“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.
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.
It’s be nice to see some kind of modern EV run fully open source software.
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.
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.
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.