How a lady 'bio-hacked' her body to turn her arm into a key for a Tesla car
Tuesday, August 13, 2019 IST
We all are familiar with what hacking is but do you know what ‘bio-hacking’ is? A software engineer recently tried ‘bio-hacking’ by implanting a chip inside in her arm. The purpose behind this bio-hacking? To turn her arm into a Tesla car key. According to a report by TechCrunch, Amie DD, who has a background in game simulation and programming, posted a video of bio-hacking her body.
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The software engineer, according to TechCrunch, took out the RFID chip from her Tesla Model 3 valet card. She used acetone to take out the chip and then put it in a biopolymer. She then asked a professional who specializes in body modifications to inject it in her arm through a hollow needle.
Interestingly, this isn’t the first bio-hack performed by her. As she explained in a blog post, earlier she had done this with her other arm. There’s another implant in her left arm for “access control” and she uses it to unlock the door of her house. On her blog, she explained that it took her one full year to implant the RFID chip in her right arm.
The main idea behind the bio-hack was to be able to start a Tesla Model 3 car with her arm. However, she didn’t clarify or mention whether she was successful in turning her arm into a key for Tesla car and start the vehicle.
A video detailing the process from start to finish has been uploaded on the software engineer’s blog. She repeatedly got in touch with Tesla at various steps of the process. She also revealed that she is a part of Tesla’s bug bounty programme. As she explained on her blog, “I’m part of Telsa bug crowd bounty, and I've been looking through, to see what information I can get from the car, to see if writing data to my current RFID hand implant is a possibility.” It turned out doing so was a possibility but whether it actually ends up in starting a Tesla Model 3 with an arm remains to be seen.
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