"I don't use the sat radio in my car, but lots of people do. If I spent more time in the car I would pay for the subscription. But I do LOVE the nav, particularly the built in variety. If car hacking comes to be reality, I'll disable the microwave antenna and put my old Garmin back in service. "

Far as I can glean, the radio is not the problem. It is the problem detector, like if you get in a wreck. They hack in through that and can control your brakes and acceleration but ONLY if you have traction control and a few other things. What I read is that it happened through an ONSTAR system.

If I remember correctly it did not happen to a regular person, it was the company that had kids try to hack into it. It was not done to the average Joe on the street.

But it could. Unless they did some serious software modifications it certainly could. Newer cars can be different but the fact that a bunch of them run Windows is not really reassuring.

YOu might say they should be runnning Linux but the reason Linux is not hacked as much is because of its smaller market share it is simply not as big a target. It is open source, which means if someone wanted to take the time they could hack the **** out of it easier than Windows.

The MAC OS, well that is a possibility. They are not impervious to hacking but it can be done. If all the cars in the country ran it, it would become a target and gain the reputation of Windows in a very short time. These kids are good.

The only real solution is to keep the car offline. Just like some people still have old 98SE PCs running offline and burn CDs of the files they generate for transfer, when they are good and ready, to a modern PC. Only contact anythimg by choice. I would almost recommend the Garmin instead but only if you want them to know where you are. If you have a mistress or whatever, or like to party with some people of less than pristine character (by "their" standards) you might want to shut even that thing off.

People are getting used to being watched all the time, and I do not see that as a good thing.