So you CAN turn an entire car into a video game controller Cybersecurity nerds figured out a way to make those at-home racing simulators even more realistic by turning an actual car into a game controller. The UK's Pen Test Partners (PTP) has an in-house car that's used for various automotive security research. They thought that their 2016 Renault Clio, which they bought from a …
Um, that was the plan, originally I intended to get a couple of axle supports. Then one of my colleagues suggested a couple of foam flooring mats and I really meant to get around to buying *something*. But then it was the event and I was rewriting the code in the driver's seat of a Renault Clio. Common sense is definitely not common, especially when I'm involved.
I think I may "borrow" a crane for the next one, I have to keep going bigger don't I?
And "tired" being what i am every time someone complains about spelling variations on a website targetting an international audiience (any website). Here's a recommended read.
A prime example of US defaultism. I assume where you used "international audiience" you meant "American audiience" because all other English-speaking countries either use the British English spelling or can accept it without having an aneurysm, likewise for non-English speaking countries which are taught British English first and foremost.
There is a thing known as international English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_English
And most places where not native speakers are taught English aim towards "international". My daughter (British English speaker) has TEFL-ed (Taught English as Foreign Language) abroad.
"can accept it without having an aneurysm" is exactly the point I'm making. I sit in on some ISO meetings, mostly attended by Americans; ISO uses British English, but it doesn't drive Americans to apoplexy. That response is the preserve of the English alone, who furiously regex s/realize/realise despite both being in common use in the UK until very recently. No US defaultism (greetings from Surrey), just an irritation with self-appointed language guardians.
Brakes were easy, since these are essentially on/off functions,
The brake lights are on off functions. Brake pedal modulation is far from it, car manufacturers put a lot of money and effort into getting the right brake feel.
OK, so the author is talking about Mario Kart brakes, but a real sim would be different stuff.
Tuxkart?
Seems he missed a trick. Should have used Ridge Racer and created a modern version of Namco’s 1993 Ridge Racer Full Scale. Bet it would still have been cheaper than the originals £150,000 price tag even with a modern mx5
Was one of my favourite arcade games when they installed one near where I was living 31/32 years ago. how time flies.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Ridge_racer_full_scale_stockton.jpg
Unfortunately bringing undue attention to these sort of academic exercises gives manufacturers excuse to lock down access to vehicle systems "for our safety" (and gullible politicians eat it up to "protect" their constituents). I do not know what's the solution, other than maybe keeping infotainment and traction systems autonomous or read only access at most. And not Internet accessible for sure.
I surely do not want my repair options to be compromised in the name of "security".
It’s not a security issue, CAN is an open standard and well documented and has been for many decades. It’s by design, and unless some numpty adds a WAN there’s no sensible way to remotely do anything.
It’s a serial bus so local access is trivial, again by design. I’ve no idea why this person didn’t use the built in port that every car comes with, other than trying to sound clever and hackerish. You can literally buy the connectors online.
None at all. CAN literally consists of devices that send an ID and state. This means buttins can be assigned to anything, and you can add buttons anywhere. All you’d need to do is create a translation layer if using a standard controller.
CAN is also just serial comms, so to connect you can use a type of serial port. It’s not quite correct but RS232 ports work just fine.
The article made it sound harder than it is.
The article over-eggs some aspects. The steering for example is mechanical, but with position sensors to feed into other systems (such as cornering lights and stability control: oh shit, the car is turning further than the steering requested). In most cars there's no way to electronically control the steering.
Acceleration is generally feasible - if cruise control is available, the accelerator can be faked.
Braking: sometimes yes, sometimes no. Always mechanical with monitoring. Things like ABS are geared up to momentarily interrupt the brakes, not to apply them but some vehicles have other features that can apply the brakes.
Power steering systems will definitely turn the steering wheel when they are active, it is after all a solid connection from wheel to rack. If the power system is electrical then that opens up the opportunity to spoof the sensor that measures the torque applied by the driver to tell the assistance motor to move. Hopefully that's all locked away within the steering ECU and not accessible over the CAN bus...
And brakes can also be applied programmatically. That's how stability control, adaptive cruise control, collision mitigation etc. work. Just as ABS introduced ability to reduce the braking pressure to a wheel now its possible to increase it (presumably there is some sort of hydraulic accumulator somewhere in the system). Its really very disturbing when you have the adaptive cruise control turned on and the vehicle in front slows to a complete stop and your car does the same without any control inputs. And of course in EV's or hybrids some or all of the deceleration in some scenarios may be accomplished with regenerative charging rather than through the hydraulics.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
