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Agreed, and there are other viable attack vectors too. Instead of a worm, an unfriendly state or other bad actor with deep enough pockets could hack the update
by kvz 5y ago
Agreed, and there are other viable attack vectors too. Instead of a worm, an unfriendly state or other bad actor with deep enough pockets could hack the update servers that cars get their over-the-air updates from. Employees of the car manufacturer could be compromised to make that easier.
Tesla is a software company and probably has a lower chance of getting hit due to expertise and funds being poured into security (even tho not infallible as this post shows), but there’s a race to the bottom and soon enough Car companies that couldn’t pull of decent navigation will have some form of computer-controlled-steering as stockholders are looking at Tesla stock price and breathing down their necks.
I have been worrying about this for some time, even tho I am also a tech lover and Tesla driver. was thinking of writing a blog post about this, but seeing this comment, maybe it isn’t a new thought and everybody is already aware of this risk.
I think you are right about medical personel. But also: if you make everyone crash around rush hour, you take out a significant share of the working population. And how do you clean up the infrastructure to let trucks and ambulances through again. Not to mention the catastrophe of cars crashing into stores and pedestrians in city centers.
- adamhp 5y agoCan we not introduce some sort of hardware short-circuit? Hit this button and it cuts all power and engages brakes at full force.
- LinuxBender 5y agoOn a general aviation aircraft this would be the power switch for the ECM. Super easy to add a kill switch, if the car manufacturer chose to do so. No idea what a self driving car would do if it lost its ECM and related controllers.
- kvz 5y agoTerrorists would probably have an easier time exploiting this button, which isn’t exactly safe either, than update servers. Or not, but it does introduce yet another attack vector, or technology that could have a bug that makes it trigger by accident.