Land Rover is planning to recall 65,000 Range Rover and Range Rover Sport vehicles sold between 2013 and now after discovering a software bug. The software bug unlocks the vehicles doors and does not give drivers a dashboard warning that the doors of the car have been unlocked. Land Rover, which owns the Range Rover brand, has since clarified that no accidents or injuries we re reported as a result of the bug. The company also says Range Rover owners will not have to pay for the modifications made to sort out the snafu.
Increasingly, vehicle manufacturers are finding themselves facing difficulty with car software. Luxury vehicle manufacturers, have especially faced shortcomings with key less ignition systems as well as locking technology, making them susceptible to vandalism. Last year, reports said that vehicle thieves were targeting Range Rovers and BMW X5 models as they found them easy to unlock. Reports suggested that the thieves used handheld black box to unlock and start the vehicles with key less ignition systems. Other vehicles targeted by criminals included the Ford Fiesta, Ford Focus and Audis.
According to BBC, a thief who was able to manipulate the vulnerabilities through the onboard diagnostic port and then access the vehicle. The thief would then plug a device into that port and re-program a blank key so it could be used to start the car and the thief makes the steal for order or later deciding to break up the car into cheap spares. So bad were the cases, that insurance companies were unwilling to cover Range Rovers unless they were able to get secure parking or install tracking systems to find the car if stolen.
