Tesla To Add Two-Factor Authentication To Its Cars: Musk

Tesla customer accounts will soon have two-factor authentication (2FA), according to a tweet from CEO Elon Musk.

With Tesla’s app offering features including remote locking and unlocking, customers of the electric vehicle giant have long sought 2FA protection for their expensive cars, and Musk confirmed that the feature is going through final validation for both SMS and authenticator app.

Sorry, this is embarrassingly late. Two factor authentication via sms or authenticator app is going through final validation right now.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 14, 2020

Existing Tesla security features include always-on GPS to track stolen vehicles, as well as pin-code entry; the new 2FA feature will add another barrier to theft on top of these. There is as yet no word on when 2FA will become available; another Musk tweet in November last year indicated that “foundational upgrades” to core Tesla software were needed first.

Fair point. Coming soon. We’re making foundational upgrades to the core Tesla corporate OS. 2FA right after that.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2019