Tesla Model 3 owner gets a chip implanted into his hand to unlock his car

A US Tesla owner who became fed up with his phone failing to unlock his Model 3 electric car has decided to take measures into his own hands – with an implant.

A tiny chip inserted into the right hand of Tesla owner Brandon Dalaly is now all he needs to unlock his vehicle.

Dalaly shared a video on Twitter and YouTube of having the VivoKey Apex chip implanted by a professional piercer. The chip is contactless and covered in a biocompatible substance – it uses the same near-field communication (NFC) that makes Apple Pay possible.

After the quick $400 procedure, Dalaly uses the back of his hand to unlock his Tesla. He told media site Teslarati that this chip isn't his first implant.

He has a smaller chip implanted in his left hand that stores his contact and medical information, and the key to his house.

"The whole idea was that I would have my house key in my left hand and my car key in my right hand," he told Teslarati.

Dalaly, a tech professional, is in a beta group of about 100 people testing the chip and its various capabilities. VivoKey Apex is a "NFC secure element chip that runs small software programs called Java Card applets," according to the company site.

"The company that put this together literally has its own app store where you can wirelessly install apps into your body with these chips," Dalaly said in the report.

In the Teslarati report, Dalaly laughed at the concerns he's heard from viewers of the video online, who fear for his safety.

"We're at the dawn of this technology and it's a very niche product. And there's been a lot of pushback. People thought that Bill Gates was putting tracking chips in the Covid vaccine. It fuels a lot of conspiracy theories."