In the 2002 Tom Cruise movie “Minority Report” there’s a scene where the hero is running from the authorities, who’ve accused and convicted him of a crime he didn’t commit (yet). Speeding away in his autonomous ‘transport pod’ the fugitive/hero is recognized by AI which redirects the pod’s destination to the police station!
Do you remember Skynet, the evil artificial intelligence system from the ‘Terminator‘ movies? It became self-aware on August 29 1997, less than a month after being activated, and turned against mankind. Seems like far-fetched science fiction. A machine like a car can’t turn against you!
Back in the real world, a security expert recently discovered a flaw in Skylink (that’s the Subaru integrated navigation/security system) which allowed hackers to obtain drivers personal information and even control certain aspects of their cars.
New Subaru cars are permanently connected with Starlink servers, and the breach allowed hackers to obtain VINs, vehicle location history, open door locks and remotely start the cars. Everything thieves would need to steal a new Subaru without trouble. Drivers who connected their cell phones to Starlink also exposed their friends and family members names, phone numbers and email addresses to hackers.
Luckily, the security researcher reported the vulnerability to Subaru in November 2024, and the hole was patched. But this only serves to highlight the vulnerabilities in systems like Starlink that can put modern cars and drivers at risk.
No, thank you. I don’t want the government controlling my car.
Think of it this way…
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If some random hacker guy got access to these new cars, think of what the car company can do? It’s only a matter of time until your Tesla tattle-tales to the police when you speed. Or refuses to start when you rob a bank.
Or they simply govern cars so you can’t speed. I use Apple Maps to get the fastest route to places. It knows the speed limits and warns me of speed cameras and intersections with red light cameras. If your car is connected to Apple, Google, or other maps, then it could be set not to exceed the speed limit. I’m pretty sure Teslas don’t exceed the speed limit when they are in self-driving mode.
Apple Maps sends me on the craziest routes that I would never think of to get to my location in the shortest time.
I never thought about speed governing, which is weird, because I’ve posted twice on demaras.com about speed governors being mandatory in Europe, and soon in California.
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https://demaras.com/2025/01/07/__trashed-8/
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Cars in auto-pilot mode cannot exceed the speed limit. So, as more vehicles become fully connected they’ll prevent drivers from speeding. And an old car without self driving could simply rat you out for your driving behavior. The one thing I worry about is when speed limits change (entering as construction zone might go from 110 km/h to 70 km/h) and as a driver I know to GENTLY slow down, not slam on the brakes to keep within the rules.
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I use Google Maps myself, especially when driving to race tracks out in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes the software will send me down a dirt road to save a minute, and I wonder about the truckers in 18 wheelers towing expensive race cars. imagine those poor guys just blindly following the driving suggestions.
Google Maps is notorious for sending people down sandy dirt roads. It sends people over a sandy ditch road at the top of our road, which isn’t really a road, and they get stuck. New UPS drivers have followed Google’s bad advice and gotten stuck. So silly.