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While I like the sentiment - hacking a flying car seems like a terrible example! Regulations on any flying passenger transport don't seem like they would, or sh

While I like the sentiment - hacking a flying car seems like a terrible example! Regulations on any flying passenger transport don't seem like they would, or should, ever allow this to happen. Hacking around on the flying car's infotainment systems, suitably isolated from the rest of the flying car's systems - sure.

jimktrains2 9y ago
I think a better argument, with the same sentiment, is allowing farmers to fix their own equipment. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraskaa-farmers-right-to-repair-john-deere-apple https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska... That we're not able to fix and maintain equipment that we, as consumers (I'm not a farmer), purchase is downright silly at best and dangerous at worst.
rijoja 9y ago
People have been doing that to cars for years, and if you have an object weighing a ton or so moving at 50 km/h, we're dealing with 16 Mega Joule already so hacking cars should not be that different. If you are not able to do anything significantly bad, you will probably not be able to do anything remotely useful either.
- camtarn 9y ago
  I guess it depends what you're doing. Remapping some engine timings, where the worst thing that could happen is you blow up your engine: mostly fine, although there's a small risk that you cause an accident if that causes you to lose acceleration on the highway. Reading OBD or CAN buses, fine. Writing to the buses: nope nope nope. And that's just for cars. Flying cars, where many system failures result in an inability of the car to stay in the air: I'd expect this to be thoroughly illegal and heavily prosecuted, because I for one quite like being alive and not underneath a crashed flying car. Does this stifle innovation? For sure. Does it restrict one's ability to modify the things you own? Definitely. Are aircraft regs sometimes over the top? (For instance, preventing you from updating old built-in gps systems, as came up on HN recently.) Yup. But the regs exist for good reasons.

jimktrains2 9y ago

I think a better argument, with the same sentiment, is allowing farmers to fix their own equipment. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraskaa-farmers-right-to-repair-john-deere-apple https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/06/nebraska... That we're not able to fix and maintain equipment that we, as consumers (I'm not a farmer), purchase is downright silly at best and dangerous at worst.

rijoja 9y ago

People have been doing that to cars for years, and if you have an object weighing a ton or so moving at 50 km/h, we're dealing with 16 Mega Joule already so hacking cars should not be that different. If you are not able to do anything significantly bad, you will probably not be able to do anything remotely useful either.

camtarn 9y ago
I guess it depends what you're doing. Remapping some engine timings, where the worst thing that could happen is you blow up your engine: mostly fine, although there's a small risk that you cause an accident if that causes you to lose acceleration on the highway. Reading OBD or CAN buses, fine. Writing to the buses: nope nope nope. And that's just for cars. Flying cars, where many system failures result in an inability of the car to stay in the air: I'd expect this to be thoroughly illegal and heavily prosecuted, because I for one quite like being alive and not underneath a crashed flying car. Does this stifle innovation? For sure. Does it restrict one's ability to modify the things you own? Definitely. Are aircraft regs sometimes over the top? (For instance, preventing you from updating old built-in gps systems, as came up on HN recently.) Yup. But the regs exist for good reasons.