Subdermal Chip Implants Open Teslas, Store Vital Documents

(Photo: Michael Förtsch/Unsplash)Did anyone else grow up with a parent who joked that one day, we’d forgo everything from keys to credit cards in favor of a chip in our hand? No? Just me? Well, Dad, you were right. Although not everyone is on board with this form of biomodification (yet), some people have begun implanting tiny chips into their skin, allowing them to access their vehicle and important documents with a wave of the hand.

The most recent of these bold biomodifiers is Tesla driver Brandon Dalaly. According to auto news site Teslarati, Dalaly just had his second chip implanted into his wrist. The first allows him to unlock his home without an analog key and directs smartphone users to a web portal containing his portfolio, contact information, medical information, and COVID-19 vaccination card. The second gives him the ability to unlock his Tesla by touching his wrist against the car’s door.

Dalaly didn’t say what brand made the former chip, but the Tesla “key” is the VivoKey Apex, a contactless NFC secure element chip. He had both chips implanted by a professional piercer, who followed the same method he’d typically use for subdermal piercing but installed a chip under the skin instead of a piece of jewelry. The cost of implantation matched that of a subdermal piercing, too, bringing Dalaly’s total charge for the chip to $400: $300 for the chip itself, and $100 to have it placed under his skin.

Despite the hullabaloo Dalaly’s implant has inadvertently caused, he isn’t the first to try this technology. Maker and YouTuber Amie Dansby had a Tesla-unlocking VivoKey chip placed under the skin of her forearm in 2019 and documented the experience on her channel. (The video’s a bit bloody; viewer discretion is advised.) Dalaly himself also told Teslarati that he’s part of a 100-person beta group testing the technology as it evolves.

The next step in said evolution is for the implanted chips to facilitate payments. Once approved by regulators, Dalaly’s new chip will allow him to make contactless payments at credit card terminals, like the tap function on a physical card or the smartphone technology that makes up Apple and Google Pay.

Those who are (understandably) skeptical of chip implants like these tend to have security top of mind. After all, the technology’s whole schtick is that it’s contactless: What’s to say brushing up against the wrong machine wouldn’t accidentally expose your private information or compromise the security of your home? But others argue this specific scenario is unrealistic. It’s unlikely that a person would just happen to rub up against a credit card machine mid-transaction, especially if they never intended on being a part of that transaction in the first place. Similarly, accessing the portal that houses a chip user’s private information requires close, intentional contact. Like warding off pick-pocketers on a subway, preventing the spread of one’s private information would probably only require a touch of healthy caution and common sense. 

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