I have been thinking about this with all the "automatic car" bullE36 M3 and playing Watch Dogs. Oddly enough they were the advertiser for the video.
Xceler8x wrote: Put on your tin foil hat...
only 'puter in my rig runs the engine... and has no wireless capability... a mag pulse will kill it... but brakes and steering remain in my control
At this point, all cars that I am aware of have hydraulic brake systems mechanically connected to a pedal. That means I call bullE36 M3; someone CANNOT send a 'no brakes' command and then have your car do something stupid. It might be possible to turn off the ABS but that's about it.
Now, the electronic throttle control is a different kettle of fish entirely. THAT one bugs me. Seen too many glitchy electronics in my time.
you could send a command to the ABS computer to close everything up and essentially kill the brake pedal..
Curmudgeon wrote: At this point, all cars that I am aware of have hydraulic brake systems mechanically connected to a pedal. That means I call bullE36 M3; someone CANNOT send a 'no brakes' command and then have your car do something stupid. It might be possible to turn off the ABS but that's about it. Now, the electronic throttle control is a different kettle of fish entirely. THAT one bugs me. Seen too many glitchy electronics in my time.
Technically, you can tell the ABS to dump pressure/engage the isolation valve. That's rather how ABS works, after all. Anyone who's driven a GM truck with rust under the sensors to kill the speed signal below 5mph knows this all too well... OH S*** NO BRAKES!
Whether it's engageable from externally, however, is very spurious.
you can cycle the ABS solenoids and what not with a high end diagnostic computer- this is pretty much the same thing..
The computer stuff makes me nervous. Not so much because of the hacking potential though 
I had a Lumina with ABS and the sensor(s) started to go bad. They would occasionally fully engage the anti-lock function when it didn't need to be anti-locking, fortunately never when there was anything important in front of the car. I figured that out and unplugged the buggers pretty quick.
Haven't liked driving with ABS since.
TL;DR, are they suggesting this was done wirelessly?
AngryCorvair wrote: TL;DR, are they suggesting this was done wirelessly?
Yes. The guy with the laptop did this with gsm connected equipment. If there's a cell network, he can hit the car from it.
In reply to Curmudgeon:
The ABS/ESC system is capable of applying the brakes autonomously, that's how stability control works.
As well, if you had it hold the ABS valves open when ever the brakes are applied, the pedal would likely just go to the floor as the fluid goes into the accumulator instead of the calipers. Have it dump the accumulator when the brakes are released to allow for repeating the cycle. If the computer detects brake light activation, that would be a good and effective trigger.
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