Posted on 09/26/2015 5:23:50 AM PDT by DUMBGRUNT
“If you look at all the code in this car,” Dr. Patel said, “it’s easily as much as a smartphone if not more.”
New high-end cars are among the most sophisticated machines on the planet, containing 100 million or more lines of code. Compare that with about 60 million lines of code in all of Facebook or 50 million in the Large Hadron Collider.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Maybe a major global auto manufacturer could hide a chunk of code that would detect when a car is undergoing an emissions test and activate the power-robbing emission controls only when the car was under test. Then, on the open road, the car would have high performance, but spew emissions fifty times the legal limit.
Nah, too far fetched to even think as plausible.
The broke down cars you see on the side of the road are not due to mechanical failure for the most part but a software issue.
My 1992 Honda Accord LX was stuck in one gear and I could barely climb a hill. I looked up the possible problems with everyone saying it will cost this or that. All expensive.
The last person to comment had the solution. He said pull the fuse out that feeds electricity to the computer that runs the transmission (under passenger floorboard). It also send electricity for the radio.
I pulled out the fuse then waited a minute then plugged it back in and my transmission was as good as new. I had to do this 1 more time while I owned the car. I wonder how many people were ripped off by mechanics who knew the trick but charge $2000 and did nothing but pull a fuse.
All the more opportunities for hacking.
What it really comes down to is that OUR BETTERS don’t want us little people hot rodding our cars by reprogramming the chips. That is the real hot rod scene right now, from the guys “coal rolling” their pickups to the hot hatchback guys and their superfast turbocharged GTIs, WRXs and Acuras.
My gearhead friends talk about this often!
One has a Dodge Viper that he purchased used, it had been ‘chipped’. He sweats bullets about the state EPA test; so far,OK.
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