This woman implanted her Tesla Model 3's valet key into her arm
It's only a matter of time before Elon tries to offer this as an option when configuring your Model 3.
Body modifications have become increasingly commonplace in our society, such that we barely raise an eyebrow at someone with full tattoo sleeves or multiple facial piercings. Still, there's another frontier in body modification that verges on science fiction and involves integrating tech into the human body. The people who do this are known as biohackers. Someone call William Gibson.
Biohacking comes with all kinds of inherent risks, but that didn't stop software engineer and cosplayer Amie D.D. from taking the plunge with the valet key from her Tesla Model 3 in a process that she completed earlier in August and documented on the website Hackaday. Yeah, you read that right: She worked with a body modification studio in Texas and a gentleman called Pineapple to implant the RFID chip from a Tesla valet key into her forearm.
The lead-up to the actual implantation of the device involved Amie learning how to program her own valet keys, dissolving a key in acetone and working with several companies to have the RFID chip encapsulated in a biosafe plastic.
As far as the procedure goes, well, Amie filmed it, and it looks gnarly. It essentially amounted to that guy Pineapple taking what looks like a giant, stainless steel nail and driving it into her forearm just beneath the skin.
We'll include the video here but warning, it's not for the squeamish. There's blood.
According to Ms. D.D., her implant works, though the swelling has meant that its range is somewhat reduced from what was expected. Personally, I'd stick to using the Tesla app on my phone and just wait for Cyberpunk 2077 to come out.
Originally published Aug. 13.