Am I seriously the only one who saw bad things coming out of this?
This is an actual commercial that aired a couple years ago:
Hey! You know what I want in a vehicle? I want a third party to be able to locate and disable it at any time without my permission. Yeah- That’s the ticket! There’s no way that could ever be abused!
When your license agreement ends, you’ll need to upgrade or stop driving.
I remember that ad. I couldn’t believe it - not that they did it, but that they advertised it. Who would want that?! And how could a remote disablement feature NOT get hacked? You’re right, it’s just asking for trouble.
I don’t know, that’s pretty old. There’s probably some residue in the ashtray… 
Also, the Petrovich trilogy by Simon Morden - paging the New Machine Jihad…
Well, if it’s good enough for the Boeing Dreamliner…
Yes. Cars are just like your computer — parts are selectively downgraded in the firmware for different price points and market differentiation. If you buy secondhand when you don’t have to worry about warranties any more, you can get the Engine Management Unit and/or gearbox reprogrammed to improve power and fuel economy. Just like overclocking your CPU. Except DRM means its hard to get the tools to do it yourself.
That’s why we need black markets, Bitcoin and its ilk, various contraband, and other assorted “things for bad guys”.
…and enough people in need of the tools to keep the market viable.
Is this the internet of things al the kids are talking about?
Nope. This is only a pale foreshadowing of the fun to come! 
Can someone explain how the steering can be controlled remotely? That’s smells like an exaggeration. Steering is not “drive by wire”.
Yes, the internet of “dangerous” things !
This is why I only drive old cars. Also they cost less.
But back in college I was able to pwn a few car-ish pieces of hardware over the internet in the lab easy peasy, and that really cemented it for me.
I’m alternately 100% squee over autonomous vehicles, and dreading all the work it’ll take to harden whatever machine I’ll be riding in.
If only someone had been expressing concern over this pretty much from the start. Oh wait …
I myself would not be caught driving that, but I must tip my hat to you for one helluva great plate.
Anti-lock braking and traction control. Those can take over both. Cruise control covers the acceleration.
Who’s smart idea was it to have the car’s operational computer connected to the network at all?
All that should be a closed, wired system. A secondary diagnostic and entertainment network that’s connected to the net is just fine, there’s probably still security issues there, but no real physical vulnerability.
Perhaps there could be an aftermarket service that’d reinstall the devices that aren’t involved in vehicle control onto a separate CAN bus, possibly with a computer filtering messages that have to go between the secure and the insecure bus?
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