Support our non-partisan non-profit newsroom 💜 Donate now

Imagine your car being hacked…while you’re driving it

Kai Ryssdal and Bridget Bodnar Jul 21, 2015
HTML EMBED:
COPY
In a driving experiment, two hackers were able to remotely control a Jeep Cherokee.  M 93: „Dein Nordrhein-Westfalen“/Flickr

Imagine your car being hacked…while you’re driving it

Kai Ryssdal and Bridget Bodnar Jul 21, 2015
In a driving experiment, two hackers were able to remotely control a Jeep Cherokee.  M 93: „Dein Nordrhein-Westfalen“/Flickr
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The Security and Privacy in Your Car Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, aiming in part to protect your car from being hacked, according to sponsors.  

Imagine being in your car on the highway and suddenly the air turns on, the music turns up and your car stops…right in the middle of traffic. Now a video of the hacker appears on your display screen. Terrifying, right?

Well, hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek just proved that it’s possible, and they’re urging the auto industry to do something about it. Andy Greenberg, a senior writer at Wired, was their test dummy. He wrote about the experience for Wired.com in a piece called “Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway – With Me in It.”

Greenberg describes driving a Jeep Cherokee 70 miles per hour on the freeway when he lost control of his vehicle. The car’s brakes were cut, leaving him to frantically and uncontrollably slide the car into a ditch.

“Despite the blasting air conditioning, I was still sweating when I got off the highway,” he says.

Miller and Valasek have discovered a feature that allows them to control vehicles remotely through the Internet, regardless of the vehicle’s location. The hackers plan to release their findings and code to the public. They say they’re sending a message to the industry that this is a serious issue, and they want consumers to hold the industry accountable.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.