[jackvalentine]

“We’ve had tech to solve this problem” isn’t the same statement as “tech to make it impossible to start a car without the owner’s consent, even when the attacker has hardware access”.

Engine immobilisers cut out all the easy “jam a USB stick in there” attacks, The Kia Boys do not exist in Australia where they’ve been mandatory for 20 years.

Lesson here for Americans - if you want something like this it has to be legislated. Cheap manufacturers will absolutely save a few bucks and not include it if they can.

[thewebcount]

Case in point: My father was an EE at GM in the 70s. He told me one time that the company knew of a problem in some model from that era where when you made a hard left turn with the air conditioning on, the engine would stall. Fixing it would have increased the cost of each car by 15 cents, so they chose not to fix it. These models were later recalled. I don’t know whether the cost of the recall was more than the cost to have just done it right in the first place.

[porkbeer]

Im a pretty big car nut, and GM is known for some sketchy stuff, but this is BS.