Who thought self-driving cars were a good idea?

Make the car smarter than the hacker and then have it hack the computer of whichever hacker tries to hack it. The car could even plant a really nasty virus on the hacker's computer. One that forces the hacker to write zeros to their hard drive and then format and reinstall everything.

Terrifying stuff and this is only an example. All Internet connected cars can be hacked. In this way you hand over the control of your car to anyone who likes to control your car and you in this way. With all the electronic “help” in new cars and the Internet connection you give a last piece of freedom willingly away. The future? In the future we will have autonomous cars and it will be forbidden for private persons to drive. Greetings from Orwell

Why anyone thought connecting the cars primary controls to the internet was a good thing . They need to fired and never employed again in a safety or security industry - same applies to all the people that approved such stupidity! Maybe the law needs to be changes to stop this ever happening again.
Connecting isolated system such as a Sat nav or entertainment system to the internet is fine, provided there is no connection to other systems, as is having a local wired network for control, even having a connection port is ok. But it must never be connected to the internet!

The downside of always being connected. On the other hand it will make it quite easy for the government to find protesters demanding more freedom and less government and deliver them the nearest federal detainment facility for re-education....for their own protection, of course.

Why connect it to the internet in the first place.

1. Why a Wired mag writer? Collaboration or just because of his credentials? 2. If it was a collaboration, why put people in danger on a freeway? Why not do it in a parking lot, with more witnesses? 3. Working with Chrysler now? Did they try before resorting to this? Or did Chrysler put them off?
Seems like the hackers and whoever else were involved were engaged in dangerous grandstanding to me.

Talk about crimes requiring 10 year minimum sentences! Not to mention the Federal Death penalty for car hacks that result in deaths Get the drug users out of prison and put these guys in. The number of successful hackers is only a tiny fraction of recreational drug users. This would put a lot of prison guards and most DEA gangsters out of their legitimate 'front' work.

A very cheap manual mode fail safe, as on transmission, would fix this.

I remember a time when my dad would pay 16 cents for gas and I would get a package of Smartie's candy for free. Cars and trucks were used for transporting people and products. Now you can surf for internet porn while you drive. And forget working on your own engine.