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Comment by sprkyco | Hacker News Reader

Wouldn't say they are in denial about the issue. Wish I had some better sources, but if I recall the automotive industry has always had issues with security regarding keys and ignitions. My 99 Prizm key would work for most all other Chevy Prizm cars. I know that this "cross keying" would work on quite a few different brands and models as well. Some ignitions can be "popped" and screwdrivers used to start the ignition. My point being that security of starting an automobile or accessing one has been plagues with problems. Break the window etc. Some manufacturers do require the key fob to be present while the motor is running in some cases the feul pump will shut off if the key is not present. It is highly likely that the Tesla demo is for opening the CAN exploitability issue to the convention. Attacks on the CAN remotely are much more serious.

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> Some ignitions can be "popped" and screwdrivers used to start the ignition

When I was a teenager, my family had a Fiat 500. Something had broken in the part of the ignition switch that you insert the key into, and so my Dad took it off until we could get it fixed, and we kept a screwdriver in the glove box to use to start the car.

There was virtually no car theft in our town (at least in the places we went), and people often left their car doors unlocked. Soon we got out of the habit of bringing our car keys with us. We weren't locking the doors, and we used the screwdriver to start the car, so why bother?

Well, I found out why we should have bothered a few weeks later when I was driving home. We lived a few miles outside of town, out in the sticks. I was a couple miles from home, taking a back road that had almost no traffic, and a tire blew out.

The spare was in the trunk.

The locked trunk.

>My 99 Prizm key would work for most all other Chevy Prizm cars. I know that this "cross keying" would work on quite a few different brands and models as well.

Back in the later 80s my parents had a Toyota van. One day my mom accidentally started it with her house key. We then realized that pretty much anything that fit partway into the ignition started it. Many years later the key got lost and we kept a screw driver in the cup holder to start it. It was a little odd driving around without a key in the ignition.... always thought cops would get suspicious.

> My 99 Prizm key would work for most all other Chevy Prizm cars.

I accidentally stole a bike in college, because it was the same brand as mine, and had the same brand of lock. Got all the way back to my dorm before I realized that the reason the seat felt weird was that it wasn't mine. But my key worked!

I also used my apartment deadbolt key to let my girlfriend into her house when she accidentally got locked out. She was both horrified and grateful that it worked. (I expected that one to fail, but I figured why not try?)

I'm not sure what the trick is to finding locks that aren't vulnerable to this trick. I suspect it's "buy locks at least 50% more expensive than the cheapest option", but that's just a guess.

Most locks are only useful to deter those who apply a minimal level of effort to circumvent them. And that is good enough for a huge majority of cases.

It's also a legal thing. If I put a lock on something, you circumvent it, and then you kill/main yourself inside, it's your fault, not mine.

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