3d ago

Norway discovers that its Chinese electric buses can be remotely disabled

cybernews.com

different source (Danish)

It's no surprise, as kill switches are pretty much ubiquitous.

39 comments

Killswitches may be common, but it is major security implications if infrastructure is sold with them without the buyer knowing about them, which appears to the case here.
It also makes a case to not buy hardware from China if their manufacturers install these killswitches and don't notify their owners.
- There's no kill switch, the bus uses OTA updates like 95% of new buses, and soon 100% that could conceivably be used as a kill switch.
  The article lies by omission.
  
  One form of lying by omission is not to discuss whether this is unique or unusual to Chinese vehicles.
  
  How is it lying by omission why it describes exactly what you said?
  
  There's no kill switch
  You cannot know that, and it's a big problem.
- Anyone who installs kill switches in shit they sell should be legal to kill.
- Yeah, imagine if a signiticant portion of crucial infrastructure was owned by a foreign party eh
And worse, they can be set to explode if their speed is under 50mph
- Fortunately they use kph. Dodged a bullet there...
  
  Damn you, metric system!!
Just like Teslas.
- Their real kill switch are in the door handles!
- And John Deere.
Now picture a country getting into a conflict with China, and having them turn of the whole fleet; and given China's historical behaviour, this is not beyond them. If there is any significant percentage of Chinese vehicles, you just gridlocked the country.
Well yeah? I just assume that anything with remote access not directly from my country can be disabled and render useless at anytimes even more when it’s come from a dictatorial empire
- Why put the caveat that it's not from your country? If it has remote access, it can be remotely disabled. Maybe it's from a designed feature, or maybe it gets hacked.
  
  People were reporting on cars being remotely accessed and disabled over 10 years ago. If it has any communication with outside systems, it is susceptible to malevolent actors.
  
  Xenophobia.
  
  It 100% can even if from my country but if done legally i have at least some kind of recourse
  Nothing i can do if china choose to disable stuff because they don’t like where i live anymore
Slightly less worrisome than your F35 or what-have-you but yes, it's an annoying trend overall.
- A military alliance ally vs. a foreign rival that is friends with your enemy. The US has been flaky lately but still
  
  The US is no one's ally, except the ultra rich.
Now give the ability to disable them to the local unions >:)

39 comments