[dromidas]

I'm waiting for the day when we have an article titled "Driver-assisting cars targeted by hackers". Primary reason why even if I could afford a Tesla S that I wouldn't buy one. If my car has any sort of control over my acceleration or steering (excluding tire-specific traction control functionality) then that car had better not have any sort of internet connection. Tesla has the ability to update over the air... that is kind of terrifying.

[icebraining]

Planes have automated systems that have control over direction and speed, and nowadays many planes have connections to the Internet. Has any ever been hijacked over the 'net?

[vonmoltke]

Aircraft avionics are separated from the internet access on-board and must be manually accessed to be controlled or modified.

[icebraining]

Yes, and likewise they can decouple the low-level steering/accelerating mechanism from the Internet-enabled, high level system and have them communicate over a very restricted channel.

[TheLoneWolfling]

Are you sure that they could?

Sure, you can decouple this to an extent. But, barring complete informational disconnection (read: airgap and no wireless communications) (and potentially not even then), this only reduces the attack surface, not removes it entirely.

What happens, for example, when your driver assist includes GPS data? Oh look... now you're downloading and decoding maps. Whoops! Attack vector.

What happens when your keyfob starts doing encrypted communication with the car (as other people in this thread are suggesting)? Whoops! Attack vector.

What happens when your entertainment console shows options to change the amount of time before the doors automatically lock? Whoops! Attack vector.

Cars are getting more complex - and it only takes one break in the defenses.

[TaylorAlexander]

The infotainment system must be capable of taking address input, and that same computer would be internet connected for a variety of reasons. Taking over the steering as the above poster suggested would likely not be a desirable hack anyway. More likely someone would want to leave the low level control systems intact and just change the desired destination. A solid hack would actually wait until you get to your destination, and then once you send the vehicle to park itself, it instead just goes to the attacker's desired location. Might be a while before you even realized something was up!

It was noted that the Xbox One will accept voice commands from a video the console itself is playing. What happens when someone makes a hyper-targeted Pandora ad that uses your car's voice control function to enter a new destination address? If you are paying attention you will likely notice this, but many people have suggested that at some point you can sleep in your car and wake up at your destination, so even that isn't guaranteed.

No doubt direct control of steering and brakes will be highly locked down, but as you point out that in no way eliminates the possibility for mischief.

[smileysteve]

mh370 conspiracies

[adrianpike]

Do you have a car made in the last ten years?