Perhaps this is another way to drop the top when not sitting in your SC, using your cell phone:

http://translogic.aolautos.com/2013/...6pLid%3D354468

 

Gotta wonder what the security concerns might be, right? Could hackers start my car in the garage, or disable it while driving? I know its only a matter of time before everything is virtual, but... wow.

 

We did a "drop the top by cell phone" and "unlock/lock doors/trunk by cell phone" a couple of summers ago for my SC430.

Security comes from limiting which cell phones can call the car -- if the cell phone is not on the list, the car does not answer.

It is cool to have top completely open as I walk to it. Check out the thread/video here.

 

The Translogic stuff looks pretty cool...and no question that there's some power there that could be misused.

But, he was also quick to point out in the video that his system requires PHYSICAL access to the car's systems.

There's no app to download on your iPhone that lets you control the car next to you, without their knowledge or consent.

 

another video A couple of hackers show off a series of nasty new attacks on cars

 

That's kind-of scary but, then again...not really.

They STILL need to have physical access to your car. At one point, he talks about how he "flooded the CAN network with traffic...".

The CAN bus is the internal network that your car's systems use. So, in order to do that, he has to physically plug into the bus with his laptop.

I also noticed how much effort they had to go through on that Prius just to get access to the ECU (they had the car for at least a day and had to completely remove the dash).

So, is this kind of hacking possible? Absolutely

Is someone going to hack into your car and override your brakes while you're driving down the highway? NO!

 

Habious, I'm in agreement one must have physical access to the car to pull the data and then manipulate it. However, as mentioned the data is mirrored or stored in a cloud, some hard drive and server somewhere. With that said, could someone who is very, very sophisticated, could hack the cloud where data is stored for many vehicles? My guess is this type of hacking is possible, but the likely hood of this occurring is very low.