Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on a Highway… This is Scary!

This is literally terrifying if you think about the implications, especially considering what could happen if it was used in malicious ways on a large scale. These two hackers have found a way to literally hijack a car – specifically a 2014 Jeep Cherokee – and take over many of the vehicle’s functions from a remote computer that’s connected to the Jeep wirelessly from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.

The guys have done this before, but they were hard-wired into the Jeep while riding in the back seat. Obviously this still isn’t exactly ideal, but at least there was a pretty obvious connection to who may have been doing the hacking since they had to be present in the vehicle. Now, that is gone and the vehicle can be accessed remotely, opening up a whole world of possibilities.

While the good guy in me wants to see the positives of this, I can really only see negative outcomes from this technology. If you’ve seen Fate of the Furious, the latest film in the Fast and Furious series, you watched the hacker known as Cypher take over a hoard of vehicles, remotely controlling them and using them to do her bidding. While I don’t think this technology is quite at that level just yet, this does seem like a big step in that direction, and the implications of it being used on a grand scale could be devastating.

The hackers managed to log into the Jeep’s infotainment system and allow them to control the radio, the climate control system, and even display photos on the in-dash display. However, as their demonstration progresses, the level of control they have over the Jeep becomes clear when they shut off the ignition while the driver is on the interstate, leaving him in a pretty precarious situation. They also show that they can take over the Jeep’s steering while the SUV is in reverse, and even disable the brakes, sending the driver and his cameraman passenger into a ditch while trying to park the car.

Obviously these guys are merely showing what they have been able to do, but we have to assume if more devious types got their hands on this technology, they’d be more likely to actually put it to use for all he wrong reasons.