The Tesla Model S Is Basically A Good Looking IT Department On Wheels
TL;DR (too long;didn't read): This guy plugged an ethernet cable into a hidden ethernet jack on his Tesla and found out it's running an internal LAN with IP addresses for various objects in the car. Pretty interesting.
Whelp, at least they used Ubuntu rather than Windows. 
Also interesting that Tesla call and told him to stop because "industrial espionage." 
So what happens if you jailbreak your car? I wonder if you can brick it. 
From what I understand most new cars run a network it is just proprietary. If that is true they saved a bunch of money by using something off the shelf.
Toyman01 wrote: Whelp, at least they used Ubuntu rather than Windows.
yeah, i'm sure no one else will ever plug into their car now...
I'm not particularly surprised considering how much tech is packed into that thing. Everything from throttle control to the ride height is computer controlled. Why not use off the shelf hardware with a common programming language to run your product?
I used to have this argument with other engineering students all the time. Custom solutions are great for bragging rights or highly specialized equipment but it becomes cumbersome, expensive, and time consuming to build a custom piece of software, and the accompanying hardware, when readily accessible components and software are already in production.
Now obviously the software is custom. Having the OS already built to bootstrap your custom software using common protocols, on a network significantly faster than a CAN bus to push large updates, is a huge advantage from my perspective.
My E39 has an accessible internal network. Pretty fun to listen in.
This actually makes perfect sense... as someone who deals with PLC's and DCS on a daily basis, why car manufacturers ever came up with the stupid can-bus system is beyond me. Just run ethernet everywhere as industry has done and call it a day.
You know why they didn't do that? Because it would mean proprietary equipment, which means specialized, which means monopoly. Boom, more money in their pockets.
Another question, how did Tesla know he hacked the car. Pretty sure he didn't call and tell them. So is Tesla searching the internet for posts about their car or does the car pick up the phone and call the factory?
Sounds like CAN-bus made friendlier to me.
Toyman01 wrote: Another question, how did Tesla know he hacked the car. Pretty sure he didn't call and tell them. So is Tesla searching the internet for posts about their car or does the car pick up the phone and call the factory?
It's entirely possible that his own car ratted him out.
this is interesting to say the least. I would like to see other manufacturers using such cheap and similar systems
I don't have any plans on buying one or the technical prowess to make use of this but if I had one, them telling me not to do this would really make me want to.
Toyman01 wrote: Also interesting that Tesla call and told him to stop because "industrial espionage."
Lame. Sounds like Apple on wheels.
Keith Tanner wrote: My E39 has an accessible internal network. Pretty fun to listen in.
Sure, if you understand German!
You'll need to log in to post.
