quote:

Originally posted by az4783054:
That feature has been used by law enforcement to bring (pursuit situations, stolen, etc) vehicles to a stop. There is a specific protocol to enable it.

Do you know of any situation it's been used for non emergency purposes?

Pretty sure it wont be long before they use it if you miss a payment.

quote:

Originally posted by Il Cattivo:
Forget Big Brother. I'm worried about that little bastard with a bent for computers and a tendency to spend too much time in his mother's basement.

Agreed. There are many ways the technology can be abused and pose a safety, security, and privacy risk, not just by "Big Brother", but others as well. This is why some cars fare better than others in keeping the different subsystems from being able to freely/easily communicate with each other to make it difficult if not impossible for the important systems to be compromised. Say for instance you have Bluetooth connectivity for your phone to your in dash Nav or radio, there is no good reason why that system should be able to communicate with or provide a pathway to the mechanical functions controlled by your ECU. Also, in some cases you can't just simply disable or cut an antenna wire as that only reduces the range that some systems will accept commands from. Like a stereo receiver or wifi router without the antennas plugged in, you could still access the system from a closer range or with a stronger signal or both.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of technological improvements, gadgets, and functionality, as long as some serious effort is put into making them secure and extremely tamper resistant if not tamper proof. But something as intrusive as OnStar has zero attractiveness in my book.

If Skynet ever figures out that it can just take care of most of us by crashing all our cars and using them to run us down as opposed to sending just one Terminator at a time through temporal space, or causing a nuclear apocalypse, EMP bursts, and fallout, we're all screwed. Maximum Overdrive anyone?

Driving around in my hoopties is looking better and better.

Wonder how hard it is to completely disable (remove) Onstar from your vehicle?

Call Toyota and try to get them to stop my old Land
Cruiser.

quote:

Pretty sure it wont be long before they use it if you miss a payment.

It may or may not have been used for this very purpose going back many years.

My 1966 Mustang doesn't even HAVE a computer. My 2006 Mustang wasn't on the list.

flashguy

Watch Mr. Robot.

Hacker Finds He Can Remotely Kill Car Engines After Breaking Into GPS Tracking Apps.

Not OnStar-specific, but relevant to the topic.