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I'm waiting for the day when we have an article titled "Driver-assisting cars targeted by hackers". Primary reason why even if I could afford a Tesla S that I wouldn't buy one. If my car has any sort of control over my acceleration or steering (excluding tire-specific traction control functionality) then that car had better not have any sort of internet connection. Tesla has the ability to update over the air... that is kind of terrifying.


Planes have automated systems that have control over direction and speed, and nowadays many planes have connections to the Internet. Has any ever been hijacked over the 'net?


Aircraft avionics are separated from the internet access on-board and must be manually accessed to be controlled or modified.


Yes, and likewise they can decouple the low-level steering/accelerating mechanism from the Internet-enabled, high level system and have them communicate over a very restricted channel.


Are you sure that they could?

Sure, you can decouple this to an extent. But, barring complete informational disconnection (read: airgap and no wireless communications) (and potentially not even then), this only reduces the attack surface, not removes it entirely.

What happens, for example, when your driver assist includes GPS data? Oh look... now you're downloading and decoding maps. Whoops! Attack vector.

What happens when your keyfob starts doing encrypted communication with the car (as other people in this thread are suggesting)? Whoops! Attack vector.

What happens when your entertainment console shows options to change the amount of time before the doors automatically lock? Whoops! Attack vector.

Cars are getting more complex - and it only takes one break in the defenses.


The infotainment system must be capable of taking address input, and that same computer would be internet connected for a variety of reasons. Taking over the steering as the above poster suggested would likely not be a desirable hack anyway. More likely someone would want to leave the low level control systems intact and just change the desired destination. A solid hack would actually wait until you get to your destination, and then once you send the vehicle to park itself, it instead just goes to the attacker's desired location. Might be a while before you even realized something was up!

It was noted that the Xbox One will accept voice commands from a video the console itself is playing. What happens when someone makes a hyper-targeted Pandora ad that uses your car's voice control function to enter a new destination address? If you are paying attention you will likely notice this, but many people have suggested that at some point you can sleep in your car and wake up at your destination, so even that isn't guaranteed.

No doubt direct control of steering and brakes will be highly locked down, but as you point out that in no way eliminates the possibility for mischief.


mh370 conspiracies


Do you have a car made in the last ten years?


Hitler used it to great effect... was actually one of his primary tools.


Hitler also ate food.

Children's interests is a very tired and aggravating rhetorical tool, certainly, but putting a reductio ad Hitlerum into everything isn't doing anything but showing your lack of imagination or your ideological stubbornness.


Let some scientist surgically install 'fat pads' on you and then let you try some cognitive tests that require you to walk around and lets see if your performance seems 'clouded'.


While the article does make a good point... I find it happens very rarely. Or if it does its almost never vocalized.

It's a little like saying don't think like an English speaker or you're going to pedantically correct everything. Sure it happens, but it's not a lot of people that do it and among those its 1 in a million that actually do it to a point where it gets in their own way.


Never had an issue on my pebble... been fairly rough with it too I might add. It's a solid piece of tech.


Needs to be a criminal punishment for this sort of behavior. Kickstarter is not somewhere this kinda thing can be allowed :/


Feeling sorry for a TSA agent because they took the job just so they weren't poor and jobless is like feeling sorry for a Nazi. You always have a choice. Joining the TSA is probably the most debasing and anti-human thing you can do in America right now.


I totally hate active noise cancelation... I don't know whether it only gets out like 99% of the noise while leaving like... the outlines of a clipped out picture on photoshop or what, but it's hell on my ears. It just causes pain without any indication of whats causing it and that's incredibly unnerving.


I am getting sick of hot women, or even average women dressed like hot women, taking advantage of us nerdy men. It is simply degrading and dangerous to prey upon our one weakness.


Gov. Arnold did it better :)


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