I totally agree. Luckily for me I have an old mechanically operated car that I plan to keep forever.

So the family being delivered to ICE has to hope a benevolent hacker community can somehow hack that particular vehicle within the 20 minute window of a drive to a concentration camp? Does this sound reasonable to you?

I suppose maybe in the future as car hacking gets more common and attrocities from our government worse, there might be hackers viewing protests from the sidelines specifically waiting for these situations.

Does Biden’s law, or any for that matter have real impact today?

I haven’t heard of a situation in which a kill switches was activated. This does not mean it hasn’t happened. The fact that it exists can only lead to exploitation in the future. It’s also being normalized as people don’t speak against it.

Is this 3rd party control easily removed with a software update?

No. I’m a mechanic and learning to hack. All car systems are different. One day when I’m confident in my abilities I’ll share my knowledge to help others.

Your answer is deeply disatisfying.

Unfortunately yes

There are researches who have already shown it’s possible to see a cars location, stop it, and unlock it’s doors. People have also hacked into car cameras and seen in peoples homes etc. Also due to Biden’s 2024(?) Infrastructure Act all new cars built have a kill switch that’s accessible by a “3rd party”. Besides the 3rd party, no backdoor can be made that can’t also be accessed by good hackers