Hackers Were Able To Totally Control a Jeep Cherokee Remotely

Andy Greenberg of Wired was driving a Jeep Cherokee on a highway in St. Louis, Missouri when he completely lost control of the car. It's not that he fell asleep at the wheel or had to swerve around something — the car had been hacked. Hackers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek were remotely controlling the car, doing everything from blasting music and air conditioning to stopping the acceleration.

Greenberg had agreed to be their crash-test dummy to see just how well, and to what extent, they could control the car. The two had been researching car hacking for a year, and the results are mildly terrifying.

As Greenberg drove around St. Louis, Miller and Valasek changed the radio station and volume, adjusted the temperature, turned the windshield wipers on and, finally, turned off the acceleration.

The hackers created a software that allows them to jump through the Jeep entertainment system to mess with other functions of the car, in a move that seems straight out of Pretty Little Liars.

Since Wired published their article about the hack, Fiat Chrysler released a software update and told Jeep owners to make the update.

Miller and Valasek will be revealing some of their secrets at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas next month, but they claim this won't put cars at immediate risk of being hacked. They're going to release a portion of their code, but not the entire thing. They also have been sharing their research with Chrysler so they could make the appropriate software update.

Many have questioned the safety (and sanity) of Greenberg in agreeing to be the dummy in their test on a live highway. People have been arguing over whether it was a good idea or not for him to put himself — and the drivers and people around him on the road — in danger. What do you think?