[Laneco]

I'll let other more knowledgeable people add tech info, but here's my take on this...

The drive-by-wire on a car is basically use an electronic throttle control. Instead of a cable from your pedal to a carburetor or throttle, you have a position sensor at the pedal that sends a signal via a WIRE to the ECM which in turn sends a signal by a WIRE to the throttle position control motor that changes the throttle (e.g. opens up the flap for lack of a more technical term). You can't control it remotely, it's hard wired, no radio frequency signal etc., is used to connect the devices. So lets compare it to a garage door. That can use a radio frequency to control the motor (it will receive and respond to the signal) so you can hijack them pretty easily. But if your garage door did not have the ability to respond to a signal and ONLY responded to the commands given from the mechanical switch on your wall through a wire to the motor - lot tougher to hijack.

Now there are controls on the car that DO respond to radio frequency such as the door locks, remote starts, etc. In my humble opinion, those functions could be hijacked. Also they are obviously susceptible to EMP. But that wouldn't give you control, that would just shut the car off. The way I see it, the only way you could gain control of my car (other than say, shutting it off or opening my doors) would be to gain control of the car physically ahead of time and interfere with the ECM function including to put in place something that would allow you to remotely interface (e.g. a receiver). Without that in place and me just driving down the road? I don't really see how you could gain control.

I suspect airplanes are MUCH more complex than cars or garage doors. Perhaps they can be accessed and I'm open to the discussions from the folks on this site as to how that might be done. Of course...it might change my mind about all my business flights...


***edit*** ok - I just thought about onstar and now I'm wondering...

angela