To be clear, I do think your point/distinction is valid in a technical sense, but not relevant to explanation of the crime. He walked right up, made a phone ca

To be clear, I do think your point/distinction is valid in a technical sense, but not relevant to explanation of the crime. He walked right up, made a phone call and Tesla support literally handed him the car. What encrypted bits got shuffled around to make this happen are secondary to the fact that he did steal the car (and yes, had Tesla fabricate an ethereal key) using nothing but his phone.