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Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

electrek.co

671–680 of 773 posts

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#671
post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What they meant is that it is not possible to fix it without replacing the hardware.

I see. But replacing the hardware would still be very much in the purview of "Tesla's problem" if you think they are a car manufacturer.

Yes, but it is unpatchable for any currently existing cars on the road, I believe that's the point they were trying to articulate (though not super well).

And yeah, you are correct, Tesla can close up that exploit in their newer hardware revisions.

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#672
post #628

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution to these problems? Don't be a customer of said abusive company. If they don't present value for money at a given price point (including these sorts of shenanigans), don't buy it. So long as you know about these issues up front I don't think it's that problematic (even if it feels a bit wasteful in a holistic sense)

Individual solutions are never going to fix collective problems.

Collective solutions to collective problems are often just individual solutions applied at scale by many unrelated individuals (on their own).

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#673
post #435

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That's why I also rotate license plates and repaint my car twice a year.

you're joking, but there's a whole genre of "adversarial fashion"[0][1] dedicated to making clothing that spams these sort of public data recognition services. Hoodies with license plates, face masks with weird facial features, etc. Often optimized against actual neural networks too [0] https://adversarialfashion.com/ [1] https://www.capable.design/

This made me realize that recent openAI tech is able to cut through misleading or confusing images, even finding the potentially inferred humour or absurdity layered in the images. I wonder how we’ll find a way to trick that kind of technology as well.

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#674

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I wear an rpi connected to four lcd's on my face that display randomly chosen beard tiles. It's also why I started Our Lady of the Anonymity Pool where we gather for music and fellowship, and to recharge and distribute beard screens to our congregants and visitors.

Phillip K Dick imagined a "scramble suit" that did just that in a Scanner Darkly, continuously randomizing the users facial features.

This is currently possible in real time on consumer mobile hardware, looks neat

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#675
post #602
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay great, but now the lowest cost of the car is an extra $10k because the manufacturing just got a lot more complicated as a result of not being able to build every car the same way.

This is naive. Tesla isn't selling the base model below cost. If they did, then Tesla would be wiped out unless people shelled out for the extras, because they'd be losing money on every car sold. Instead, what's happening is that the current price fully reflects the cost of production, and holding the extras hostage is pure gravy.

Nobody claimed Tesla was selling base models at cost? Completely unrelated to the point.

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many features it makes sense. Heated seats for example have trivial hardware costs. It's basically a couple resistive wires, plus the necessary controls. The process costs of manufacturing some cars with and some without heated seats likely far exceed the cost of the heated seats themselves, so it's cheaper to just put them in every car. But heated seats are a great upselling opportunity, people are willing to pa…

Back in the day we used to just call those "standard features" and every car had them.

Heated seats were a "standard feature" and every single car had them? I guess maybe, if you drove porsches and higher trim Mercedes cars 20 years ago (or any comparable luxury vehicles).

Otherwise, I can totally assure you they were not "standard features", and they didn't even exist for most car models, regardless of the trim.

Or maybe your definition of "older" vehicles means those that were produced in the past 5-10 years, but that's a fairly controversial definition of "older".

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You better be ok with building your own car then, because every major player is adding subscriptions for various features. Remote start and remote lock/unlock are the most common, along with satellite radio.

if everyone is doing it, it's time for the law to step in.

What could possibility go wrong?

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#678
post #677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if everyone is doing it, it's time for the law to step in.

What could possibility go wrong?

> What could possibility go wrong?

Do tell. I'm always keen on hearing why people prefer no regulation in the automotive space.

Re: Hackers manage to unlock Tesla software-locked features

#679

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read an article about the early DirecTV hacking days and the cat and mouse game the hackers played with the company. DirecT cards were smart cards that ran programs for the decryption path. The hackers kept just duplicating whatever DirecTV sent down to keep them workign, mystery bits and all. Then one day a final update came out and those weird bits turned out to be a specially designed program that bricked all of…

Didn’t this happen recently with a usb to serial port vendor or something like that? Vendor released a new driver that bricked all of the knockoff ones…

Yes, FTDI did that - https://www.zdnet.com/article/ftdi-admits-to-bricking-innoce...
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