A Michigan Tesla owner is taking matters into his own hands when it comes to his car keys.
Brandon Dalaly recently revealed on social media that he had a chip implanted in his right hand to unlock his vehicle. Speaking with Teslarati, he said the chip was convenient because, if his Bluetooth failed or he lost his key card, he could still use his hand.
The chip, a Vivokey Apex, makes use of NFC technology, which is the same "tap-to-pay" feature that enables Apple Pay on iPhones. Dalaly is part of a beta group of about 100 people that is testing the technology before it's released to the public.
"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 told Teslarati. "And one of the apps just happened to be a Tesla key card. So that was the first app I installed on it because I have a Tesla."
A "quick tap" of his hand against the vehicle is all that is needed to unlock his Tesla, Dalaly said in his video. He already has another smaller chip in his left hand that, according to Teslarati, stores the keys to his home, his contact card, medical information, COVID-19 vaccination card, and other information.
"The whole idea was that I would have my house key in my left hand and my car key in my right hand," he said.
Dalaly has received backlash from online critics who share "conspiracy theories" about microchips being implanted in humans, but he has shrugged it off.
"We're at the dawn of this technology and it's a very niche product," he said. "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."
"There’s the religious people who have sent me a bunch of weird comments on Facebook about the mark of the beast on the video of my first chip installation," said Dalaly, who said that did not want to be stuck without his car or house keys.
"I just don't want to have to worry about forgetting my car keys. I'm not over here worshiping Satan," he said.