Tesla Hacker: The Rogue Mechanic Taking On Tesla

they're exotic it is surreal they're just like nothing else in the road so much engineering time effort and hours went into creating these masterpieces but there's also a flipside Tesla stands are rebuilding vehicles is only they should be able to do it I would say I'm the first person to bring a Tesla that's completely dead to running and driving almost showroom floor quality independently by themselves at this point I would consider myself to dr. Frankenstein or Tesla's people need to know more about the products they own if you own something if you purchase something free and clear then you should be able to fix it yourself I don't want people to think that they're too small to have a major company make changes don't feel that you're not being heard you do have a voice [Applause] my name's rich and I run a YouTube channel called rich rebuilds I also go by uncle rich car guru you're probably asking yourself car guru what are you doing in that sweet sweet racecar bed well you think my life is all fun and games here's some of the things you have to deal with when you hobble together two broken Tesla's to make one working Tesla this cars been sitting for so long you just don't know what's gonna happen I think if it's more it'll wash the channel they probably describe me as a DIY enthusiast to the extreme slash Tesla vigilante honestly they probably say you may hear some clicks you may hear some buzzing the car may explode I don't know what's gonna happen no freakin way the door handles just extended oh Jesus oh my god this cars been sitting for over a year I want people to have their cars work I want people to enjoy them I'm just trying to help I may not come across that way sometimes but you know there's a reason why I've only ten myself personally there's a reason why I physically touched and help people build over a hundred cars array Oh first time it's ever happened that's all right Tesla is the gatekeeper to us repairing our own goods because they want control over Tesla fixing the cars they want control over Tesla send you the parts they just want everything under their control how am I help you hey how you doing today I have a p85 I need those little lug nut covers oh sorry hold hold on one second hold on one of the things I enjoy is calling about their mistakes he comes out here playing games Tessa wants answers oh hello sorry sorry about that you still there I think a fundamental consumer right is your ability to fix whatever you rightfully own the fact that people don't have another alternative but they're going to manufacture that's a huge huge issue there's a lot of gray area as to what you actually own with with these cars because in order for the major functions of the car to work they have to talk to Tesla out of in Massachusetts and in Massachusetts that have a right to repair act it does protect what I do it makes it easier I mean to get the tools that I need but the language is very interesting your language states that you have to have the same tools available that the dealers do to fix their cars well guess what tested of them have dealerships that's a loophole right there all right so this is my basement full of Tesla parts these are the all of the parts that are required to put a Tesla back together effectively these right here I have all the battery modules that go on the battery pack I have the other coolant pumps that are here I have a few MC use which is the media control units the main master screen of the car but these are the things that you have to do to keep a Tesla on the road you know to have a an inventory of spare parts so that you don't run out of stuff when you need it the most I mean it really is a goldmine because you can't find a lot of these a lot of these parts back at Tesla I get my parts from other cars so what I have to do is I have to purchase other wrecked vehicles take the parts I need from those and then harvest those parts for the cars that I need parts for in terms of being tricky it's extremely tricky because if you need a specific part you have to hope and pray that the car that you're taking the parts from has it what I'm doing right now fixing these cars you know under the radar from Tesla is setting myself up for some big legal problems in the future potentially but because I think the cars are so great and I want to help people in that sense I just think it's just something that I have to do I have this part right here and this is the visor that was in a Model S that actually was severely burned you see the burn marks on top of this and you know to the untrained eye you could probably just throw this part away that's what's the point it's burned but if someone needs the spring that actuates the the hinge for the visor or if someone even needs this part right here this could be recycled you know you shouldn't just throw it away as is a lot of these things are still useable like these hooks right here this could probably be cleaned up really nice and putting another visor piece we live in a day and age where people just throw things away there's plenty of benefits to fixing your own cars you know it's less waste eco friendly creates jobs eases pressure off the manufacturer it just it just makes sense all in so I figure if I could you know do something to contribute helping him back on the road give him new life I think it's a win-win for everyone so a while back a friend of mine said that he got a job at Tesla and he was gonna bring one by and we took a ride in it I said to myself I could see myself owning one of these things for sure about a year after that I purchased my first Model S that was in the flood and I started working on it I spent $14,000 in a car that didn't run or drive and showed no signs of light I had no support from the manufacturer I was getting the water so I thought about it I said to myself I'm already in 14,000 let's just go all-in so I actually ended up purchasing another car that wasn't in a flood I brought it home I had two Tesla's side by side and in each garage bay and over the course of you know several months I slowly transplanted electronics from one car to the other and it was just but I couldn't believe it slowly people started saying maybe he's onto something here maybe he's not that crazy after all maybe this can be done so today we're gonna check this burnt Tesla Model S out this Tesla Model S was I hit in the front by another car the other car caught fire and as a result the front of this car burned as well I saw this car online for the first time I I just lit up I mean the front end was completely toast everything was everywhere the wheel was actually in the back and it was completely undriveable but there were a couple pictures that I saw the interior the back seats were still good so I knew the second I saw this one I had to buy it even though it seems like you know it's not much to look at and there's literally trees growing inside of it this is still worth a lot because for some of that's been rear-ended instead of waiting you know four to six months for parts from Tesla you know they could just have the back half of this car bring it to a body shop and have up and running in a couple weeks so many engineering hours have gone into making these why throw it away when I could just take parts from this one and help someone in need seeing an abandoned car like that having it sit in the field abandon being covered by snow and ice and dirt and rocks and it almost hurts in a way it's technology is my thing so seeing something like that is just it hurts almost if the mission and the motto is is sustainability then you know a car like this could stick in this state of the insurance lot for years before it gets picked up my idea is to actually cut the front half of the car remove some plastics recycle the aluminum and then I'll use the back half for a car that was rear-ended that needs fixing it's aluminum so it's not that hard to cut so I probably get a sawzall and I just thought about right here I'd do it myself yeah I'd do it myself this is the storage area I keep a lot of my parts in I have a rare seat cushion from a tough so that's been sitting here kind of getting mold all over it there's just parts is part two everywhere I think I am obsessed I didn't think about that I think I am this is a lot of I can't throw anything away until the project is done and the problem with me is the project's never done it definitely goes against Tesla's mission statement but if there's an issue with one of their tests list and if only they can fix it and no one else can it sits in the field for years how is that sustainable I'm doing very well thanks I have a 2012 Model S and it's giving me an issue charging I've narrowed it down to one of the Chargers under the rear seats how much of those go for oh sorry about that sure my VIN number is a five we actually can't sell you any parts for that car either thought I was 50 sinless okay all right no parts at all unfortunately not there I've expressed my frustrations to Tesla mostly over the phone but I've expressed a lot of my views a lot of the things I've gone through on my my personal Channel people at Tesla they do notice the channel and they do they do know hey guys your boy rich here and a buddy of mine that's also into tesla rebuild game he recently got a letter in the mail from tesla saying that there was an airbag recall there was an issue a while back where there was a recall for airbags and Tesla just refused to replace airbags on cars that they felt that they shouldn't support so I made a video saying what do you guys think this doesn't seem right to me let me know what you guys think about this one in the comment section should toss to be allowed to determine which cars it does and does not service or should they abide by the nhtsa's rules and make sure that all cars are repaired free of charge and three weeks later Tesla called my friend up and said hey come back in for an appointment it's gonna be great let's get that airbag all set for you they won't make it easy but eventually they're going to have to make it so that they help people or third-party repair shops build their vehicles the project that I'm working on right now it wasn't a flood so that motor and that battery they're just toast so I have to get a trailer and pick up the motor and battery from a car that was in a rollover to transplant into the flooded car looking at the front of this battery it looks like in the crash the top case may have popped off slightly it looks like some water got into the battery not feeling great right now I probably have to pop that cover off and see how much if any water is in there I [Music] think that that there's a quiet revolution starting it's getting louder and louder for sure now that people have various platforms to state their cases and native voice is known this defi revolution coming so right now we're at advanced technologies and Gloucester mass with my buddy Lee shops and he's been helping me out a lot with a lot of the heavy lifting of the battery packs and the motors themselves he actually saw me in the channel and he's like hey you know what like I like what you're doing I think it's really cool I don't want to help you out so he's actually letting me keep my car here as well as help me work on it you know and give me access to all this tools so it's a pretty cool I'm working on these cars a lot of really interesting things that could happen sometimes things are just not ready for I mean I was taking off the battery pack I discovered an actual crack in the side of the battery pack and we're gonna check that crack out right now so we're gonna see when it fell off the top cover and we're gonna see if there's anything we could do is save that what I do is extremely dangerous it's very intimidating working with you know a high voltage battery pack has enough power to to power a house for days or to just kill you within seconds so I think when I open my first battery pack I had my linemen gloves on I had like a full body suit it's like I'm gonna go in there and the deep blue yonder and now I'm just like now it is what it is you know lick the terminals yeah whatever doesn't matter it's coming up so this is what a Tesla Model S battery module looks like and there's 16 of these each has its own individual section it kind of lives in isolated in firewall from the next one what I want to do now is I want to actually test the voltage that I'm seeing on these two bricks to see if they're still good give a voltmeter Lee all right so we're getting 23 volts out of this one which is good yeah 23 6 3 each battery brick is about 24 volts so the fact that it's that high is that via a good sign it looks like those bricks are good so I feel as if these two modules are good that I feel safe saying if the rest of them we're good as well you know what Lee I'm going to put the cover back on and then just kind of light loosely tighten it and then maybe we could start the motor itself [Music] an individual rich is a really steering the the frontline for the backyard mechanic kind of thing but really learning every inch of Tesla other companies can do it but individuals taking on the task with a huge undertaking Tesla has an image to keep up as a cutting-edge auto manufacturer and if you do fix your own car and something happens and another Tesla gets into an accident is gonna make national news they don't want to see that I am completely sympathetic with their concerns it's their brand I totally get it but it's not gonna stop me that's not a reason why someone shouldn't do it worst-case scenario Tesla reaches out to me and says you know sent me a cease and desist they stop doing what you're doing stop your YouTube channel stop doing close-ups of the inside electronics and motors and how they work but they could say that I'll still do it even though it's not the intention I see myself opening up my own test a repair shop they won't let that happen but I'd like to do that I like to help people this is unchartered territory this is cutting edge this is the future [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 4,761,052

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, docs, interview, culture, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, film, short films, movies, tesla, elon, elon musk, tsla, grimes, cybertruck, model x, model 3, electric car, truck, pickup truck, tesla motors, tesla model 3, rich, rich rebuilds, rich rebuilds tesla, joe rogan, joe rogan podcast, first ride, $tsla, don't doubt ur vibe, elon musk edm, e d m

Id: 3Ytm_GnTkl0

Length: 18min 39sec (1119 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 22 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/JoeSmithDiesAtTheEnd]

This doc barely scratches the surface of what Rich has gone through to get to where he's at now, and how Tesla handles things like repairs and car accidents.

His YouTube channel is really interesting. I think one of his best stories he's covered was his journey buying a used Tesla through official channels and what a fucking nightmare it was. It's pretty scary how poorly Tesla treats customers out of warranty, or even buying a used Tesla from their own website.

His message isn't anti Tesla, it's clear he loves them and just wants to see the company do right by their customers.

[u/el___diablo]

Rich is a genius.

The amount of shit he's had to navigate shows his determination is off the charts too.

Great youtube channel.

[u/[deleted]]

This is Vice just kind of making a big deal out of a fairly common practice of using wrecked cars to scavenge parts to fix existing cars of the same model which are prohibitively expensive to fix through the dealer. People have been doing this forever. Its not like combustion engine cars all use universal parts. Pretty much every part for every modern car is specific to that car. You go through the same process to fix any modern car without getting the dealer involved. Almost all new car manufacturers use the same business model where the dealership tries to exercise maximum control over parts and repairs. The only point of this video is that Tesla cars don't yet have an aftermarket, so you have to use salvage-yard parts. Oh well.

[u/[deleted]]

Why they re-releasing the video again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuAMczraBIM

[u/nhergen]

Well, that's Rich