Why more regulation of connected car tech is probably just down the road

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Several months ago, I bought my first new car in years. I had planned on buying a used one, but decided that a shiny new vehicle would be a pandemic treat. I was amazed by the technology of connected cars, all software-driven embedded programs that essentially turned the car into an API on wheels.

I thought about it more in late January when a 19-year-old in Germany made international headlines with a chilling revelation: he was able to remotely access over 25 Tesla vehicles and, he wanted to, could have controlled some of them. their functions, including unlocking doors, opening windows, and even starting keyless driving.

The story had a happy ending. The teenager, David Colombo, is a white hat hacker who uses his skills to identify security vulnerabilities. That's how he discovered flaws in a third-party data-logging app available to Tesla owners, TeslaMate, that allowed him to send commands to cars. Colombo notified TeslaMate and Tesla, and a fix was quickly released.

But the incident served as a disturbing reminder that security breaches are a clear and present risk to all connected cars that are reshaping the automotive industry, and the very nature of driving, and that better protections must become a higher priority.

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