Over $3 Million in Prizes Offered at Pwn2Own Automotive 2026

SecurityWeek reports that the new Pwn2Own Automotive 2026 will offer a total prize pool exceeding $3 million and will take place in January 2026 at Automotive World in Tokyo, with six categories including Tesla, infotainment systems, EV chargers, and automotive OSes. Researchers can win prizes of up to $500,000 for driving a Tesla vehicle home and up to $400,000 in cash plus a Tesla for full remote control of the autopilot, or for hacking a Tesla ECU and CAN bus, with additional seven Tesla prizes in the category.

There are 16 prizes in the Tesla category, plus addons such as $100,000 for arbitrary CAN bus control and two $50,000 awards for persistent root access on infotainment and autopilot systems; an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) category offers prizes up to $20,000. An entirely new Open Charge Alliance category will reward a $15,000 award for exploits against the Open Charge Point Protocol, while Level 2 EV chargers and Level 3 chargers offer up to $60,000 and $40,000 respectively.

According to ZDI notes, researchers can contest across six categories and may need to test exploits inside RF enclosures to avoid interference as cars move by.