Popular Chinese electric vehicles can listen to conversations, owners claim

A popular brand of electric vehicle sold in Australia has a hidden backdoor allowing the manufacturer to listen into conversations, users have claimed.After witnessing an explosive month showcasing the awful possibilities of technological warfare, the topic of electric vehicles and their potential to be hacked has once again been thrust into the global spotlight.A driver who owns a BYD car, a Chinese brand of electric vehicle, has claimed that the software can listen to his conversations.He explained that the car’s internal SIM could be dialed by an external party, allowing audio from inside the vehicle to be transmitted to the caller without the driver’s knowledge.In the video, the owner dials the car’s SIM number, and while audio from inside the vehicle is transmitted to their phone, there’s no visible indication on the car’s touchscreen or digital display that a call is taking place.Even more concerning is that there appears to be no way to terminate the call from the vehicle.The only sign that a call was in progress was the audio muting, and the issue reportedly persists even when the car is turned off.An article published by carexpert.com in January 2023 also highlighted the issue.“I wasn’t able to hang up the covert call from the car, even by opening the phone app or pressing the pick-up/hangup button on the steering wheel,” the owner said.“Even turning off cellular allowed a call to be taken, so there’s no way I can find that an Australian Atto 3 customer can have privacy in their own car if someone was spying on them.”One user reported receiving multiple calls through the SIM, suggesting it had been recycled.“I have had four different people somehow ring through to my car… first time I thought someone connected to my Bluetooth, but after the 4th I assumed they somehow are ringing my SIM number,” the user said, adding that both parties were confused during the calls.BYD’s Australian distributor, EVDirect, responded quickly to t...