Can a car be hacked?

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 https://www.caranddriver.com/tesla/model-3

 

Have you ever seen a futuristic movie with advanced technologies? I bet you can name at least one. When I was thinking about hacking, the movie that came to my mind was obviously Matrix. What I intend to say is that there were people, hackers, who wanted to control the machines ruling the world. This futuristic vision can be found today, technology becomes more and more advanced each day, it becomes more sophisticated, there are more programmers trained to create devices based on artificial intelligence. What comes with that is that apart from programmers, there are also hackers.

Everyday we use smartphones, laptops or small domestic robots. Cars can be programmed to use artificial intelligence. A great example is a vehicle created by Tesla company, that has an impressive design with large on-board screen and the possibility of autodrive. But is it safe to drive a car, which is connected to our phones, can be remotely driven and has a wide range of other innovative informatic options? Can it be hacked so that you lose control over it? What then?

 

https://www.cybersecuritymastersdegree.org/2017/11/top-5-most-dangerous-hackers-of-all-time/

 

There have been many cases in which Tesla model 3 was hacked. Once somebody controlled the autowipers,  but more attention was paid to the car suddenly switching the lane. How did the hackers manage to do that? According to MIT Technology review [1]. The answer is simple when you read it – as these cars are specifically programmed, the hackers needed to place the stickers on the road to trick the programme.

Here are some specifics:

,, This an example of an “adversarial attack,” a way of manipulating a machine-learning model by feeding in a specially crafted input. Adversarial attacks could become more common as machine learning is used more widely, especially in areas like network security.’’[1]

,, Tesla’s Autopilot is vulnerable because it recognizes lanes using computer vision. In other words, the system relies on camera data, analyzed by a neural network, to tell the vehicle how to keep centered within its lane.’’[2]

Another accident, more serious, was when somebody had a crash with a truck – ,, The driver, Jeremy Banner, activated the autopilot feature on his Tesla Model 3 about 10 seconds before he crashed into a semi truck on March 1 in Delray Beach, Florida.’’[2]

Although Tesla cars cannot be simply hacked by a thief opening a steering column and connecting special cables, it is possible with a computer.

,,Two researchers have found that they could plug their laptop into a network cable behind a Model S’ driver’s-side dashboard, start the car with a software command, and drive it. They also injected a remote-access Trojan on the Model S’ network while they had physical access, then later remotely cut its engine while someone else was driving.’’[3]

After successful hacking attempts Tesla makes their cars more advanced and upgraded, so that the same way of hacking cannot be used again. In order to prevent new hacking attacks, according to Forbes, Tesla company created a special contest for those who are into programming, especially legal hacking. What I mean by legal hacking is that they want such hacker to hack their cars in a new way, so that he obtains a money prize and the company can make their cars more hacking-proof.

https://cdn.technologyreview.com/i/images/teslafactory.png?sw=1272&cx=0&cy=90&cw=1341&ch=754

To summarize, Tesla model 3 can be hacked, as well as other cars and devices that use advanced technology. We don’t know if we could ever create an ideal system, which hackers cannot break into. For now we have to be careful, like in Matrix, in order not to give the machines the control over us.

 

 

References:

[1]https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613254/hackers-trick-teslas-autopilot-into-veering-towards-oncoming-traffic/

[2]https://www.technologyreview.com/f/613549/teslas-model-3-autopilot-mode-was-activated-seconds-before-a-fatal-crash/

[3] https://www.quora.com/Can-Tesla-cars-be-hacked-like-people-hack-computers

https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/01/14/900000-on-offer-for-anyone-who-can-hack-a-tesla-model-3/#7a81c1326da7

https://jalopnik.com/its-possible-for-a-tesla-to-be-hacked-and-heres-why-kno-1833745069

2 thoughts on “Can a car be hacked?

  1. Maciąg Agnieszka says:

    Having personal experience with my car being stolen by automotive hacking, I think we should do more to create technologies that will prevail in attacks and thiefts. It is a case also of our safety, as there is an ability to kill the engine of a car by coming to it nearby and hacking its system. Such situations can cause severe danger, and maybe we don’t need to look at it with the same seriousness as hacking planes, but it is still worth of profound consideration.

  2. Śmiałek Paweł says:

    The problem with switching from normal cars to more advanced and automated ones is that the latter is more susceptible to burglary and theft. I think we have a very long and disturbing road ahead of us before the technology responsible for protecting against hacking and theft of cars is improved enough to make them mass-produced and accessible to everyone.

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