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  • Hacker News
  • I would not buy a Tesla because the owner of the company does Nazi salutes but I feel like this is more or less like someone forgetting their ex is on their Spotify family account.
    by xutopia
  • Trivializing the problem and victim-blaming? You’re off to a great start, maybe finish up with how the victim should be prosecuted for leaving the account unsecured?
    by mikestew
  • > but I feel like this is more or less like someone forgetting their ex is on their Spotify family account

    Yeah, if victims can't keep a cool head and properly do all their admin just because they are in a very stressful, perhaps even dangerous, situation, they should just accept the responsibility for being so lax instead of expecting any sort of empathy.

    [just in case this is needed, because distressingly it sometimes is: that sound you may hear isn't tinnitus, it is sarcasm detectors going off]

    by dspillett
  • Terrifying. I never want want a car with this risk.
    by josefritzishere
  • i wonder what the venn diagram of "downvoters terminally incapable of placing themselves in a dangerous hypothetical in which they are not in control of a life-threatening situation" AND "people on hn who work on these products" looks like.

    hopefully it's small. realistically... i'm scared.

    by GuinansEyebrows
  • Imagine if he had her password to Hacker News!
    by enslavedrobot
  • "I got this car before my ex went crazy"
    by languagehacker
  • But how did he get admin access?
    by chrisjj
  • Answered in the article. He used the excuse of helping her navigate the technology to get in a position of control.
    by klaff
  • Article says she granted it when she needed help, and presumably before she realized he could weaponize it against her.
    by paulryanrogers
  • Remotely controlling or even accessing location info from a car should show a little popup on the infotainment system, if not live, at least when you park or next start the car.
    by aftbit
  • Okay. It’s now visible. Now what? You still can’t do anything about it.
    by freeone3000
  • It’d take the form of a disclaimer that you eventually tune out because it appears every single time you start the car because Nissan wants to sell data about you.
    by iAMkenough
  • I'm both surprised and not that this is not present. It took iOS how many versions before showing the icon when some app somewhere is using the location? These are the kinds of things that the system designers are so focused on getting it to work that thinking of protecting the users from abuse is just not part of the roadmap. It makes sense, except in today's times. There have been so many examples of systems being abused and examples of the solutions put in place that we don't have to start from a blank sheet of paper. Designers should look around at what is normal and start from there. Designing v1 with less features than everything around it is just lazy
    by dylan604
  • This is already a feature in the software and has been for years. Anytime the car is accessed remotely a phone icon is shown on screen and you can click it to see what is accessing.
    by apearson
  • Choice quote from the article:

        Three days later, Pucci, now 50, followed her in a car and started to yell at her about a man she was dating.

    “You thought you’d get away with this. I am in your car. I am in your maps,” he shouted at her, according to the police records.

    [...]

    “The victim has not been able to drive certain speeds and on most recent occasions throughout this period, [the accused] has turned on ‘Valet Mode’ which immediately reduces the speed to 40km per hour causing significant safety issues for the victim on the road”, the police documents stated.
    Of course this incident shows why I wouldn't want a car with this capability. Because when an asshole like Pucci can do it, the operator of the remote services can do it too!
    by lolc
  • > I am in your car. I am in your maps,

    This reminds me of the "I am in your walls" meme, just so much more creepy.

    I really hate vehicles. But I especially hate those that aren't able to be change to an entirely local mode, with no non-GPS radio further than like 10 meters. But then again, that wouldn't make line go up since we can't charge for/control basic features, so it is becoming more and more a rarity.

    [0]: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-am-living-in-your-walls

    by NekkoDroid
  • > I am in your car. I am in your maps.

    That's the worst villain monologue I've ever heard, but unintentionally funny. Somehow appropriate for someone sharing his name with a JoJo's Bizarre Adventure villain.

    by chmod775
  • As soon as I saw the title I was like "There's gonna be a long history of abuse before this that has yet to see any consequences." Then I open the article and there's a whole section called "History of Abuse".
    by ratelimitsteve
  • I don't think it's JUST Teslas, any car with its own cellular link is a total non starter for me after that Jeep article 10ish years ago. Give me a key fob, carplay for my music and maps, and that's all the smarts I need. Keep the heated seats.
    by ctkhn
  • Sorry heated seats now behind $13.99/mo paywall.
    by randycupertino