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Uber just hired the two guys who wirelessly hacked Jeep

By Marcus Wong - on 2 Sep 2015, 12:04pm

Uber just hired the two guys who wirelessly hacked Jeep

Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek are now part of Uber's security research program.

Remember this news? Well it turns out the same two guys who managed the hack are now going to be joining Uber, who if you recall, have been rumored to be working on driverless vehicles. Charlie Miller, who had been working at Twitter Inc, and Chris Valasek, who worked at security firm IOActive, have resigned from their jobs and will both officially join Uber this week as part of the team at the Advanced Technologies Center.

An Uber spokeswoman told Reuters that Miller and Valasek will work with the company's top security officers "to continue building out a world-class safety and security program at Uber." The two will join a group of some 40 top scientists that Uber hired from Carnegie Mellon University, and is perhaps a sign of intent from the company on how serious they are about having a fleet of autonomous vehicles.

As Miller and Valasek (as well as other security experts) have amply demonstrated, existing computerized functions on our cars can be easily manipulated to take over a car’s steering and brakes. The lane-assist of self-parking features for example, can be used to move the car’s steering wheel while it’s cruising at high speeds. Left unchecked, the autonomous vehicle certainly can be turned into a dangerous instrument, both for the driver and for passers-by on the streets.

All of this just means Miller and Valasek will have plenty of loopholes to plug as the Uber cars go further into development. Or, if they choose to go malicious, plenty of ways to “hurt” the competition, though it certainly doesn’t seem that’s the path the two will choose. Still, it looks like the race for the first autonomous cars is very much on.

Sources: Wired, Reuters

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