In June a company based out of Quebec, Canada released a new product that gave Tesla owners the equivalent of the Acceleration Boost for a discounted price.
Ingenext, the company that created the hack said their product was undetectable by the automaker, but not surprisngly included the following disclaimer, basically saying buyer beware.
Any purchaser or user of the Boost 50 module releases Technologies Ingenext and all its related companies from any responsibility regarding the full or partial validity of the manufacturer’s warranty following the use of this equipment. We are not responsible for any modifications the manufacturer could do to your car (ex: turning off some features etc.).
Despite their claims Tesla would not be able to detect their product, the latest 2020.32.2 software update appears to prove otherwise. A user on Reddit, u/Potato3838, shared a photo of a new notification on his Model 3 which said an incompatible vehicle modification was detected.
Papa Elon cracking down on 3rd Party Mods? from r/teslamotors
What’s not known is if Tesla will do anything else other than provide the notification to potentially scare the owner into removing it. As he notes in his post, he has yet to visit a Supercharger, but Tesla could easily disable his ability to charge at their stations. It wouldn’t exactly be fair, but it’s something they already do for salvaged vehicles.
It should come as no surprise Tesla would figure out a way to detect the hack, as they were probably one of the first buyers when it was released. Just like when the first hackers were able to jailbreak the iPhone, Apple was quick to release an update that blocked their access. Then a new way to jailbreak the phone was developed, and Apple patched it again…and so it continued for years on end.
Will Ingenext figure out a way to get around Tesla and make it “undetectable” again? We’ll have to wait and see.