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  • [Intro]

  • So there are a couple of unique ways to unlock a Tesla Model 3.

  • You have your normal key card thing that you place next to the door to unlock the vehicle.

  • These black cards come with the car.

  • They are the exact same size as a credit card.

  • You can also get a key fob with a button in the center that unlocks and locks the car.

  • These are quite a bit more expensive, around $150, instead of the $10 that it costs to

  • replace the small key card.

  • The easiest way to unlock your car though, is with the Bluetooth connection on your smartphone

  • and the Tesla App.

  • It just happens automatically when you walk up to the car.

  • Personally, I think the shape of this key card is quite obnoxious.

  • I've seen people try to awkwardly attach it to key chains.

  • To be honest, I don't think you actually need the whole thing.

  • I vote we hack into the card, see how it works, and try to physically modify it into something

  • else.

  • The embedded chrome lettering can be removed, but the adhesive is strong enough that I bet

  • it will be years before the letters fall out on their own.

  • And with how inexpensive these cards are to replace, it's a non-issue.

  • Cutting into the card reveals something interesting.

  • The card isn't just plastic, there is technology in here taking up more space than I anticipated.

  • All along the edge of the card is copper wiring.

  • This particular card is from my buddy Ben, over at Teslanomics.

  • I sure hope he doesn't need this back because I'm pretty sure the thing I just cut was the

  • antenna.

  • The Tesla Model 3 key card uses something called RFID to communicate with the car by

  • tapping it next to the pillar next to the car door.

  • The key card needs to be within an inch or two of the door panel, so there shouldn't

  • be an obstructions between the card and the car.

  • If an antenna theory is correct, the copper wiring should run along the entire edge of

  • the card, which indeed it does.

  • Each cut exposes a little bit of the antenna wiring.

  • The antenna should circle back into a little chip in the center somewhere, and since I

  • can see a slight indention in the card itself, it should be here in the corner.

  • And there the little guy is...successfully destroyed and chopped in half.

  • This method of tearing down the card wasn't very helpful.

  • Luckily, I have something that might work a bit better.

  • While this might look like a jar of water, it definitely is not.

  • Acetone is a colorless, flammable solvent.

  • I use it to clean metal before welding.

  • It's also great for dissolving plastics, rubber, and some adhesive.

  • But not so great for dissolving metal, glass, or body parts.

  • We should be able to get rid of all the exterior plastic material, while leaving the interior

  • metal structure inside the card intact.

  • RFID, or Radio Frequency Identification chips, don't need an internal power source to work.

  • It can power itself from the incoming radio waves from the reader.

  • So there won't be any batteries or power source inside the card.

  • It's pretty interesting stuff.

  • After about 40 minutes in the acetone, we get this quite fantastic, furry, frayed, freaky

  • looking plastic monstrosity.

  • It's not quite where we want it yet, so I'll put it back in to marinate for a bit longer.

  • After another 40 minutes, we can see the internal wire structure start to emerge from the dissolving

  • plastic that's sinking down to the bottom.

  • The copper portion we can see inside the jar is indeed the antenna.

  • And the chip we see is the brains of the operation holding the encrypted key information used

  • to unlock and start the car.

  • Only Tesla can copy or duplicate these cards, which is good for security.

  • And it's nice they have fair, cheap pricing on these cards since the technology is super

  • common and super cheap.

  • Let's see if it still works on the car without the plastic shell.

  • [Radio music playing]

  • And it even lets me drive the car.

  • So obviously that antenna around the chip is pretty important - all these copper wires.

  • We can see that it currently locks the Tesla right now.

  • Let's fold it in half and see what happens.

  • Let's give it a little fold right here.

  • Kind of just seeing what our options are with this thing.

  • So that worked.

  • Give it another fold.

  • So I've tried this multiple ways, and the antennas going around the outside of the card

  • are important.

  • The orientation of them.

  • If I keep on folding this over like a figure 8 and folding it in half, it works just fine.

  • But if it's a scrambled mess, it won't work at all.

  • So it does depend on how the wires are shaped when you're putting it up against the car.

  • Kind of interesting.

  • So overall I'm pretty pumped with how this turned out.

  • This is what's inside a Tesla Model 3 key card.

  • You know, who would have thought, there's a lot of copper and a little RFID chip.

  • It's nice that these things are super cheap, usually less than $10, which is a lot different

  • than modern gas powered vehicles where the key is programmed and it costs hundreds of

  • dollars to replace.

  • So Tesla wins in the cheap key category.

  • Plus with Tesla's, you can usually just use your phone, which everyone carries with them

  • anyway, so it works out pretty nice.

  • I'm excited to see what fun things we can do with the technology inside of this.

  • Now that it's not the shape of a card, we can literally bend it and shape it into whatever

  • we want.

  • We can make it into a ring, we can turn it into a bracelet.

  • We can sew it into the side of a wallet.

  • We can surgically implant it into the palm of our hand.

  • Thanks again to Ben of Teslanomics for suggesting this idea.

  • I'll leave a link to his channel so you can check it out - everything Tesla related.

  • If you're thinking about buying a Tesla, there are two weeks left to get 6 months of free

  • super charging using someone's code.

  • Elon Musk, the CEO of the company, decided to stop doing the referral program.

  • So that code is going to go away and you have two weeks left to take advantage of it.

  • So if you're in the market for a Tesla, 6 months of free super charging is pretty solid.

  • If you have any questions or any ideas on what I should do with this contraption, go

  • ahead and leave it down in the comments.

  • Thanks a ton for watching, and I'll see you around.

[Intro]

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