'Can Tesla cars be hacked?' Ex-Indian minister dares Musk with bold question after EVM controversy

The controversy surrounding Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s comments on electronic voting machines (EVMs), unrelated to India, extended into a second day as BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar this time questioned the security of Tesla cars.

Chandrasekhar, while reacting to Musk's comments for the second straight day, asserted the security of Indian EVMs.

"I think he is factually incorrect in saying that anything can be hacked. A calculator or a toaster cannot be hacked."

"He is factually wrong...To claim that there cannot be a secure digital product in the world is to then say that every Tesla car can be hacked..."Chandrasekhar told ANI news agency.

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Notably, the debate was sparked when Musk on Sunday (June 16) suggested that EVMs should be eliminated due to hacking concerns. The SpaceX founder made these sweeping comments while responding to a post by Robert F Kennedy Jr on X where the American politician pointed out the voting irregularities in Puerto Rico’s primary elections.

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Musk had said, “We should eliminate electronic voting machines. The risk of being hacked by humans or AI, while small, is still too high.”

Chandrasekhar on Monday (June 17) said that the generalisation "was far too sweeping for it to be left unchallenged."

"Indian EVMs are very different from what Americans know of EVMs because the US and the Western world use connected devices. They are using traditional compute platforms that are connected to the Internet as EVMs."

Allegations of EVM tampering in India debunked

This comes amid the backdrop of Election Commission of India (ECI) issuing a detailed statement addressing allegations of EVM tampering in India's Mumbai North West Lok Sabha constituency.

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The controversy began when Mangesh Pandilkar, the brother-in-law of newly elected MP Ravindra Waikar, was accused of using a mobile phone to ‘unlock’ an EVM at the counting centreon June 4.

The ECI clarified that the incident involved the unauthorised use of a mobile phone by an authorised person, not the unlocking of an EVM.

Mid-day newspaper, which reported that Pandilkar’s mobile phone was connected to the EVM, has since apologised after the ECI issued a notice for spreading disinformation.

The newspaper’s clarification read, “The report 'Waikar's kin had phone that unlocks EVM' (page 6, June 16) inadvertently erroneously mentioned that the accused person used his mobile phone to generate an OTP to unlock EVMs. The error is regretted.”

(With inputs from agencies)