A Tesla owner implanted her car's key into her arm. Now she can start her Model 3 with her body.
The key's antenna isn't limited to one small part of the card, like in a credit or debit card. Instead, it uses a small wire around the perimeter of the card. So instead of cutting it out, Amie had to dissolve the card in acetone.
Once it was removed from the card, the antenna was about 40 millimeters by 10 millimeters, or roughly the height of a Lego figure.
With help from a company called Vivokey, which specializes in implantable chips for computer passwords, ID badges and more, Amie had the Tesla antenna encased in polymer so that it could "safely*" be implanted beneath her skin.
*Please do not try this at home.
"I talked to a few doctors, they were a little weary about doing this, because it's kind of a questionable thing," Amie says in the video.
From there, Amie enlisted the help of the piercing shop Shaman Modifications to have the device installed.
"He was amazing, detailed, explained all the steps to me," Amie said on her blog where she documented the entire process. "His studio was clean and sanitized. I was so nervous leading up to this, and he made the process so amazing!!"
Eventually, the chip made its way under her skin. We'll leave out the bloody parts, but here's the markup pre-operation.
Amie hasn't posted any footage of the implant actually unlocking her car, but the hardware is very much in her body, according to the YouTube saga thus far.
Why didn’t I post a video of the chip working with my car the day I got it? 1. I was at @defcon this weekend! 2. My arm was swollen right after(none of my other chip implants read the first few days). I may have upgrades but unfortunately my body still heals at a human rate lol! pic.twitter.com/WKHogGKqmE
— Amie DD @ DEFCON (@amiedoubleD) August 13, 2019"It makes me want to do it more," she said of skeptics who were critical of her plan. "Not because I want to defy them, but it makes me question why. Why can't you do it that way and what are the limitations."
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