As technology further integrates into the car industry, doing things from the car continues to get easier. You can have Volvo drop off packages, talk to Amazon’s Alexa and all sorts of things. But technology can also allow people to access cars long after they’ve sold them, which is enough to leave any buyer uncomfortable.
According to CNN, IBM researcher Charles Henderson says he sold a car several years ago and can still control it from his phone. Henderson can also see exactly where the car is, if he decides to check. Being a researcher, Henderson tested the situation on cars from four major manufacturers and found the same to be true.
The CNN story did not name Henderson’s former car nor the manufacturers he tested, but it’s still creepy to think about the various breaches in privacy we open ourselves up to by simply purchasing such connected devices. From CNN:
“The car is really smart, but it’s not smart enough to know who its owner is, so it’s not smart enough to know it’s been resold,” Henderson told CNNTech. “There’s nothing on the dashboard that tells you ‘the following people have access to the car.’” ...
At the RSA security conference in San Francisco on Friday, Henderson explained how people can still retain control of connected cars even after they resell them.
Manufacturers create apps to control smart cars — you can use your phone to unlock the car, honk the horn and find out the exact location of your vehicle. Henderson removed his personal information from services in the car before selling it back to the dealership, but he was still able to control the car through a mobile app for years.
More:
http://jalopnik.com/how-previous-owners-can-potentially-still-access-their-1792534479Odd and a little disconcerting.
