“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.
Smart devices are for dumb people.
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.
Basically, the person that owns the car can always kick out other people’s access.
If she legally registered that vehicle under her partner’s name (instead of her’s), then she’s shit out of luck.
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??
Rich people treat their kids like adult sized tweens until they turn 40.
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.
I have never, and I will do my absolute best to never even ride in a Tesla.
They are simply unsafe
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.
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.
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.
Are you seriously suggesting that teenagers are just going to do what they’re told? The one thing teenagers are famous for NOT doing. Just because their parents might know they’re out driving, that doesn’t actually prevent teenagers from doing stupid shit.
You also do realize that you don’t have to be 18 to get a driver’s license right? The almost universal standard around the world is between 15 and 16 years old, including in the US where Tesla is based, and Australia where this article is from.
The company introduced Speed Limit Mode following the death of 18-year-olds Barrett Riley and Edgar Monserratt Martinez in 2018. The pair crashed doing 116 mph (186 kph) in a 30 mph (40 kph) zone.
The almost universal standard around the world is between 15 and 16 years old
You might want to check that, because if you look at the list of minimum driving ages on Wikipedia you will see that most countries have a minimum of 18 for cars.
So it is.
But not in Australia where the article is about, so it doesn’t really matter anyway for the actual discussion at hand.
Even in the US many states allow kids to start driving as early as 15 under learning permits. It’s funny we don’t want social media companies putting controls in due to freedom of speech, but then tell parents they are responsible to control their kids. Seems like there is a middle ground, and when a person abuses that control, they go to jail.
Learning permits require a licensed adult in the passenger seat at all times.
That’s exactly their point. If a licensed adult has to be in the vehicle (even though there is no way for them to control the vehicle from the passengers seat) then that’s not much different than a competent adult guardian monitoring their kids online time.
May want to look into those states… In my 16 year olds can easily drive without an adult. They are limited (can’t drive at night) but are allowed to drive. This the case in a ton of states.
16 with a Driver’s License, sure. 15 with a Learner’s Permit, no.
If you’re a licensed driver, you know how to drive. If people are being given licenses without properly making sure the licensee is both qualified and mentally capable to drive and know what responsibilities that entails, then we shouldn’t be letting them drive and that’s a failing on society.
At least where I’m from, unlicensed minors aren’t allowed to drive without a licensed adult present.
And if you don’t trust your unlicensed teenager to not steal your keys and go on a joyride, the I can’t help you because you need a professional family therapist to work through issues.
Licensed driver ≠ able to drive. Lots of jurisdictions will give 18 years or older a license and the only requirement is passing the lenient written test.
Edit: My anecdotal experience on the road has shown me lots of people have licenses that clearly should not.
That was literally the point that they were making.
Are you sure you’re reading that right? Their first sentence contradicts your claim.
That’s why you need to read past the first sentence.
The almost universal standard around the world is between 15 and 16 years old
No. It is 18. The universe, btw, is outside of your weird little province in that weird country where they still use body parts for measurement units.
And as soon someone is driving on public roads with a legal license, everything that the car does or does not is his own personal responsibility, not the parents. They have to leave their fingers out.
Maybe you’re right, don’t really care because it’s not very relevant to the article. I looked up Australia which is where this article is about, and 15-16 is the case there, so thats all that really matters for the discussion.
I made the assumption about it being more common based on verifying the place the article is about and my own experience when traveling internationally.
You realize the article is about Australia right? Clearly you didn’t even bother to read it since it mentions Sydney in the first paragraph.
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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?
Reminded me of a claimed incident where a reporter or whistle blower was killed by their car. thought it was weird that it wasn’t bigger news.
edit: tried searching for it. Not Hastings or that ABC conspiracy. Though perhaps something was up with Hastings but that’s a whole other mess.
Not sure if this is the one you’re thinking of but I remember folks being suspicious of it. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/us/ice-shooting-texas-witness-dead.html
Looks like it’s paywalled though so I couldn’t skim through to even see if it was Tesla related.
It at least before 2020. The details I vaguely remember was the vehicle hit something at top open throttle and the passenger was killed either on impact or during the subsequent fire.
Find it a bit disconcerting how many suggestive accidents there have been matching that.
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
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.
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.
that feature is called “Valet mode”. It’s specifically to stop valets going joy-riding on your $150k car that was faster than most Ferraris back when that feature got added.
Sweet. So why does it need to be done remotely? Why not a passcode?
It offers both. But if you do it remotely from the owner’s phone, it doesn’t require the passcode. Presumably in case you forget the passcode you set in the car.
And once you build the functionality to turn it off remotely, you may as well allow turning it on as well. For example, if you realize you forgot to enable valet mode shortly after handing over the keys, you can still do so.
non monetized punishment should be their punishment. never mind paying anyone off. make all that money powerless.
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
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.
I mean I generally agree but that’s not what’s happening here. They can limit the speed and power but they can’t like force the accelerator or slam on the brakes or something.
Randomly limiting someone to 40km/h on a highway or fucking with the extremes of heat and cold are dangerous things to do to a driver.
Speed limits applied through the parental controls don’t take effect mid-drive. They only take effect once parked.
Still a pretty shitty situation to be put in.
Randomly limiting someone to 40km/h on a highway
1000000%
I once had a flat on a major freeway, and had to switch out the donut tire, and then maintain 40 mph for 100 miles to get home. (So the donut tire wouldn’t go flat as well.) I had my hazards on, but basically every driver ignored it, including semi-truck drivers, and whipped around me at 80+ mph. It is terrifying, dangerous, and this sick fuck was 100% trying to plausibly murder her by doing this, no doubt.
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.
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,
Awesome. Love the tactics. :)
Hahah thanks!
Oh look another reason for my “reasons to not buy modern cars” pile.
I hate Tesla, 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.
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
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.
I hate to break it to you, but pretty much all modern cars have this level of remote controls - even if they’re not exposed to owners.
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/hackers-remotely-kill-jeep-highway/
if someone isn’t mature enough to drive without their parents, they don’t get their license.
Yeah that about sums it up. This really doesn’t need to be a feature on any vehicle. I only see options where it can go wrong.
I could maybe see it being useful for maybe a combat vehicle, but even then it should be a wired connection IE the Goliath tracked mine. Mostly cause I can imagine a scenario wherein you may want to have a recovery vehicle to go get something or someone but may not want to risk losing additional people to do it.
But yeah broadly outside of some niche uses a remote controlled vehicle is just asking for problems.
I’m very much not a fan of all the tech in new vehicles
It’s over engineering and overpricing disguised as luxury. But I will admit I’d be perfectly happy with a Yugo or 1991 Fiat Polski, so I’m a tad bit biased against modern cars on that front. For example I’m currently fighting the carb on a 1984 Honda ct110, it’s being a bitch and stalling.
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
Also, “imma be real too”…
You would call me “chief” on your first interaction in real life, and it makes it sound like, you’re one of those people who are likely abusive in real life (but try to justify it). Which is why you don’t seem to care at all that this is a case of abuse
My argument is that when it involves a car, it should be impossible for someone not in the car to control the car.
Yes it’s bad if the abuser forces himself into her car and is physically restraining her from controlling the speed, ie gas pedal/brakes. If done remotely, they may as well have physically hijacked the car.
I’m saying it’s an unacceptable product bc its even more dangerous than a car that can only be hijacked physically. I’m arguing risk and liability, not however about abuse and morality.
OH no, he can control the heater remotely. She might freeze to death!!!
He can’t control her speed. Just limit it, brakes still work fully. Acceleration is just limited. You keep wording things in a way that suggest you didn’t even read the article.
My aftermarket alarm on my jeep can do a lot of this stuff including STOP the engine. My computer lets me control it remotely too
Go off queen
More abuse…
Still completely overlooking the abuser… Just apparently using this as an excuse to attack people (in this case, Elon, and now me)…
Again, even if the car couldn’t be controlled by mobile, similar things would have happened still… Again, I’ve been threatened at least 3x in real life (one was a serious threat. The guy ended up getting decapitated actually, which indicates the kind of person they were). The most they could do was limit speed, and its clear that Valet mode wasn’t designed for that purpose. They can’t press the accelerator, move the wheel, etc (as you keep implying)
And yes, those same people always needed to assert authority in every statement too…
And even the claim that slowing the car down to lower speeds is causing safety issues honestly, is a fairly sketchy one…
They had knowledge of the car’s position, and could turn on valet mode which limits speed to 40kmhr.
So you’re on a busy Australian motorway doing 110km/hr in the middle lane. Your ex sees that and turns on valet mode. That’s a quick way to get rear ended by an inattentive driver of a car or truck behind you. At the very least, you’ll cause significant chaos as you try and get over to the side of the road.
I don’t have a tesla, but It’s not likely going to slam the brakes, and valet mode will likely be shown to the driver so they know its enabled (Tesla likely thought of that). Furthermore, it IS a protected function. It’s not like its exposed, and not a normal situation where someone abuses it. But, it is a good point
Again though, I have experience with highly abusive people.
Someone who ended up LITERALLY decapitated threatened me, and told me ex “he knows where I live”. I had someone swerve at me when driving, and it turned out to be an ex of the girl I was dating. And, I’ve been given the “don’t XXX or else…” talk too by 2 people (one in my own home, and he seemed proud of himself until I managed to get the parties kicked out). When I was swerved at, I thought it was someone on their phone, I just happened to show the woman. I still wonder if one day I found a fence post nailed to the tree outside was one of them
These abusers DO NOT GIVE A SHIT IF YOU’RE DRIVING A TESLA, THEY WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY TO ABUSE PEOPLE, to terrorise them, and try to make their lives miserable!!! The full extent of this abusers efforts may not actually be known (they were likely only busted for 1 or 2 things).
There already is a lot of protection on these functions. Removing one, will just cause them to use another.
Trust me… When we removed Find my phone access from these people, we BELIEVE he possibly put a GPS tracker on her car instead, as he messaged still at weird times when she was clearly with me. These guys will always find ways to abuse others, through every possibility.
I reckon there’s enough blame to go around for everyone in this case.
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.
If you drive a swasticar, maybe don’t expect any privacy or ownership. That’s not how Nazi’s work.
Its not just these cars and not a new thing.
https://fractionalciso.ca/the-groundbreaking-2015-jeep-hack-changed-automotive-cybersecurity/
And this is why both my cars are 40 years old.
Trade in the f’n neo-Nazi vehicle! There are plenty of better EV’s on the market.
