That stated, although I know none of the specifics of automotive computing systems, their instruction sets and 'operating systems' that may be employed to operate them, my opinion is that hacking into one for the purpose of creating a remote-controlled death car is preposterous. And damned-near impossible.
This is stuff for people who believe everything they see in action-adventure movies, CSI, McGuyver and Monk -- entertaining, but riddled with patently preposterous miracle technology that stretches the capabilities of existing equipment into the absurd. Computers can be built and programmed to do just about anything. But the key word is 'built'. You don't just decide that you're going to 'hack' a specific-purpose industrial computer into a perpetual motion machine or use it to spin straw into gold.
Do you know how they update the car computer? It's done by popping a CD into the CD player. How 'impossible' is it for a government agent with billions of dollars in funding behind him to have a customized CD made and stick it into a CD player. You admit you know NOTHING of the specifics of automotive computing systems, which makes the rest of your statement 'preposterous' (and wrong).
You don't just decide that you're going to 'hack' a specific-purpose industrial computer into a perpetual motion machine or use it to spin straw into gold.
Because, as we all know, it's impossible to put a STUXNET virus on a thumb drive, load it into a computer, and have it override the software on a specific industrial computer that controls the speed of centrifuges in IRAN in hidden underground bases where they refine uranium to make it weapons grade... right. Couldn't happen.
": )