Automakers Are Locking the Aftermarket Out of Engine Control Units

This month Road & Track looked at 'increased cybersecurity measures' automakers are adding to car systems — and how it's affecting the vendors of 'aftermarket' enhancements:

As our vehicles start to integrate more complex systems such as Advanced Driver Assist Systems and over-the-air updates, automakers are growing wary of what potential bad actors could gain access to by way of hacking. Whether those hacks come in an attempt to retrieve personal customer data, or to take control of certain aspects of these integrated vehicles, automakers want to leave no part of that equation unchecked. 'I think there are very specific reasons why the OEMs are taking encryption more seriously,' HP Tuners director of marketing Eddie Xu told R&T. 'There's personal identifiable data on vehicles, there's more considerations now than just engine control modules controlling the engine. It's everything involved.'

In order to prevent this from becoming a potential safety or legal issue, companies like Ford have moved to heavily encrypt their vehicle's software. S650 Mustang chief engineer Ed Krenz specifically noted that the new FNV architecture can detect when someone attempts to modify any of the vehicle's coding, and that it can respond by shutting down an individual vehicle system or the vehicle entirely if that's what is required.

That sort of total lockout presents an interesting challenge for [car performance] tuners who rely on access to things like engine and transmission control modules to create their products.
Last month Ford acknowledged tuners would find the S650 Mustang 'much more difficult,' the article points out. And they add that Dodge also 'intends to lock down the Engine Control Units of its upcoming electric muscle car offerings, though it will offer performance upgrades via its own over-the-air network.'

'We don't want to lock the cars and say you can't modify them,' Dodge CEO Kuniskis told Carscoops. 'We just want to lock them and say modify them through us so that we know it's done right.'

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for submitting the article.

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