraction is a minimum $1 billion payout to each person.
I’m with you. I wish we lived in a world where these rich bastards were being held meaningfully accountable.
It’s up to us. We have to force our representatives to enforce justice, or we will, and it will include those who denied us justice.
I wish there was a real way to do that.
It should be a significant percentage instead, I think. 5% net worth.
He’d fix that shit real quick.
He owes her 10 million and pays 2 billion dollar in taxes
non monetized punishment should be their punishment. never mind paying anyone off. make all that money powerless.
Why? These are known useful features of the car. The guy changing the settings remotely is the criminal and she was too ignorant to disable his account. It’s like if you give your house keys to your stalker and find them illegally in your house then trying to sue the lock maker.
Please explain how remotely limiting the speed of a vehicle is useful and not dangerous.
The only “parental controls” you need are the keys.
And here I was mad that I could only find Android Auto head units when the radio in my 15 year old car died.
This sounds like a nightmare.
BTW pioneer does good generic non smart radios
This is why we reset our vehicles when an employee leaves. Probably should do the same when you have a messy breakup.
With Tesla you can’t really do that, whatever account is registered as the owner (she transferred the ownership from her account to his) is the only one that can add and remove others to access the car via the app. The only other way is to show Tesla you are the actual owner of the car and then they can switch it back to your account. Fuckong nightmare.
There is another way: don’t own a Tesla.
Having owned a Tesla for 3 years, I can’t find the words to express how fucking right your statement is. Those things are the definition of the phrase “expensive, underwhelming and frustrating garbage”.
There’s only so much bullshit I’d put up with for that admittedly crazy acceleration (drove a friend’s once and they can go). From the privacy angle alone, I see them as basically ring doorbell cameras on wheels (though wonder if I should instead consider them like flock cameras on wheels). For safety, they can require having the presence of mind (and physical capability, which could be impossible if an accident occurred) to remove a door panel to access the mechanical door latch while the car is on fire. Build quality sucks. They are pretty much a poster child for overpromise underdeliver.
And that’s not even touching who benefits from Tesla doing well.
Wow fuck Tesla, atleast with Ford it’s just an in vehicle option in settings to reset
My significant others just got a bunch of ford app notifications for a vehicle at a job he left 6 months ago. Not everyone takes these things seriously. I had no idea he even still had the app on his phone lol.
Smart devices are for dumb people.
This is why I like my old Jeep. It’s manual. It’s got great “security”. I always say it’s got an alarm system; because any small time thief would yell out of frustration. When I travel, I pull out the clutch pedal and take fuel relay out and unplug the battery and leave it in 4lo lol. Oh yeah and you have to unplug the clutch pedal fuse for it to start. If the battery has been unplugged, then you got remap the ECU which takes like a half hour of my shovel wedged against the gas pedal unless you want the engine stalling out every time you take your foot of the pedal. It’s also one of the rare colors, as in only 2000 made with dicks, I’m very childish, carved in hard to see spots to make it a nightmare for part thieves. So if you steal it, pretty much with a tow truck, it’s like putting a bullseye on yourself.
The point was, there’s no controlling that. I don’t like all the new tech put into cars.
Awesome. Love the tactics. :)
Hahah thanks!
Sorry, what’s 4lo?
4x4 vehicles can be put in 4hi or 4lo. 4lo is slow as hell.
Its like j-lo, but for jeeps.
I’ve no idea what a j-lo is either. Never heard of it.
Jennifer Lopez,
Made a video about this story for my channel this week, but it’s just a good reminder to be extra-cautious with anything that can be operated remotely: Revoke unauthorized profiles, change passwords often, check for hidden profiles, etc. If you don’t know how to do that yourself, go to the dealership and get help.
I’ll just add my sisters story here because its similar and just as crazy. Rob eventually tried to kill a girlfriend and luckily her new boyfriend was a better shot
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna19253352
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/national/article98680887.html
Jesus. Awful stuff.
Totally. Thankfully his girls are normal and don’t seem to have a lot of baggage from it. One of them is a very successful beautician that recently did the hair and makeup for one of the stars of the 50th SNL celebration. She looks like she could be a movie star herself.
Rob was a master manipulator yet somehow I never fell for it and it drove a wedge between us to the point that I wouldn’t be invited to family events. Funny how standing up to a bully will make the bully run away.
One time he made another one of my nieces cry by being cruel with words and calling her ugly (she was 13 and that is not fucking cool to do to a 13 year old) and it made me so upset. I yelled at him and confronted him. Anyway a few moments into the argument he acts like he wants to fight me and I step up to him and he goes and runs and hides behind my sister, knowing that I would not hurt her to get to him. Such a coward. The world is a better place without him.
One time he made another one of my nieces cry by being cruel with words and calling her ugly (she was 13 and that is not fucking cool to do to a 13 year old) and it made me so upset. I yelled at him and confronted him.
Good on you for sticking up for the kid. That is an awful way to treat a young girl, no doubt, and standing up to bullies is important.
Knowing nothing of Tesla would she have been able to gain control back AFTER the lock was put on?
For example you can reboot an Android to safe mode and wipe back to factory.
I’m not sure if that’s possible on tech heavily cloud controlled through apps and online accounts.
Oh look another reason for my “reasons to not buy modern cars” pile.
I’m sure there’s some online fora and FB groups for absolute psychofuck narcissists who will go to great lengths to terrorize their supposed partners and children, and exchange awful ideas on how to keep them on a leash, and this includes the above takeover of a fucking Tesla.
Add it to the ever-growing pile of why fly-by-wire for cars is and always will be a bad idea.
I think the problem here is more that the car has a network connection. I’m not sure how you could feasibly have an EV that isn’t fly-by-wire (meaning controlled by a computer or microcontroller).
Even something like a BMS is, in and of itself a computer.
The only wireless connectivity a car should have is Bluetooth to connect your phone to the head unit that is disconnected from the rest of the car.
It’s be nice to see some kind of modern EV run fully open source software.
We need a “right to be treated as an adult” affirmed by Congress that prohibits use of parental controls against users who can demonstrate adulthood by presentation of ID
Oh hooray another mandatory ID checkpoint! Don’t resist, it’s only for your safety and convenience, no other reasons!
/s
No /s needed mate. A car checking ID is laughable.
Why wouldn’t your management account for a car need to know whether you’re a licensed driver?
Because it’s neither the cops nor fucking human??
Why would it be legal for you to drive a car without a license
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Why should an App be even allowed to judge over legality?!
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In cases of emergency (life threatening injuries, or to escape life threatening situations) you are allowed to drive whatever if you have to.
An app should be allowed to manage the legal exposure of permitting you to use it to do something illegal, if we’re going to permit apps to be sued because they didn’t stop someone from doing something illegal.
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I’m not saying you should be required to show it; just that if you can, and do, they should be barred from applying juvenile controls to the account held by you, an adult.
Who is “they” in this scenario? Because the person who applied the controls in this story was the account holder.
Yes; he applied parental controls from his account to her account by misrepresenting to Tesla that she was a juvenile driving his car
Enrico Pucci was able to control his former partner’s electric car remotely, controlling its speed, temperature settings and lock
Yeah, the existence of that character made it a huge pain finding photos for my video.
Though owner controls they were given full access to. Strange how that was left out.
Maybe don’t give root access to your device out to your partner of a few months.
Knowing how gaslighting and Stockholm syndrome looks like, the owner/victims may think their partner is made in heaven.
And what does that have to do with Tesla?
Tesla having root access that can be given to a malicious actor.
