SUCH - Tarheel Chapter BMW Car Club of America

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It’s pretty much a fact of life that modern cars are loaded with electronic gear. There are black boxes under the hood, inside the passenger compartment and who knows where else. They control or assist in not just fuel delivery, ignition, braking, traction and other operational functions, but provide the driver with a host of amenities – remote door locks, climate control, communications, roadside assistance and what have you. In fact, they are so much a part of our vehicles that we hardly ever give them a thought. As an aside to this, there’s a funny – and true – story illustrating our utter dependence on these electronic aids in our cars. Some time ago, a friend of mine saw this young lady standing next to her car. She was distraught, near tears in fact. It turned out the battery in her key had died and she had no idea how to unlock the car door. Imagine how delighted she was when my buddy pointed out that she could still get in by unlocking the door the old-fashioned way – i.e. sticking the key in the little slot on the door and turning it! Okay, so maybe it’s an extreme case, but it makes my point. Even an alien visitor from another planet couldn’t fail to become aware of this in short order. If nothing else, our TV commercials and magazine ads would apprise him or her (or it) of how dependent on all this gear our vehicles (and us chickens) have become. Consider this recent ad in Scientifi c American, which says the advertised vehicle – which happens to be a Lincoln MKX – “can upload your photos, fi nd your music and automatically download your contacts. It’s not just luxury. It’s smarter than that.” Or maybe there’s the commercial for Mercedes-Benz, which touts the car’s ability to warn the sleepy driver who PAUL HOECKE Notes from the road Technology Downsides is about to drift into another lane, or brake for a semi that’s come to a sudden stop before the driver becomes aware of this unexpected hazard. But you knew all that, right? The vast majority of the BMWs you and other club members drive today are that smart. So why am I preaching to the choir? It’s because, like all good things, all this technology may have a downside. It’s a yinyang thing – there’s a dark spot in the light part for everything. What fi rst got me thinking along those lines was a commercial – for a Chevy Cruze, I believe – which has these two dudes call one of the guys’ wife and ask her to demonstrate once more how the remote start gizmo works. So she goes ahead and fi res up the car – except she’s miles away, about to board a plane at the local airport! Naturally, my fi rst reaction was: Hey, that’s pretty cool! But then my paranoid self got into the act. What if someone did this inadvertently while a kid was in the car? Worse yet, what if some bad guy got hold of the remote? To say that would be a real bummer would be an understatement. Getting back to my paranoid self, I’d normally be loath to raise this issue, mainly for fear of being laughed out of the room as a pre-Boomer Luddite. But as someone once said, even paranoids have enemies. And as it turns out in this instance, I’m evidently not alone in harboring these concerns about the vulnerability of our cars’ electronic innards. According to a story in that same issue of Scientifi c American cited earlier (June 2011, p.18), our cars are indeed likely to fall prey to hacking. Titled ‘Hack my Ride’, the article’s sub-lead says: ‘Increasingly sophisticated onboard computers may put cars in danger of cyber attacks.’ It 2 TARHEEL CHAPTER FOOTNOTES http://www.tarheelbmwcca.org
then goes on to describe how two researchers, a computer science professor at US San Diego and another scientist at the U. of Washington collaborated in an experiment to demonstrate this. Using an unspecifi ed car’s own Bluetooth and cell phone connections, they inserted malware that “could have been used to co-opt the car’s computer system, including its engine.” As I see it, that’s pretty scary stuff. More importantly, experts feel this way too. Olaf Henniger, who does research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology in Germany, is quoted in the article as stating that this experiment “shows the need for security measures in vehicular onboard networks.” I for one couldn’t agree more. The article cautions against panic, pointing out that this experiment was just that – a trial run that doesn’t necessarily mean all cars are suddenly subject to network attacks. But it does raise the specter of “the unending chess match between hackers and security experts” having “found a new fi eld of play.” And lucky for all of us driving our The Editor’s Desk... As you can see by our calendar, we have A LOT of events this year (both Tarheel Chapter sponsored and not). And, there are events to cover just about any interest, from wine and cheese to racing. Since we are always looking for photos and write-ups, and with no feasible way for Paul or myself to cover all these events, we would love to have you cover them for us. All we usually need are a few photos and a paragraph describing the event - what, where, when, etc. Hearing about these events directly from you, our members, is very helpful to all of us - you would not believe how, once the word get’s out, these events grow. (Think Vintage at the Vineyards - in year one I doubt there were 20 cars. Now they count them by the hundreds!). One of the biggest benefi ts of this Club are the events and the majority of our membership never ventures out to them. Let’s show them what they are missing! -ed. “With over 65 years of combined experience, we offer dependable, affordable, quality service for your BMW.” FROM YOUR BMW STREET CAR Free Alignment Checks TO YOUR BMW RACECAR Chassis Dyno Complete Restorations Free Diagnose with Repair Stop Paying Dealership Prices! Complete Racecar Builds Complete Service Center Shuttle Service 2556 Landmark Dr Winston Salem 336.659.8988 Motorsport-Connections.com 1.888.462.2591
Page 1 and 2: Photo provided by Korman Autoworks
Page 3: ON THE COVER: CLUB RACE OUTING The
Page 7 and 8: BMW Car Club of America Tarheel Cha
Page 9 and 10: shortly before noon, the crowd roar
Page 11 and 12: 30th Annual Korman Autoworks Open H
Page 13: ��
Page 16 and 17: BMW Car Club of America Tarheel Cha
Page 18 and 19: SAY WHAT... Send your questions and
Page 20 and 21: LOCAL SCENE TRIAD AREA DINNER * * *
Page 22 and 23: SUCH A DEAL Footnotes classifi ed a
Page 24 and 25: SUCH A DEAL earthlink.net or 336-78
Page 26 and 27: END GAME Photo by Mike Pugh The 02
Page 28: TARHEEL CHAPTER BMW CCA, Inc. http:

SUCH - Tarheel Chapter BMW Car Club of America

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