Fiat Chrysler Hacking Recall Sends Warning To Technology Packed German Brands

When friendly hackers landed a Jeep Cherokee in a ditch last week, it sent a warning to BMW Group, Audi and Mercedes-Benz as Germany's luxury automakers compete increasingly on technology rather than just horsepower.

Mercedes's E class will soon join the S class in being able to help steer itself, while Audi sent an unmanned RS7 down a track at race-car speeds and BMW's new 7 series responds to hand gestures and parks itself. All three already offer self-braking systems and highly automated cruise control that are slowly shifting driving responsibility away from the human and toward the machine.

Now the automakers must reassure consumers willing to spend upwards of 45,000 euros ($50,000) that it's safe to drive what has increasingly become a computer on wheels. All three companies say they have tools in place to thwart cyber-attacks, including encrypted connections and firewalls to shield safety and entertainment systems.

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MDarringer - 7/29/2015 12:03:37 PM

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The reason I am so against autonomous cars is that hackers WILL hack them. Whatever code is put in place will temporarily make the car hack free, but hackers will get back in.

The Germans--especially--love engineering things because they can rather than because it serves any real purpose. The RS7 going around the track at race car speed unmanned is brilliant engineering, but it serves no purpose.

It's time to outlaw autonomous cars.

Yonder7 - 7/29/2015 1:48:45 PM

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MDarringer: I hate to admit that you are totally right. Hackers could use the cars to kill someone or even worst: Terrorism, as my father use to say: there are men that wake up early, for those, there are other that never sleep. Not sure if this slang sounds right in English...sorry.

MDarringer - 7/29/2015 3:27:00 PM

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Makes perfect sense.

TomM - 7/29/2015 8:53:06 PM

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Sorry - but the problem is FAR beyond the idea of Autonomous cars.

Today - all a person need do to cause an accident is take control of the Anti-lock braking system - and most cars now have that. And the Automatic Transmission is also likely to be electronically controlled and hackable too - I always wondered about hacking the electronic cruise control - another one in many cars. Of course - the engines are already computer controlled. WE are beyond the point where there is a potential problem - in lots of cars already on the road.

One original "view" of autonomous car was to be used on a series of interstate highways - where the car would get to the destination while you worked on something else. And I believe that would still work. However -UNFORTUNATELY - if someone really wants to cause a problem - and they have the computer skills - it will be really hard to prevent it.