Hacking Cars

Security is a constant game of cat and mouse. While a security expert will create an "impenetrable wall," hackers will have figured it out given enough time. Whether we like it or not, the future is coming and the technology in vehicles is rapidly outpacing their security measures. A vehicle as new and up to date as a 2014 Jeep Cherokee was able to be hacked, instituting a recall by Chrysler of 1.4 million vehicles.

We're all about pushing forward, but if two guys in a garage with a laptop and a few parts can hack into a vehicle, maybe we've pushed too far, too fast. One day self-driving cars may be a very real part of everyday life. You may hop in your car, and get to writing on your laptop as the car drives you to the office. Most people over the age of 30 remember not having a cell phone glued to their hip at all times and it would have been silly to think that it'd ever catch on, but here it is.

Despite our gripes and our fight against the lack of basic social human interaction caused by mobile devices, they still happened. The same will probably happen with self-driving cars. What seems odd and foreign to us right now, may in ten years be the most common thing we see. With 253 million vehicles on the roads every day, and nearly four thousand people dying in a motor vehicle accident each day (it may seem like a small number until it's someone you love), the desire for technology to eliminate driver error is strong.

We agree and disagree at the same time. Look, we'd love for our car ride to be more productive than just sitting and navigating through people who don't know how to merge or who know what a blinker is. It'd be great that time wouldn't be "wasted" so much. We're not quite sure the security and technology are where it needs to be for people to confidently put their children in one of these vehicles. Maybe having some sort of manual override if you notice your car is on the fritz (like many computers get) would ease many consumers? We're not entirely sure, but we know it needs to be more reliable than what we have now. If they can hack a human controlled car, how are the autonomous cars going to fare?