After her car alarm went off one night, woman woke up to find parental controls on her Tesla. Then began the tech-assisted abuse by her ex

A Sydney woman discovered the hard way that technology you rely on can be turned against you. Per The Guardian, about a year ago, Stacey (name changed for her privacy) woke up in the middle of the night when her car alarm went off three different times. She did not respond to it because she was “too scared” it was her former partner, Enrico Pucci, at whose hands she has suffered four years of domestic abuse. However, at first glance, the next morning, her Tesla seemed fine. 

When she got in, however, Stacey realised that the electronic dashboard had been reset and now a “parental control” profile had been added to the car’s system. What happened after this made this case a landmark example of how connected vehicle features can be weaponized in abusive relationships. As Stacey soon learned, this profile gave Pucci total remote control over her vehicle. He could manipulate the climate controls, set speed caps, and even lock her out.

The Guardian noted that three days later, Pucci followed Stacey in another vehicle. Police records stated that he began to yell at Stacey about a man she was seeing. He also taunted her, saying, “You thought you’d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps.” 

Complete control

Per the outlet, between November 6 and November 12, 2025, Pucci remotely cycled the cabin temperature between extreme cold and extreme heat. He also turned on Valet Mode to limit Stacey’s speed to 40 kilometers per hour on main roads and made seven attempts to disconnect the car from its charging port.

This wasn’t an isolated incident of harassment. According to the Guardian, the court heard that Pucci, a 50-year-old businessman, had used “multiple methods of domination,” including forging a fake employment contract to create financial dependency, strangling her to the point of losing consciousness, and breaking her finger. Per the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), he even texted her death threats, writing, “Don’t tempt me, you know I can kill you with one hand. I will destroy you.”

Pucci reportedly threatened to send explicit pictures of her to her boss. Then, in July 2024, he reportedly made multiple anonymous calls to her employer until she was fired. During sentencing, per the Guardian, Judge Peter Feather noted that Pucci’s behavior was “abusive” and designed to “entrench power and compliance.”

SMH reported that Pucci was convicted of 30 domestic violence-related charges, including one count of coercive control under New South Wales’ landmark 2024 law. He was sentenced to two years and three months in prison, with a non-parole period of 15 months. Pucci pleaded guilty a week before his trial but is currently appealing the sentence.

According to Tech Times, the case highlights a major design flaw in modern smart cars. They noted that Tesla’s parental controls are meant for parents monitoring teen drivers, but they provide the primary account holder with absolute control. There is no easy way for a victim to override or remove these settings if they don’t hold the primary account. 

Unfortunately, Stacey had allowed Pucci to register the car in his name to get help with the technology. So she was effectively locked out of her own vehicle’s safety features. It is a vulnerability that experts have been warning about for years. 

The Times reported that the eSafety Commission in Australia published a formal advisory on December 1, 2025, warning that abusers were exploiting connected vehicle features to track and control their victims. Commissioner Julie Inman Grant warned that these cars are “essentially computers on wheels,” and there is a real danger of them becoming “weapons on wheels.” As such, the legal landscape is struggling to keep up with this type of abuse. 

Per Tech Times, California passed Senate Bill 1394, which requires manufacturers to terminate a person’s access to connected services within two business days upon receiving proof of a restraining order. However, Australia currently has no such national legislation. Anyone in Australia experiencing similar tech-facilitated abuse can contact 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) for support and safety planning.

Stacey told the court she felt “completely and utterly dependent and subservient” to him. She told the court, “Every ounce of my independence was taken away because the only way he could be with me is to make me completely and utterly dependent and subservient to him … I felt like a slave.”  Even after she thought she had left the relationship, Pucci’s remote access kept her under his power.

Per the Guardian and SMH, Pucci has a history of exploitation. In 2017, a federal court found that his cleaning company treated vulnerable foreign workers as “slaves,” denying them pay and necessities. Additionally, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission disqualified him from managing corporations for five years due to his involvement in the failure of three companies that owed millions to creditors.