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Comment by sahmeepee | Hacker News Reader

As the article says, you don't need an active subscription to be vulnerable. In this case it seems that if the model supports the features at all, you are vulnerable.

This makes sense, because they want people to be able to subscribe to their services later without having to visit the dealership, so they make it possible to remotely enable the service.

I'm not sure if you can buy a tinfoil hat for a car.

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It should be possible to physically disable the cellular modem in the vehicle, wherever that is. I have a 2020 Volvo that is definitely online, waiting for me to activate some pricey online subscription that I don't want or need.

Would be nice to have a organized online database of how to disconnect various "smart" devices— cars, TVs, appliances, etc.

In my VW, the cellular modem and something I actually use (I think it's the Bluetooth microphone) are in the same module, so pulling the fuse or disabling it in the CAN gateway would be too heavy-handed. I would need to spend hours getting to, and into, the module. Or maybe replace the antenna with an effective dummy load / terminator? Tons of trim work. Luckily it's old enough to be 2G, and my understanding is most towers no longer speak to it, so I haven't pursued it further.

But if it is not online, you will not be able to download the latest patches. Like the ones that prevent new remote exploits.

How did we ever survive without computerized vehicles?

We tolerated worse gas mileage (computer controlled fuel injection, transmission, etc.), safety (anti-lock brakes), etc. We added computers because we wanted to lessen the effects of climate change and keep more people alive.

You're using a broad definition of "computer". We've had these features for decades now, until recently the logic was handled by microcontrollers. It's not clear that the functionality requires computing devices also capable of data gathering, storage and upload.

>"climate change"

Not really. Personal vehicles are responsible for such miniscule portion of co2 emissions it barely matters.

Emission regulations enjoy popular support because of city air quality, not climate change. Yes, people tolerate taxes on CO2 emitted by their vehicles (do you have that in the US BTW?) because it has a very beneficial side effect of also limiting particulates and NOx CO and such emissions that actually killed hundreds of people every year in major city centers. Also caused lifelong disability for many children(asthma).

Instead we got people like VW rigging their firmware to report emissions falsely so they could look better.

I was just going to say the same as it's stated pretty early in the article

> These attacks could be executed remotely on any hardware-equipped vehicle in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether it had an active Kia Connect subscription.

If this should tell companies anything is that most of these services should be opt-in instead of opt-out in favor of security and privacy.

> As the article says, you don't need an active subscription to be vulnerable.

OP was talking about not buying a car that requires a subscription to activate, not about whether the subscription makes you vulnerable.

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