Tesla Driverless Car Hacked, Controlled From 12 miles Away

[easyt65]

Have all the continuous computer hacks - those against the Pentagon, the DNC, Hillary - taught us NOTHING?

Driverless computer-run cars? Yeah, good luck with that!

Researchers hack Tesla Model S with remote attack
"Tesla Motors is considered one of the most cybersecurity-conscious car manufacturers in the world—among other things, it has a bug bounty program. But that doesn’t mean the software in its cars is free of security flaws.

Researchers from Chinese technology company Tencent found a series of vulnerabilities that, when combined, allowed them to remotely take over a Tesla Model S car and control its sunroof, central display, door locks and even the braking system. The attack allowed the researchers to access the car’s controller area network (CAN) bus, which lets the vehicle’s specialized computers communicate with each other."

No thanks....

...but it won't be 'long', for 'safety', before the government eventually mandates driverless cars....


Researchers hack Tesla Model S with remote attack

 

[Bob Blaylock]

I think it's for good reason that I am uneasy about modern developments in which crucial controls in cars are being handed over to sophisticated computers.

In my mid-1990's Ford Contour, when I press the gas pedal, I am directly working a mechanical linkage, that controls the throttle on the engine. Literally a mechanical cable, that runs directly from the gas pedal to the throttle plate linkage. No computer in there, for a hacker to tamper with.

When I press the brake pedal, I am directly working a hydraulic mechanism, which, together with a boost powered by engine vacuum, presses the brake pads against the rotors. Again, no computer or other system that is in any way vulnerable to hackers.

When I turn the ignition key off, I'm literally cutting power to the ignition and fuel injection systems, assuring that the engine will nearly immediately stop running.

The automatic transmission is computer-controlled, but when I put it in neutral or park, I am operating a mechanical linkage that disengages the drive train from the engine, and no computer has the power to override that.

In the movie Capricorn One, there's a scene where the protagonist's car, presumably due to sabotage, goes out of control. The throttle is stuck wide open, the brakes don't work, the transmission won't disengage, and the ignition switch won't shut the engine off. It's a 1960s or 1970s Mustang. Though such a sabotage wouldn't be totally impossible to such a car, it came across to me as very unlikely. I think it'd be very difficult to perform the modifications to such a car, to allow it to be caused to go out of control in that manner, without it being rather obvious to the owner before he drove off in it, that the car had been seriously tampered with.

Especially with modern hybrid-type cars, where all propulsion and braking goes through a sophisticated computer system that completely isolates the driver's controls from the actual mechanisms being controlled, such a scenario is certainly much more plausible, due either to sabotage, or even to an unintentional malfunction.

 

[Silhouette]

This thread's OP should just say "You shouldn't buy Teslas, you should buy gas guzzlers. We don't want examples of what could be driving around for everyone to see..".

Got news for the OP: Tesla cars aren't the only ones that can be hacked. Any car with "onstar" functions can be too.

 

[waltky]

Car bomb threat...

'Autonomous Vehicles Provide an Avenue for Terrorism,' Congress Is Told
February 15, 2017 - As the nation speeds toward development of fully self-driving vehicles, here's a speed bump to consider: Not only is hacking a "real threat," but "autonomous vehicles provide an avenue for terrorism as well," Congress was told on Tuesday.

Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) asked RAND Senior Information Scientist Nidhi Kalra, "How real is the threat of vehicle hacking" when it comes to autonomous vehicles.

It is a very real threat. There -- transportation is one of the areas that receives a lot of attention from hacking because it is -- you know it's a way to disrupt our transportation system. So there's a great concern there. And cyber security is not something that can sort of be shrink wrapped on top of the vehicle because there's so many parts that contribute to the ultimate vehicle that it has to be baked in from the ground up.

And it's not only hacking for fun and profit, but autonomous vehicles provide an avenue for terrorism as well because there's a way to use these vehicles to -- you know -- the threat is no longer sort of suicide bombers and -- that blow themselves up, but now we have vehicles that can drive around. So, I don't want to overstate the risk at this time, but we need to think very broadly about cyber security, not only as a hacking opportunity but also as a terrorism opportunity.

Although hacking concerns were discussed at the hearing, no one else mentioned terrorism. The hearing was conducted by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Digital Commerce and Consumer Protection.

'Autonomous Vehicles Provide an Avenue for Terrorism,' Congress Is Told

 

[Silhouette]

And in direct correlation to the VW industrial sabotage...the next headline will be "Tesla motors no longer allowed to produce cars due to liability" with the caveat that they CAN still produce SUVs that burn gas and only get a maximum of 12 mpg.

Remember how VW "can no longer be trusted" after *someone* OKed the tampering with emissions readouts at their factory? Apparently the US is still allowing them to import a big gas SUV model; haven't heard any emissions info on how burning 12mpg supposedly decreases carbon in our atmosphere, compared to their 50mpg little turbo diesels.

Trump's Dieselgate?: How The GOP/BigOil Powers Intend To Smash Efficient Cars Again