Can smart technology make cars better?

A means of transportation, a symbol of identity, a product of advanced industry, a toy for boys when they grow up... In modern society, cars have so many meanings that they have gradually surpassed their original definition during the hundred years they have accompanied mankind, giving birth to a new "car culture" and gaining countless followers.

The era of intelligence also brings cars to a "threshold". The advent of pure electric vehicles has completely overturned people's perception of cars. As technology giants such as Apple and Google simultaneously target car center consoles and seize car screens, a new round of war in the intelligent technology industry has begun.

Whether it is size or performance, mechanics or cushions, people have been constantly adding to the evolution of automobiles for hundreds of years, and now smart technology has been added. But can "intelligence on wheels" really make cars better?

Tesla panics after seeking help from hackers

Tesla, a pure electric car brand that combines new energy and power, can be said to be the brightest star in the current automotive industry. The intelligent in-vehicle system integrated in the ultra-large 17-inch "Pad" in the car also makes it a natural cross-border and become the focus of the technology industry.

Is Tesla's in-vehicle system reliable? At the SyScan360 Information Security Summit held in Beijing in July, Tesla, which was the focus of the "investigation" , was powerless in front of hackers. Technicians successfully exploited system vulnerabilities to remotely unlock, honk, flash lights, open the sunroof, etc. Tesla officials immediately expressed support for security researchers to find security vulnerabilities in vehicles and would fix the problems found.

Coincidentally, the Def Con security conference was held in Las Vegas recently, and Christine Paget, who jumped from Apple to Tesla to be in charge of security, was also on the list of participants. The Def Con security conference is actually a "hacker" gathering, and Tesla is said to have participated in the conference to attract hackers to help it find loopholes in the car control software.

In theory, in addition to the operations mentioned above, hackers can also hack into Tesla's wireless communication system and control the movement of the car. Intelligence and Internet are like a double-edged sword. While providing convenience for car control and comfort configuration, they also provide a stage for illegal intruders. For Tesla, an electric car brand that uses intelligence and Internet as its selling point, the security flaws are almost fatal.

The ambitions and dreams of tech giants are fraught with risks

Smart cars are risky, but are they only aimed at Tesla? If any attack against a single brand can be regarded as a low-probability event, then as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which was demonstrated at the Google I/O Developer Conference, are gradually promoted and may even become "standard" one day, this risk will also become an issue that the entire automotive industry must pay attention to in the future development.

The open nature of the system has made Android devices a hotbed for mobile Trojans and malware. Even for Apple's iOS system, which has always been closed and has a strict review mechanism, the recent indirect "admission" by Apple officials of the existence of a "backdoor" in the iOS system is enough to destroy the confidence of Apple's die-hard fans.

As the two largest smart operating systems with the largest user base, Google and Apple's intention to bring Android and iOS to cars will inevitably make the in-vehicle systems more powerful and help the industry as a whole avoid many detours. However, there is also the risk of bringing the security issues of existing smart systems into the automotive field .

Should the trend of intelligent cars slow down?

From smartphones to smart homes, intelligent thinking has subverted almost all "electric" industries, and automobiles have naturally not missed this wave of new technology.

In fact, cars are much more complex and serious than the above-mentioned smart devices. The security issues of general smart products affect user privacy and network information security. Once a problem occurs with a smart car, it is likely to cause harm to the personal safety of users, passengers and other traffic participants.

Even though intelligent technology has not yet become popular in cars, technologies such as "automatic parking" equipped on some models have already caused trouble: on the one hand, it does save the worries of novice drivers, but on the other hand, many drivers blindly trust the system and completely rely on electronic devices to control the vehicle, causing traffic accidents. Imagine if cars in the future are fully "intelligent" and the scenes in the science fiction movie "I, Robot" become reality, it would really make people sweat!

In-vehicle intelligent operating systems and cars turning into "smart cars" are bound to be the trend of the future, but just as the poor experience brought by traditional touch-screen phones made users sneer before the birth of capacitive screens and their use in iPhones, the great development of "intelligence on wheels" may still lack one (or more) new technologies that are reliable enough to be called a revolution.

On the optimistic side, hackers’ breaches of Tesla’s systems at major technology summits have put the brakes on the overly rapid development of in-vehicle smart technology, allowing the industry to have more patience to wait for the arrival of revolutionary new technologies.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.