On June 11th, 2024, we discovered a set of vulnerabilities in Kia vehicles that allowed remote control over key functions using only a license plate. These attacks could be executed remotely on any hardware-equipped vehicle in about 30 seconds, regardless of whether it had an active Kia Connect subs...
Yeah... fuck this shit. This is part of the reason I still drive a nearly 20 year old vehicle. It has features I want, and can't be stolen via fucking API calls. Absolute insanity.
I think Hyundai/Kia group has done unfathomable damage to their brands. Kia, despite being a budget brand, wants to be seen as a legit competitor to Toyota or at least Nissan. Their corner cutting with the immobilizers and the resulting "USB" theft shit was bad enough. Now this exploit.
They're just terrible cars. I've had two...they were great until they weren't. I literally had a screw fall out of the headliner the other day bringing it home from a nearly 1000$ exhaust patch/repair. It's not 10 years old yet and only has 60k miles.
The other one has had the engine replaced already (under warranty thank god).
We are likely replacing both of them next year. I'm never buying a Kia again.
My Toyota with 300k+ miles has cost me $285 in repairs minus maintenance costs. I’ll likely get at least another 100k. Just placing these goalposts here…
Of course it's possible, electric conversion kits have been around for decades, and only work with manual transmissions. We just need the battery and charging tech applied to conversion kits. Who wants to start up an EV conversion kit company with me?
I would love to convert my car to an electric, but it’s an automatic so I’d have to spend as much as a new car to convert it.
A drop in ECU replacement and motor/battery would be great, but I doubt the auto industry or the government is going to allow the sale of third party drop in ECUs.
I don't know of any regulations against one's ability to convert a gas car to electric. In my state, there is no emissions testing even, but I don't know how it's anyone else's buissness what you do with your drivetrain, as long as it's not polluting (sound or environment)
I have a 2009 Chevy with an automatic transmission. I’m order to convert it to electric, the ECU would have to be replaced so the car knows when to shift to a higher gear without a combustion engine.
Because of environmental reasons, ECUs are pretty tightly controlled by the government. I don’t know if any company even exists that can sell an aftermarket ECU. There’s plenty that can hack or reprogram ECUs, but even that is becoming increasingly regulated and legally questionable.
Well yeah, if your taking on an EV conversion project get ready to spend $20-30K in parts and at that point your donor should be selected carefully, and with a manual transmission. This is serious hot-rodding, no need for regulations.
The issue is the complexity of the bespoke design of drive trains. It's nigh on impossible to design a "one size fits all" or even "fits a majority" of solutions for a conversion kit that isn't stupidly expensive.
See: Edison Motors. A Canadian heavy haul truck manufacturer startup that is trying to offer electric conversions for commercial light and medium duty trucks.
The 80s famously didn't have any muscle cars due to the gas shortages of the 1970s, new emissions standards, and burgeoning popularity of Japanese imports.