Buy A Hybrid From The Man Who Brought You the Yugo!

[Tuckerfan]

As is fitting with a car built in China, it come with it’s own spyware!

Now, the indefatigable auto entrepreneur has taken his ambitions to a new level with his latest goal of single-handedly creating a mass-market, plug-in, hybrid car industry, including: creating his own high-volume, 100 mpg, luxury vehicle; building a new, dedicated, component factory in China to produce lithium phosphate batteries and electronic parts for his car and for other fledgling electric car makers; organizing a chain of exclusive dealerships placing advanced bulk orders; and engineering a wireless network allowing service technicians to monitor the performance of a vehicle from a distance.

(emphasis mine)

Didja take the car out to see just how fast it would go? Oops! You’ve voided your warranty! Wonder how long it’ll be before hackers crack the software and use it as a way to stalk people?

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@Tuckerfan

Didja take the car out to see just how fast it would go? Oops! You’ve voided your warranty! Wonder how long it’ll be before hackers crack the software and use it as a way to stalk people?

You can already obtain speed information from the “black box” event data recorder systems in many modern automobiles. This is nothing new. I’m not clear on how the wireless diagnostic systems are going to greatly enhance the ability of stalkers or snoops to follow the system; if it is a WiMAX-type system, the range is still limited to a few hundred feet. You can purchase commercially available surveillance transmitters with far more range than that which can easily be hidden on the chassis of the car. It would, however, be of great benefit to a technician trying to diagnose a problem which only occurs while the vehicle is in motion and under power.

And while Bricklin may rightly be castigated for importing the Yugo, he also founded Subaru of America, which is where his millions come from. I can’t say that I’d put a lot of faith into a Chinese hybrid, but they’ve made great strides in the quality of manufacturing in the last fifteen years, and are busy tooling up to do to South Korea what South Korea did to Japan while the Japanese were busy rolling around in piles of money.

Stranger

[scr4]

@Tuckerfan

Wonder how long it’ll be before hackers crack the software and use it as a way to stalk people?

I thought many cars already had remote monitoring systems, like OnStar. What makes you think Bricklin’s system would be more susceptible to attack from hackers?

[Tuckerfan]

@Stranger On A Train

You can already obtain speed information from the “black box” event data recorder systems in many modern automobiles. This is nothing new. I’m not clear on how the wireless diagnostic systems are going to greatly enhance the ability of stalkers or snoops to follow the system; if it is a WiMAX-type system, the range is still limited to a few hundred feet. You can purchase commercially available surveillance transmitters with far more range than that which can easily be hidden on the chassis of the car. It would, however, be of great benefit to a technician trying to diagnose a problem which only occurs while the vehicle is in motion and under power.

I hate those “black boxes” and I’m guessing that you’ve never heard of the BlueSniper Rifle

The gun, which is called the BlueSniper rifle, can scan and attack Bluetooth devices from more than a mile away.

If a $400 device you can build with parts you bought at RatShack can spy on a device from about a mile away that’s supposed to only have a range of a few feet, then I don’t doubt that they’ll be able to do the same with this system.

Oh, and present onboard computer systems are designed to allow the repair tech to plug a laptop into the car for monitoring while driving.

And while Bricklin may rightly be castigated for importing the Yugo, he also founded Subaru of America, which is where his millions come from. I can’t say that I’d put a lot of faith into a Chinese hybrid, but they’ve made great strides in the quality of manufacturing in the last fifteen years, and are busy tooling up to do to South Korea what South Korea did to Japan while the Japanese were busy rolling around in piles of money.

Stranger

When NATO bombed Yugoslavia, they hit the Yugo factory every day of the campaign, so I’d say that castigation is putting it mildly. (And I don’t doubt that they Chinese’ll do to the South Koreans what they did to the Japanese. The Chinese are crafty like that.)

scr4, people are hacking OnStar’s.

[scr4]

@Tuckerfan

scr4, people are hacking OnStar’s.

Is this the type of hacking you were referring to in the OP? You have a strange definition of “spyware.”

[Tuckerfan]

I consider OnStar to be a version of spyware. That site happened to be the first hacking OnStar one I found. You might check this site out for some thoughts on OnStar.

[scr4]

@Tuckerfan

I consider OnStar to be a version of spyware.

So what’s your definition of spyware? Any software that sends data back to a central server?

[Tuckerfan]

@scr4

So what’s your definition of spyware? Any software that sends data back to a central server?

If I have no control over the software, then yes.