this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2026
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Scenario: Undocumented immigrant family in Minneapolis get in their Tesla car to go to work, school or shopping. The doors lock and are disabled via software OTA. Because they are not mechanical, the family can't open the doors. They try to roll down a window, but that too is software controlled. The buttons do nothing. They are trapped.

The car then disables the steering colums via OTA software so the wheel goes limp. It is a drive by wire steering with no mechanical, rack and pinion physical link for the driver to control. Even the brakes are fully drive by wire so the driver can't stop the car.

The cars autodrive engages and sends the trapped family to an ICE detention facility. In a panic the driver tries to turn off the car and finds that button is software controlled as well. The family find they are disconnected from their own car and are left with the choice of smashing a window and jumping out of a moving car, or to be sent to a processing facility for their concentration camp.

Is there any design feature stopping this from from hapening today?

Edit: In hindsight, it seems like this was the obvious design goal all along. The user has been completely disconnected from control of anything and it is to my understanding 100% drive by wire.

Edit 2: Another possibility is simple deactivation so people can't drive out of an area. Imagine ICE sweep an area and deactivate all software controlled cars.

Maybe Trump wants to punish a region showing defiance and disable cars, or cause them to drive to pickup locations.

Edit 3: I'm also reminded of the internal cameras that can use facial recognition to identify undesirables and can either be remotely disabled and report undesirables for ICE pickup, or self-drive as stated earlier. It seems everything about this car is designed for dual use. Weaponizing a consumer good under the guise of features and convenience.

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[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Your ignorance does not equal reality. What you quoted wasn't an anecdote. It's a fact. As I said above, you not knowing that fact is perfectly fine. Getting snippy with me trying to provide some knowledge on the subject is just weird.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's fine to not address the question asked about all the cars that do have auto drive and whine about your one irrelevant fact. Just don't be under the impression you are contributing to the conversation, for or against in any meaningful way. Calling someone ignorant is just bad faith discussion.

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 0 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I did address the question in a parent comment. This chain is responding to someone else calling you a conspiracy theorist. The only one whining is you. As I mentioned before it's perfectly alright to not have that knowledge if you've never had need of it. As someone with the knowledge I tried to elaborate for your benefit. You chose to embrace your ignorance and push on with whining. You have very little understanding of what "auto drive" actually is. Again, that shouldn't be something to be ashamed of. Getting all pissy when someone tries to provide that knowledge is exactly what I'd expect from the type of idiots who would support the situation in your initial post. Be better than them.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

~~Bad faith insults and put downs, while providing no insight into the question asked or discussion being had, is something to be ashamed of. I'd normally say ad hominems are beneath you, but you have proven that false repeatedly.~~

~~You have provided no knowledge.~~ Edit: (I'm going to eat my shoe on this one as dude did provide good faith discussion with relevent info in a previous post. I got my replies mixed. I am a neo-maxi zone-dweebie)

[–] meco03211@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Did you even check my other comment that explicitly answered your question? Cause it explicitly answers your question.

[–] Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

I got my posters mixed up. You did provide good faith discussion. I'll edit my above post. Mi scusi.