Virus Scan for Cars?

Toyota brake problem reminded us of the sea change the vehicle has gone through in recent years. Most drivers don’t realize or are unaware of how modern cars have changed from their ancestors. Few years ago Automobiles started following the Airbus’s path to replace direct hydraulic controls with electronics. No more the accelerator or brake pedals are directly connected to the throttle by a physical connector. Electronics acts as intermediary.

I remember one of my friends expressing his frustration for not being able to do small repairs of his new car by himself. “Its all electronics, I don’t know what’s goin’on? I can do nothing” he was saying. Electronics systems and networks to connect them now make up 40% of the vehicle. Its difficult even for the auto mechanics as 40% of the vehicle is Black Box for them and they have to depend upon other Black Boxes to diagnose the problem. The firmware to control all the electronics is becoming increasingly complex too. For example in Prius, the software in the brakes controls the anti-lock braking systems, stability control and a system to convert the energy from braking into power to recharge the batteries.

The stakes are high with firmware design. Small glitches can have damaging effects. Problems with sudden acceleration and momentary lapse of braking are scary, esp in a highway situation. Even scarier thought is vehicles hacking which are very realistic, as we will see more software control of vehicles in future. What if terrorists were able get an insider into supply chain to insert a dormant code into each new vehicle that on a specific date and time would disable braking or cause sudden acceleration? I cannot outlaw a possibility of companies performing Antivirus software scans for vehicles before sending to the market in future.