Safety

OwnStar Web Expands

Samy Kamkar is Security researcher; who, earlier this month; exposed a vulnerability in GM or more specifically OnStar’s programming with a device he called OwnStar. Before heading to last week’s annual Def Con in Las Vegas, he showed the Zero Day to GM and OnStar for them to quickly address the problem. Despite this, he still had a few Zero Days to expose at the Hacking conference. N

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Trouble on the Throne: Volkswagen Hack

The Volkswagen Auto Group has been one of the top sellers for as long as I can remember. They have always produced a steady stream of cars coming from every part of the auto spectrum, excluding pickup trucks but including lorries. For the first half of 2015 the auto sales throne has been relinquished to the Volkswagen Auto Group from Toyota Motor company, but there is trouble on the way for the Au

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Tesla Model S Updates Auto Industry

By now, the Tesla Model S is on everyone’s radar. Hate it or love it, everyone knows about it. The competitors are trying to emulate and abrogate its sales, the average auto buyers are craving and saving to afford it, and petrol companies recoil in disgust and mistrust, hoping it rusts and combusts. But bias aside, the Tesla Model S updated the auto industry into the 21st century. I have driven m

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Subaru Crash Tests Carriers

Subaru has always tried to bill themselves as pet friendly. Many of their commercials feature dogs, and the back of their wagons and SUVs are supposedly ideal for ferrying forth furry friends. Recently, they took a step beyond ads, and took the initiative to go beyond what any other automaker has done for pets. Subaru and the Center for Pet Safety (CPS) have gone out and actually tested pet carrie

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Tesla Patches Hole in Model S Vehicle Security

Hackers exploiting security loopholes in vehicle technology seems to be a prevailing trend in the auto industry. The latest such vehicle security scandal has touched Tesla Motors, whose Model S engine was turned off by enterprising researchers whose results were published by Wired. To be fair, Tesla was able to address their vehicle hacking issues in a more expeditious manner than did Fiat Chrysl

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Fiat Chrysler Denies Slow Response to Vehicle Hacking Problem

Whoever said there there’s no such thing as bad publicity might question that statement if she saw the few weeks that Fiat Chrysler was having. The beleaguered Italian-American automaker is once again in the news—and not in a good way—as more information regarding its 1.4 million vehicle recall comes to light. Fiat Chrysler is now contending with allegations that they waited 18 months to disclose

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Vehicle Hacking: Temporary Nuisance or Disturbing Trend? (UPDATED)

UPDATE: One could’ve reasonably expected that Harman would respond to the vehicle hacking allegations and, sure enough, they’ve issued a rebuttal. In a Reuters interview, Harman Chief Executive Dinesh Paliwal said that he believed that the problem was limited to the 1.4 million vehicles recently recalled by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. “We do not believe this problem exists in any other car outs

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OnStar or OwnStar?

It seems that hacking cars is the new big thing, and GM’s Onstar has been the latest victim. One of the Defcon Events will actually be to Hack a Tesla Model S Live on stage. This will be the first live debuting of an automotive Zero-day. OwnStar as it was dubbed by its creator has the capability of tricking the car into thinking a hacker is the car’s owner using the OnStar Mobile app. This hack i

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U.S. Gov’t Flags FCA for Vehicle Safety Violations (UPDATED)

UPDATE: In a statement, FCA corrects some erroneous reports regarding the scope of the NHTSA vehicle safety recall. FCA will still offer to repurchase vehicles encompassed in its three most recent recall campaigns—2008 through 2012 chassis cab, 2009 through 2011 light duty and 2008 through 2012 heavy duty Ram Trucks—if those vehicles weren’t previously fixed. Alternatively, owners can still keep

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To Avoid Cyber Attacks, FCA Issues Vehicle Recall

In the digital age, it’s an unfortunate fact of life that hackers will attack your home computer or favorite website. Now you can add automobiles to the list, as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) becomes the first automaker to launch a massive recall in the U.S. in order to protect its vehicles from potential cyber attacks. Fiat Chrysler’s voluntary recall of 1.4 million vehicles was prompted by co

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