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Most car manufacturers haven't moved towards OTA updates, probably because they know exactly the risk you describe. I think Tesla has done remarkably well and

Most car manufacturers haven't moved towards OTA updates, probably because they know exactly the risk you describe. I think Tesla has done remarkably well and I suspect they were able to do it because they were small and nimble when OTA capabilities first became feasible. On a different note, Nissan's manufacturing was disabled[1] a few years ago when WannaCry was endemic. [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39906534 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39906534

nexuist 6y ago
> I think Tesla has done remarkably well and I suspect they were able to do it because they were small and nimble when OTA capabilities first became feasible. I think Tesla have done well for another reason: they are strictly a software engineering company that just happens to make cars on the side. Tesla could easily port their software to any other existing car (Autopilot, mobile app + services, touchscreen OS), but then the Tesla cars would be just another bland electric car offering much like the others. It's the software that defines the Tesla experience, and that's why they have focused on cybersecurity since the beginning. There certainly were some fun hijinks on the way I'm sure, like the engineer whose NDA expired and explained that the way OTA was done on the first batch of Model S was to have a massive bash script ssh into each car and run apt-get or a similar command.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  >that's why they have focused on cybersecurity since the beginning That sounds to me like a voting machine company saying they've had antivirus software on their machines since day one. "Strictly speaking, it's better than the alternative..."
Melting_Harps 6y ago
> On a different note, Nissan's manufacturing was disabled[1] a few years ago when WannaCry was endemic. I remember Wannacry quite vividly, I was at BMW doing logistics and supply chain at the time and I was on the phone with the IT guys about potential vulnerability to our systems, specifically those tied with our shipping partners we used on a daily basis. Luckily nothing was affected, and we did a network wide update and changed passwords but I still have the picture of the internal letter we got about updates to the Windows 7 machines we were using, total POS OS, and since I always had a Linux box with me I only found out about it on the day of when I got into work. Since some guys at work knew I was a Bitcoiner they were none to pleased to hear it was ransomware demanding payment in BTC. False equivalence if there ever was one, I suppose. But I was so glad I went back to VW not long after that.

nexuist 6y ago

> I think Tesla has done remarkably well and I suspect they were able to do it because they were small and nimble when OTA capabilities first became feasible. I think Tesla have done well for another reason: they are strictly a software engineering company that just happens to make cars on the side. Tesla could easily port their software to any other existing car (Autopilot, mobile app + services, touchscreen OS), but then the Tesla cars would be just another bland electric car offering much like the others. It's the software that defines the Tesla experience, and that's why they have focused on cybersecurity since the beginning. There certainly were some fun hijinks on the way I'm sure, like the engineer whose NDA expired and explained that the way OTA was done on the first batch of Model S was to have a massive bash script ssh into each car and run apt-get or a similar command.

perl4ever 6y ago
>that's why they have focused on cybersecurity since the beginning That sounds to me like a voting machine company saying they've had antivirus software on their machines since day one. "Strictly speaking, it's better than the alternative..."

Melting_Harps 6y ago

> On a different note, Nissan's manufacturing was disabled[1] a few years ago when WannaCry was endemic. I remember Wannacry quite vividly, I was at BMW doing logistics and supply chain at the time and I was on the phone with the IT guys about potential vulnerability to our systems, specifically those tied with our shipping partners we used on a daily basis. Luckily nothing was affected, and we did a network wide update and changed passwords but I still have the picture of the internal letter we got about updates to the Windows 7 machines we were using, total POS OS, and since I always had a Linux box with me I only found out about it on the day of when I got into work. Since some guys at work knew I was a Bitcoiner they were none to pleased to hear it was ransomware demanding payment in BTC. False equivalence if there ever was one, I suppose. But I was so glad I went back to VW not long after that.