[bitterohiogunclinger]

“Even the steering is drive by wire, braking and engine response is all computerised, and the only input the driver has is where he wants the car to go”

B.S. The steering is a conventional power assisted mechanism, and even if the “assist” fails is still a mechanical linkage.

[Carriage Hill]

This ABCNews article about car hackers has a few interesting sentences in it:

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/hackers-grab-car/story?id=20105078

<—SNIP—>

“A Terrifying Turn

While it’s unsettling to have your car invaded or stolen while you’re on a Labor Day trip with your family, it’s not life threatening. What scares me is when a car hacker evolves from messing with your doors to invading your car’s computer system.

The possibility of this even stranger and more dangerous crime is lurking on the horizon. Most modern cars use computers to control everything from engine compression to cruise control, airbags and brakes. Those computers communicate with each other on open networks. Using an $80,000 grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), two researchers recently hacked the onboard computers of a Toyota Prius and a Ford Escape SUV.

They made the Prius accelerate and brake, as well as jerk the wheel while traveling at high speeds. They managed to turn the Ford’s steering wheel at low speeds and disable the brakes, which caused researcher Charlie Miller to drive the SUV into his garage and totally destroy his own lawnmower. This is the stuff of nightmares.

“Once you are through that initial barrier, you can and will be able to do almost anything you want to,” security researcher Don Bailey recently told NPR.”