Technology

First: It's funny, because it is happening to Russians

Second: It's fucking scary, because it can happen everywhere. Fuck cars that rely on digital services.

first they disabled Russian porsches and I didn't care because I am not a russian owner of a porsche.

then they came for Ukrainian tractors and I didn't care because I am not an Ukrainian owner of a tractor.

then step by step everything was digitally locked and I owned nothing and I was not really happy.

[...] and what owners can do next.

Sell their Porsche and buy a car that can't be locked remotely?

I doubt most owners of recent-model luxury-brand cars in Russia are average joes for which this is their only transport. I therefore find my sympathy to be somewhat limited.

I feel like I got my car at the perfect time:

It has Android Auto and CarPlay, and it's a manual so there's no way for it to turn on or off remotely.

Now I just have to make sure it survives until I die.

Vehicle Tracking System (VTS) — a security module designed to prevent theft but now shutting down cars unexpectedly.

Also, what a strangely written article.

Maybe Russia started jamming satellite signals and did this to themselves.

Not only due (or probably not even because of) Satellite system failure.

In order to fight drones flying over the border from Ukraine, Russia implemented new restrictions to cellular connections. From like last 2 weeks they made so that when a sim card that enters russian border, it will be denied cellular connection for 24 hours. This also include russian sim cards that have been not connected to russian cellular network for over 72 hours.

Almost every modern car today has a sim that communicates with servers all the time. It is just that Porsche also has this feature that can track car remotely and immobilize on demand. It utilizes this type of sim card. Porsche itself has nothing to do with why they are bricked. It is a byproduct of russian attempts at preventing drone attacks which backfires spectacularly.

And this is why I will never own a vehicle manufactured after 2006.

I have just too little control with newer vehicles, be it having to auth with the mothership with every repair I do at home just to get it to start up, or even failing to start up in the first place when the mothership could not be contacted.

I wish people (especially journalists) would get it through their skulls already:

• Vehicles don't communicate with satellites.
• GNSS (like GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, or BeiDou) do not use two way communication.
• The satellite can therefore not know the position of a GNSS receiver.
• Instead the satellites send timestamps and their positions, the receiver uses that information to calculate its own position. If the system with the receiver needs to report its position to someone they typically use some form of terrestrial communication, like mobile phone networks.

With that knowledge the comment by /u/imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com makes a lot more sense than whatever the article is trying to imply about satellite failures.

"smart" cars

Good thing this is a completely optional "feature" that I'd never pay for

Well, it's because Russia is jamming GPS signal, it affects planes, cars, everything relying on GPS.

Why not do cars need internet access in order to start?

I understand having auxiliary services the network connected but surely the failure mode should just be an error on the screen but otherwise the car should still function. It's not like operating without internet access is dangerous or anything.

Also, why don't we just do that, cut Russias internet access, it seems like it would cause utter chaos.