Live data from Hacker News

Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

old.reddit.com

191–200 of 346 posts

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For my own edification, would you mind linking these posts you're referencing? The only comments on the reddit thread that I can find that say anything like that admit they're speculating, as opposed to the actual post which says the only thing that cell reception has to do with this is that the remote team can't access it remotely without cell reception (which is a no-brainer). This might be a more contrived example…

Here's the OP's comment from the final update: >>They couldn't do the remote reset once it was outside? I thought that was the original issue >Oh yeah, so nope. The fact it had no signal at the time of the tamper safeguard being triggered meant that remote recovery wasn't an option, even when we moved it into the open. Idk, an extra layer of theft protection I suppose. https://www.reddit.com/r/Justrolledintotheshop/c…

Thank you very much for the update!

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#192
post #70

A lot of readers here, and on Reddit seem to be misunderstanding the situation. The way I understand it, this car was taken in by a garage for 'seat installation'. I presume this means after market seats. The car disabled itself during installation. The OP assumed due to an anti-temper device, but it could have been any failure mode. Most modern cars with airbags will have sensors in the seats to disable some of the…

I get what you're saying, but:

> The fact that the manufacturer can remote into their cars, does not automatically mean that the car is vulnerable to remote hacking.

I mean, it pretty much does.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, some models do. I don't know about that particular one, because (shockingly) I don't own a Ferrari. But second, that doesn't matter. Most places do not have laws that prohibit children in the front seat of cars, only that they use appropriate child seats. Further, child seats are typically required for _children_, not just infants. IIRC, for example, in Texas, child seats are required for any child under the a…

except that child seats are mostly safety theater, of course

Except they're totally not, and saying that is dangerous.

Go look at crash tests of "child car seats" that are nothing more than a box ticking exercise which uses the adult seat, versus a properly engineering seat and you'll see what you are completely wrong.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#194
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The way I understand it, this car was taken in by a garage for 'seat installation'. I presume this means after market seats. It was even more basic than that. They were installing a child's carseat for the owner, and I believe it was an anti-theft system that was triggered. The story reminded me a lot of the rental car that bricked itself because it lost cellular service - https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/02/drive…

Who puts a child’s carseat in a Ferrari?

I do. Got an older F430. My son 5 years old loves to sit next to me. And me as well. On the F430 and I believe most other models you can disable the airbag as well. Sometimes safer when the seat is positioned reversed.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except that child seats are mostly safety theater, of course

Is there any evidence for that? I know that for example women are more likely to be injured in car crashes because most car seats/interiors are designed around the average man so if be surprised if a human half didn't need to be raised or put in a safer position.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=um5gMZcZWm0

https://freakonomics.com/2007/01/05/we-are-not-the-only-ones...

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except that child seats are mostly safety theater, of course

Except they're totally not, and saying that is dangerous. Go look at crash tests of "child car seats" that are nothing more than a box ticking exercise which uses the adult seat, versus a properly engineering seat and you'll see what you are completely wrong.

https://freakonomics.com/2007/01/05/we-are-not-the-only-ones...

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look, I don't disagree with you, it's a problem - but I can guarantee that more Ferrari customers are affected by someone trying to steal their car than there are Ferrari customers driving through an unpopulated desert with no phone signal(and trying to do roadside repair). It's just a question of probabilities, and the first issue seems more important to solve. Besides, I think there's a certain fundamental misunder…

> but I'm certain it's also possible in-person with some kind of key/button input or some diagnostic device. Seems like you're giving Ferrari too much credit, as the engineer they sent out wasn't able to get it working (eg in-person). The car needed to be towed (back to Ferrari I guess).

Well, I'm guessing that what's happening isn't "the car doesn't have a mobile connection so Ferrari can't talk to it " - it has literally broken down in some way. Maybe there's even a second side to this story - they severed a wire when installing the seats or something like that.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#198
post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s unlikely but possible for an over the airway connection to actually be inherently secure. One example is an isolated system that could monitor say engine temperatures and oil pressure and nothing else.

That sort of system is totally _possible_, but not the way any modern automotive connectivity works.

Modern automotive connectivity is via the CAN bus. It is not a given that the system that's internet connected is even able to talk to the CAN bus.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#199
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The situation in here is more like "haha, ok, we just need to tow this thing out of the garage and try again" - no big deal. No big deal when the reason you can't get a signal is that you're in a parking garage. Rather more of a life-threatening defect when the reason you can't get a signal is that you're driving through an unpopulated desert where there are no cell towers or other people.

Failure modes and effect analysis [1] or let me do a computer security analogy: threat model. A desert should be considered for a Toyota Landcruiser, for a Ferrari it would be a low probability cell of the matrix. Stuck in a tunnel underground? More likely to happen. In a concrete building with people tampering the car? Even more likely. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failure_mode_and_effects_analy...

I would wager a guess most of Ferrari clients live in or near a desert. Same for Lambos and other exotics.

Re: Ferrari is bricked during upgrade due to no mobile reception while underground

#200
post #70

A lot of readers here, and on Reddit seem to be misunderstanding the situation. The way I understand it, this car was taken in by a garage for 'seat installation'. I presume this means after market seats. The car disabled itself during installation. The OP assumed due to an anti-temper device, but it could have been any failure mode. Most modern cars with airbags will have sensors in the seats to disable some of the…

Agreed, I also really dislike this frequent misuse of the term "bricking". Bricking used to mean getting your device into a permanently unrecoverable state, but these days I see it used so often as just to mean "I can't turn it on right now".

So, how is a user to know the difference between “I tried all methods known to me and googled for solutions, but can't turn it on right now”, “the hardware is fine, but nobody can turn it on ever again” and “there’s a hardware problem that means nobody can turn it on again”?

Because if that, I think it’s natural that the concept gets broadened.

Post reply on HN