3 ms·

Agree with Unklejoe but disagree with oppositelock that CANbus make modern cars MORE HACKABLE [0] rather than "more difficult" to work on. I am not even sure if

• oppositelock 11y ago
  I think both statements are true, the cars are more difficult to work on for the garage mechanic, and the additional computerized systems make the cars more hackable as well. I'm appalled at the lack of security in modern cars. Cars have a single CANbus and abuse it to intermingle important control protocols with silly things like trip odometers you can see on your stereo. The internet connected systems aren't in the least bit secure - look at what happened with the Nissan LEAF, which had an API without any sort of authentication where the VIN number was sufficient to access private data - jeez, nobody could ever guess the VIN for a car could they, it's not like it's printed on the windshield...oh wait. I hope that companies like Automatic have taken precautions against people using their dongles as an attack vector for cars. Anyhow, I'm one of the people who does hack into my cars, mostly to learn how the systems work, but I don't represent the average case, since 20 years of building hardware and software gives me a background that most mechanics don't have. This stuff takes a lot of time to do, both to research then to make sure you've not screwed something up. It's not hard to brick an ECU, I've done it once, and replacing it is annoying too, due to regulations, the embedded VIN in the ECU and such, especially in CA where I live. On the upside, there are passionate hobbyists who do reverse engineer these cars, and there is a treasure trove of information on the web on how to hack your cars if you have the knowhow.