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.
The cars autodrive engages and sends the trapped family to an ICE detention facility.
Is there any design feature stopping this from from hapening today?
A key safety feature built into such automated systems is the ability to physically override the controls if needed. There was actually a case of a plane crash due to this feature and some egregious lapses in safety protocols. Pilot had his kids in the cockpit. Plane on autopilot. Kid sitting at the controls pretending to fly the plane. Accidentally overrides the autopilot and steers it into an unrecoverable spin.
This kind of feature is mandated. If they had some super secret back door to override that, that would be legit cause for civil war. Remotely disabling the car and providing location to ICE to come pick them up is still egregious but something they could currently do.