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Cars are full of software now, they are basically smartphones with wheels, cameras, microphones etc. Even a 20-year-old car has an Engine Control Unit, a comput
by pabs3 2y ago
Cars are full of software now, they are basically smartphones with wheels, cameras, microphones etc. Even a 20-year-old car has an Engine Control Unit, a computer that controls the engine, handles the immobilizer etc.
- beAbU 2y agoI'm not questioning why cars have software, I'm questioning why they need software updates. Specifically OTA updates, which means the car has an attack vector. A car should be an embedded system, there is arguably no need for any of its core subsystems (ECU, BMS,immobilizer etc) to have a wireless connection to the outside world. If updates are needed, the dealer can handle it physically.
- pabs3 2y agoAt a minimum, cars have LTE modems in them for telemetry and other things, those alone are complex enough to need security updates. Next up are the wireless unlock systems, if there was a security problem there, anyone could potentially steal your car. And there are issues with these systems, relay attacks and the like. Then the infotainment systems parse complex data like videos, and need network connections to download video, games etc