Police Can Remotely Drive Your Stolen Tesla into Custody
thenextweb.com
thenextweb.com
Because - well if the property can drive ifself - it is not really a theft. But also is not really ownership.
At least they have the right attitude about it, as opposed to "Don't worry, only we can hack it, you can trust us!"
Right, they'll just sit there patiently instead of kicking out the window at the next set of lights.
I've also thought of this.
1. Lock doors, secure windows.
2. 100% throttle
3. after 15 seconds, 100% steer left
Of course, there are certain... moral issues... surrounding this idea which have prevented it leaving the notes on a napkin stage.
If another car isn't there to stop it, the car has now gone through my kitchen or my daughter's bedroom.
100% throttle for 15 seconds on a multi-level parking garage means my car has now plunged N stories, or gone for a swim into the pond/river/drainage ditch behind the parking garage.
Don't be judge, jury, and executioner.
Or in less cliche terms: separate the asset recovery function (where you can help without moral issue) from the law enforcement function (where you cannot help without creating moral and privacy issues).
Just immobilize the car: the car's owner, leasing/financing company, insurance company, and police department will all be happy with just that.
Alternatively: person is stealing your car, you have decided that theft deserves the death penalty, you execute them with your car.
Someone steals your car, your car accelerates and turns hard left, killing the occupants of other cars around them.
Seriously, I don’t get people who are so hell bent on trying to come up with ways to execute people for committing crimes.
Even if he successfully gets away how likely is he then to steal another Tesla?
Even if a hacker sells them a zero day hack then it will only last a single day before Tesla updates its entire fleet.
This would prevent automatic updates to the software and remote control at the same time.
Then you do the same thing as you would in an unconnected car, break a window.
Imagine this: You’re leaving work, walking to your car, you close the door and your car arrests you and takes you against your will to a black prison site.
great time to be a criminal, I guess.
He's in that weird automated hover car with the rotating front/rear that can transition to/from being an elevator up the side of a building. It locks him in and starts driving to the police. He kicks out the window, then jumps onto another moving vehicle.
I think of this every time there is any discussion of cars that have data connections or can drive themselves. If stopping a driver is as easy as entering something into a computer, then it will be done far more often and with less justification.
Think about a black-hat hacker who can have a side gig making sweet ransom money by kidnapping you or your child from a thousand miles away. Aggressively anarchistic.
Think about a rogue employee who works for Tesla or someone and has legit access to the tech, and knows the GPS coordinates of the nearest body of water. Maniacally murderous.
Think about a terrorist group whose only objective is to cause as much damage as possible, and figures out how to access the whole fleet of vehicles at once. Grandly genocidal.
Self-driving cars are downright terrifying.