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Hacker Helps Family Recover Minivan After Losing One-Of-A-Kind Car Key (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A hacker and a mechanic have helped a family regain access to their hybrid car after they've lost their one-of-a-kind car key while on vacation. The car in question is a Toyota Estima minivan, which a Canadian family bought reused and imported from Japan. When they did so, they received only one key, which the father says he lost when he bent down to tie his son's shoelaces.
Because it was a hybrid and the on-board computer was synced to the battery recharge cycles, the car owner couldn't simply replace the car key without risking the car battery to overcharge and catch fire. After offering a reward, going viral on Facebook, in Canadian media, and attempting to find the lost keys using crows, the family finally accepted the help of a local hacker who stripped the car apart and reprogrammed the car immobilizer with new car keys. The whole ordeal cost the family two months of their lives and around $3,500.
Because it was a hybrid and the on-board computer was synced to the battery recharge cycles, the car owner couldn't simply replace the car key without risking the car battery to overcharge and catch fire. After offering a reward, going viral on Facebook, in Canadian media, and attempting to find the lost keys using crows, the family finally accepted the help of a local hacker who stripped the car apart and reprogrammed the car immobilizer with new car keys. The whole ordeal cost the family two months of their lives and around $3,500.
Welcome to the future of overengineered garbage.
I read it and it's still bullshit stupid. The key doesn't encode recharge cycles. How would you have multiple keys? Regardless, having a failure mode that will intentionally overcharge the batteries is insane. The Japanese engineers are not that stupid. Advice from local mechanics about import hybrids -- yeah.
Like any rational design the immobilizer is likely not part of the ecm but self contained or part of the bcm. Order a new one, with keys, from a Japanese dealership. I do wonder if they use canbus now for this instead a dedicated line between the immobilizer and the ecm.