Hacking Seen as Rising Risk With Car Electronics

Drivers can talk with each other via Bluetooth phone connections, ask their cars for directions and dial up satellite radio. The same cars use electronic components to signal the gas pedal to accelerate and control stability.

What increasingly worries scientists is that entertainment computers could be manipulated to tell the safety computers what to do.

“There clearly is a vulnerability,” said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based in Arlington, Va. “All these electronics we’re bringing into cars seem to exacerbate that.” A National Academy of Sciences panel, including Lund, elevated the concerns in a report Jan. 18 reviewing U.S. regulators’ work in finding the cause of unintended acceleration in Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles.