Simply being always-online and sending telemetry, doesnt preclude the ability to remotely intercede in the car's operations.

I think there's precedent with the OnStar system in other cars, and there has anecdotally been evidence of various systems being operable by some kind of admin terminal.

I think "summon mode" is actually a great demonstration of how you can remotely access and do some form of piloting the car without a driver. There's also the disabling of features remotely on resale, and probably other examples.

They probably do it properly now, but there were stories in the past that they were able to ssh into the cars: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17835760 https://www.reddit.com/r/EnoughMuskSpam/comments/99sbwa/form...

Even then you can always install an update that allows remote control.

Into the infotainment unit. I guess it's a question of your definition of "remote control". In the context of a car, I'd think that more than being able to change the aircon or turn up the volume.