Tale of two Teslas and one key

0 0 April 25, 2023 Edit this post

by Bill Buys

TESLA is the top selling sedan in Australia at present.

That's impressive given that the brand is relatively new to the local market.

But owners might not be aware that their pride and joy could end up being acquired, at least temporarily -- by other Tesla owners.

That’s what happened in Vancouver, British Columbia a couple of weeks ago.

Rajesh Randev unintentionally managed to unlock someone else's Tesla Model 3 and drive off in it, using the Tesla app on his phone.

The man thought he was getting into his Muskmobile, parked side by side with another Tesla of the same colour -- but he actually drove off in someone else's Tesla.

Randev told Global News he was in a hurry as he had to pick up his children from school, so he didn't pay much attention to the car, thinking it was his own.

He said he opened the door with his app, got in and drove off.

A while later, he started to realise something was not quite right as the car he was driving had a cracked windscreen.

He phoned his wife to find out she didn't know anything about any crack either and started to get suspicious, especially when he noticed that the phone charger was not where he usually kept it.

Moments later, the mystery started to unravel when he got a text message saying: "Hello Rajesh, do you drive a Tesla?"

The message was from the actual owner of the vehicle, who informed him he was driving the wrong car.

After parking the vehicle, Randev noticed the wheels were different from his Model 3, so he called the person who texted him and acknowledged the mistake.

But wait . . . the story gets even weirder.

He was actually able to get into the car again and drove it to pick up his children from school.

After that, he met with the rightful owner and handed back the car.

The owner told Randev he was able to text him because he found a document in his Tesla with his name and phone number.

Randev says he does not know how this mix-up was possible – and more importantly, how he was able to unlock another person's vehicle using his smartphone.

"We were both laughing and I called the police as well,” he said.

“The police said they have my statement, but they cannot give me a file number because nothing happened."

Next, he contacted Tesla and submitted video evidence, but some of his emails bounced back.

That's because Tesla's North American corporate mailbox is apparently full – and no one has contacted him so far.

Question is, can something similar happen on a larger scale?

No word from Tesla . . . Yet.