Posted on 07/25/2013 1:42:55 PM PDT by mandaladon
Forget hacking accounts, computers or mobile devices - security engineers from Indiana have managed to hack the software inside the Toyota Prius and Ford Escape. Using a laptop wirelessly connected to the car's electronics, Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek were able to remotely control the brakes, the accelerate, change the speedometer, switch the headlights on and off, tighten the seatbelts and even blast the horn. The project was funded by a grant from the U.S Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to highlight the security risks affecting modern-day cars. Miller, a security engineer at Twitter, and Valasek, Director of Security Intelligence at IOActive, are due to officially announce their findings at the Def Con 21 conference in Vegas the weekend of the 1-3 Augus
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
IIRC, some University of Texas, Austin students hacked into a non-gov drone a while back.
That thought popped immediately into my mind as well.
This story also could be the basis for a thriller movie plot or some serial murder plot on television.
Some modern vehicles, my 2012 F350....Mercedes, activate the brakes on one side of the vehicle for various reasons.
On the F350, to cancel trailer sway or fishtail. On the Mercedes to make instant changes in direction to return a sleepy driver to his correct lane when a head on is imminent.
One could use that feature to cause a vehicle to leave the road.
Stability control over-ride?
Certainly possible.
While all this stuff can be “demonstrated”, I’m not convinced that it is being done in the real world.
>> the brakes, the accelerate, change the speedometer
“All your base are belong to us! You have no chance to survive make your time.”
Good, I hope they get control of this guy’s car in front of me here, uh-oh, too late.
GM uses a cellular phone with an in-band modem. The "OnStar" telematics control unit is tied to the vehicle data bus in a fashion that permits unlocking doors, honking horns, flashing lights, remote start/shutdown of the engine, access to diagnostics and more. I was working on Wingcast to create a competing capability for Ford in the early 2000's. All the capabilities listed above were in the telematics unit. I built simulators for 5 Ford and one Infiniti model to exercise the TCU capabilities. Wingcast hired a huge number of H1B employees who saw "startup" and reacted with "party" instead of performance. They failed as a venture.
The devices I used did not have access to brakes and steering. That has probably changed with the advent of ABS brakes and active suspension systems. There are likely additional controls that could be leveraged.
>> Good, I hope they get control of this guy’s car in front of me here
Stop texting and drive, dammit! :-)
That was a good movie. But not what I had in mind. Something involving contract hit men who use this technology to kill people for hire while leaving no trace.
They could enhance the plot by giving the technology the ability to lock all the doors and windows, filling the interior of the car with carbon monoxide and tweeting suicide notes from the onboard social media interface. Oops, now this will be designed in the black box that the government will control on 2014 models and later.
Mercedes C350 for one.
If you are at speed, PARK is not much better than NEUTRAL, as the locking pin will likely just snap.
The Prius however, does not have a mechanically linked transmission.
A package could be made to link the blue tooth to a wider connection.
Speaking of the CIA, Fox & Friends had some guy on this morning who said the CIA was spending $650K to find out about WEATHER MANIPULATION. He was asked what does the CIA have to do with weather and the guy said they see "global warming" events causing possible terrorist activities. NUTS. The world has gone insane.
Thankfully they haven’t given control of the steering to the computer. My newest car does have computer-controlled braking in the name of “automatic stability control.” I know for sure that the gas pedal does not connect to the engine except via the computer.
It’s the push-button start ones that are the scariest. These are the ones that have had runaways as there is no key to switch off. Still, I’m not completely sure what my key switch actually connects to... whether an ignition cutoff or just the computer.
That is correct, without power assist, very fancy driving may be impaired, but the general direction would be determined by the driver.
The problem comes when the car becomes airborne from a bump or rise in the roadway due to excessive speed, and the road turns out from under it.
Two of my friends died from meeting trees along side the road this way.
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