Tesla hacker discovers secret ‘Elon Mode’ that completely changes the car

A white hat hacker who goes by ‘Green’ has discovered an interesting Easter Egg hidden in the software that Tesla vehicles run on.

Green discovered a secret drive mode that takes the car’s self-driving capabilities to the next level.

But the one thing that truly stands out is the name Tesla uses for this mode.

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The secret mode is called ‘God Mode’, but it is actually known internally as ‘Elon Mode’.

Green’s job was made a bit easier by the fact that Tesla’s software is mostly open-source.

This means anybody, provided they know how to code, can access the code and explore it.

Musk certainly has a unique sense of humor, so we’re not surprised to find out that Elon Musk decided to codename ‘God Mode’ as Elon Mode.

Elon Musk loves dad jokes, and no one’s safe from his scathing, dry sarcasm.

Not even Musk himself.

In a YouTube interview he gave right after buying Twitter, the Tesla CEO told the interviewer that perhaps he [Musk] is actually not that smart.

“If I’m so smart then why did I pay so much for Twitter?” Musk asked.

What is God / Elon Mode and how does it help?

The hacker was able to test ‘God / Elon Mode’ for over 600 miles and he shared his opinion on X.

According to Green, the forward collision warning is triggered a lot more often in Elon Mode, but the number of ‘nags’ is reduced.

What he means by that is the car interferes less.

For reference, a ‘nag’ is when a Tesla vehicle tells the driver to focus and keep your hands on the steering wheel.

Green says he was able to put together “two hours of nagless video footage”, which implies the car drove itself completely for two hours, without ever requiring the driver to be alert.

Impressions after nearly 600 miles on 11.4.3 with Elon mode (could not get a non-Tesla car to try in time).
It went much better than the prior experiment obviously.
Many contributing factors. I was not as late so I did not mind as much (still ended up 5 minutes late solely

— green (@greentheonly) June 17, 2023

Tesla is constantly working to improve the Autopilot and its self-driving mode, so some tweaks and improvements are to be expected.