Toyota Corolla Hybrid Car Hacked via Smartphone

Japanese cars could be hacked and remote-controlled through smartphones if they were equipped with devices connected to the Internet, according to an experiment conducted by an associate professor at Hiroshima City University’s Graduate School of Information Sciences.

In the experiment, Hiroyuki Inoue remotely opened and closed car windows, displayed an incorrect speed meter reading and paralyzed the car’s accelerator, although the effects do not directly apply to cars currently on the market as their computers have no Internet access, he said.

But Inoue warns that cars privately altered and attached with Internet devices could be hacked as Japanese manufacturers are developing Internet-linked technologies such as self-driving vehicles. He announced the details of the experiment at a symposium on cyber security starting Tuesday in Okinawa.