Watch what happens when a Prius gets hacked

[Renew Deal]

Thanks to advances in computerized controls, cars have gone from humble modes of transportations to high-tech pieces of advanced machinery. While the convenience, safety features, and "wow" factors are good, there is a downside to having all this onboard technology: Where there are computers, there are vulnerabilities to hackers.

In the video above, Chris Valasek, director of security intelligence at IOActive, and Charlie Miller, a security engineer at Twitter, have thoroughly pwned your basic Toyota Prius. The car's various systems have more than 30 control units, and as Forbes reporter Andy Greenberg drives, Valasek and Miller toy with him via a laptop. Valasek and Miller pull some basic pranks: honking the horn, messing with the digital fuel gage, or making the speedometer read 199mph -- possible only in a fever dream of a Prius gone mad! But these hacks can be much more threatening as well.

For example, making the speedometer read 199mph makes the car think it actually is going 199mph, which brings its safety systems into play. In fact, Valasek and Miller ask Greenberg to turn off the car after their speedometer prank, most likely to head off the car deploying its airbag when its speed drops rapidly from 199mph to the actual number, which the car would interpret as a crash.
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http://www.infoworld.com/t/hacking/video-watch-what-happens-when-prius-gets-hacked-224270?source=IFWNLE_nlt_blogs_2013-08-07

[Benton D Struckcheon]

1. So, the airbag would deploy if it thought the speed suddenly dropped, eh?

Hmm. Double hmm.

[Gravitycollapse]

7. I believe airbags are deployed by G-meters.

Measuring the force of acceleration (positive or negative) and deciding whether or not an impact is occurring.

[Benton D Struckcheon]

10. That sounds better.

Basing it on the delta in the speedometer seems very dangerous.

[Gravitycollapse]

11. Yes, consider losing traction in the rain as the speed sensors read high and then drop...

Giving a false indication, from the speedometer, that there is a large drop in speed over a short amount of time. BOOM off go the airbags.

[leveymg]

2. Airbags are triggered by accelerometers, not the speedometer!

[Gravitycollapse]

9. My thoughts exactly.

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. Sure, but if the signal from the accelerometer is conveyed electronically instead

of mechanically, it doesn't matter, does it?.

Now, extrapolate this to another machine, say a $130M airborne weapons platform with no mechanical controls at all...

[leveymg]

13. It matters a great deal, as the impact may be from the side, which would not slow the car, but

you still want the airbags to deploy. Or the impact might be when the vehicle is airborne, and the driving wheels are spinning at 190 mph. You can see now why the speedometer is irrelevant, and should be.

The accelerometer is essentially a friction contact switch that requires a certain amount of G's to move a little ball a certain distance within a tube. It's very simple, reliable and cheap. There's no reason ever to change that style of G-sensor. The sensor may be fed into a computer or relay that could be spoofed, admittedly, either to go off without an impact or to not deploy at all.

Yes, anything can be spoofed, but you normally need to find a way to trick the sensor or else gain access to the circuits or the software. Good luck trying that with something made by Northrop Grumman or General Atomics.

[snooper2]

3. hacking a prius is hard work

most people take the easy way-

[leftstreet]

8. LOL

[Safetykitten]

4. Rich Democrat fears. My Prius won't work!

[Trailrider1951]

6. Actually, I'm a working class Democrat

who drives a lot for my job. I get good gas mileage with my Prius, but I must say that this is the most squirrelly-handling car I've ever owned. When I press on the gas for quick acceleration, there is a second or two time lag between when I push on the gas pedal and when the car starts to speed up. Also, sometimes when I go over a small bump or pothole, the traction control activates. What's up with that? But those videos were damned interesting.

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. Some Nader like person needs to take this on.

Simple regulation: Mechanical control defines sane upper/lower bounds for functioning, digital optimization within those bounds. For instance you should not be able to disable the brake light that. However if you had to push the brake further down to get it to engage physically in certain cases, (Prius harnesses kinetic energy while stopping) that would be legal.

[flvegan]

14. Making the speedometer of a Prius read 199 mph should elicit

thoughts from the car akin to, "no it isn't" or "I can't do that"

And if you have a Prius, it can't get "pwned" because it already did that to you. Vile, hateful, lane-clogging shitbox of epic proportions.

[TheMightyFavog]

15. I did tune out a Prius in Forza 4.

I think I got it up to 125, max.

[Waiting For Everyman]

16. I wonder if this will be sent to the dungeon too

along with the Michael Hastings threads.