[s_q_b]

If the security services target you, and truly wish to kill you, current methods will more than suffice.

The Israelis like magnetic mines, the Russians polonium, the Yanks... Well to be perfectly honest I'm not sure, but it almost certainly involves some combination of clandestine airpower, special forces operations, OCO, and morbid obesity.

Right now, the chain of devices that can track and kill you is enormous, from your router to your standard ICE Jeep. You're most likely already being tracked on traffic camera, the electronic toll system, cellular towers, passing Wifi, and the endless set of embedded Linux devices that you don't even consider.

If you are targeted, there may be many obstacles to your removable from the board, including political, economic, or legal ramifications.

But technical means will not be one of them.

[hx87]

> the Yanks... Well to be perfectly honest I'm not sure,

I'm not sure either, but setting up a traffic accident wouldn't attract too much scrutiny today.

[s_q_b]

I fully agree. The crux of my argument is that self-driving cars aren't inherently any more hackable or trackable than existing vehicles with existing available data connections through cell, emergency communications, OTA updates, or usb if local.

One could, in theory, use the fly-by-wire steering, traction control, or ABS systems to simulate a pretty convincing crash. It would be fairly straightforward electronically through the onboard processors in existing cars, and would be practically untraceable.

[pbreit]

Yes, I would say a car that can do anything from centrally provided instructions is inherently more hackable than a car that is disconnected from everything and can't do much more than keep its speed on the highway.

[s_q_b]

That's beside the point. The question of centrally distributed updates is orthogonal to that of self-driving cars.

[pbreit]

I'd be surprised if any of the self-driving cars are not "online".

[s_q_b]

That's fair. But what I see is that the car fleet will head towards OTA no matter what we do.

Forgive me for my cynicism. If you've ever worked with embedded systems... Well the state of consumer security is so bad I'd be shocked if someone hadn't already been killed in this way.

The Bluetooth alone is a nightmarish enough vector already. And local installation is very possible.

After all, all cars do need servicing...

[acchow]

> The Israelis like magnetic mines, the Russians polonium

I don't understand how either of those work, but they don't sound discreet. The ability for a state to assassinate people at will and make it look like an accident is entirely different from "yeah, but the government could also shoot you with a drone at any moment".

[s_q_b]

The magnetic mines are exactly what they sound like. Someone drives by on a motorcycle, slaps an explosive on the side of a vehicle, and drives away. Not very subtle, but apparently very successful in taking out Iranian nuclear scientists.

Polonium is actually fairly clever. It's a radioactive material that acts as a slow-moving poison.

It took a while for Western physicians to diagnose, so many domestic leaders, political dissidents and even foreign heads of state (Arafat may have been killed in this manner) fell victim to it.