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Your Next Truck May Have Over-the-Air Updates


Gorehamj

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John Goreham
Contributing Writer, GM-Trucks.com
7-25-2017

GM's Mary Barra has announced that prior to 2020 GM vehicles will have the capability to receive software updates over the air. "We are in the process of deploying a new electrical architecture, which is a pretty comprehensive undertaking, and that's well under way ... as well as a whole new generation of infotainment systems," Said Barra.

 

Tesla was the first company to popularize this form of remote updating, but GM and other companies have the ability to do it now via the On-Star or other telematics system almost every new vehicle comes equipped with. However, what Barra is talking about will go well beyond map updates and audio system tweaks. Changes to any part of the software in a GM vehicle will be possible.

 

Tesla fans mostly like the ability their $100K cars have to be modified over the air and frequently brag about this whenever a competitor's car is recalled for a change to software. On the other hand, owners are often not thrilled with the changes they wake up to. For example, Tesla has limited the speed at which their cars could operate at while using Autopilot without asking permission of the owner.

 

Automotive News has more on this topic.

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Being an evolution in technology whether a customer believe to be good or bad, there may not be a lot you can say or do about it given today's “hotspot” vehicles. You’ll almost need an older car with little to no technology not to be impacted. But an old car is no fun unless it was built between 64 and 72. In a way the technology may be good if used for the right reasons, but catastrophic for those that hack the system and use it for blackmail purposes.

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This is a security nightmare. You thought vehicles were easy to hack before, wait until this is implemented and your vehicle is constantly sending out a signal to get the latest update. Way to easy for someone to find that signal and perform a MITM attack.

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This is a security nightmare. You thought vehicles were easy to hack before, wait until this is implemented and your vehicle is constantly sending out a signal to get the latest update. Way to easy for someone to find that signal and perform a MITM attack.

Well, let's hope it's not designed/implemented that way with it constantly looking for updates.

 

Hopefully owners will be notified that there are available updates and for them to start the process via option in the menu. As it is now, my truck will not let me connect to any unsecured Wi-Fi network.

 

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

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My wife's 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee already does some of this. It gives you a message that an update is available and says that you can do it yourself or take it to the dealer. The process was about 20 minutes and you had to leave the ignition on. This definitely raises security concerns. A couple years ago, hackers demonstrated to a reporter that they were able to take over a number of the vehicle controls by remotely hacking in through the entertainment system. To fix that issue, they actually sent small USB drives with the software to patch the system.

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