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Tesla Model 3 Modded To Run Ubuntu (cleantechnica.com)
140Mandak262Jamuna writes: CleanTechnica is reporting that someone hacked the infotainment system of a Tesla Model 3 and got root access and installed Linux distribution Ubuntu. Redditor trsohmers is able to show an Ubuntu command shell running alongside the Tesla OS. Since Tesla supports a browser that allows you to visit any site, could this be leveraged into remote hacks? It could also mean that if Tesla sells a long-range version of the Model 3, but limits it via software, people might try to remove the block. One could potentially get a 15-day trial of full self-driving for free and extend that 15-day window forever. At least he had some guts messing with $50,000 hardware that phones home all the time. Will Tesla brick his car to attempt to disprove the security issue?
"There's no way they're spending any extra money on a separate computer for security purposes when there's a strong case to be made that software can be made sufficiently secure."
You have that backwards, though. It would cost more to make one computer that could do all of those jobs, because integration isn't free. It's actually cheaper to break it up, not least because each piece can be built to different standards.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"