Nissan: Hackable Leaf App Deactivated in USA

SAN FRANCISCO — Nissan on Wednesday disabled an app that allowed owners of its electric Leaf car to control their cars' heating and cooling from their phones, after an Australian researcher showed he could use it to control others' cars as well.

The NissanConnect EV app, formerly called CarWings enabled a remote hacker to access the Leaf's temperature controls and review its driving record, merely by knowing the car's VIN (vehicle identification number).

Computer security researcher Troy Hunt published a blog post Wednesday describing how he discovered the flaw and initially reported it to Nissan on Jan. 23. He contacted the company multiple times and only posted his blog after the issue began to be discussed on security forums online, he wrote.

Nissan did not announce it was disabling the app after he had done so.

Nissan spokesman Steve Yaeger said in an email to USA TODAY that the issues relating to the app had "no effect whatsoever on the vehicle's operation or safety."

In a statement, the company said, "our 200,000 Leaf drivers across the world can continue to use their cars safely and with total confidence. The only functions that are affected are those controlled via the mobile phone – all of which are still available to be used manually, as with any standard vehicle."

The company said it was looking forward to launching an updated version of its app "very soon."

In his blog, Hunt emphasized that while this particular security vulnerability was trivial because it didn't impact the  driving controls of the vehicle, it is a cautionary tale for auto makers.

"As car manufacturers rush towards joining in on the 'Internet of things' craze, security cannot be an afterthought nor something we’re told they take seriously afterrealizing that they didn’t take it seriously enough in the first place," he wrote.

“We are lucky in this case that the attacks were only focused on functionality in the air-conditioning and heating system of the car and were done by a ‘white hat’ and not a criminally minded black hat hacker," said Reiner Kappenberger.

Car Insurance in USA

Auto insurance 

People have the opportunity to purchase their auto insurance from auto insurance companies online that is just as useful as auto insurance they can purchase from walking into the company's offices or calling them on the telephone. Online auto insurance companies offer the same opportunities to obtain as much coverage as the client needs, but being online has one other advantage that brick and mortar companies don't have and that is convenience. 

Liability Coverage 

Every auto insurance company is required to offer their clients the liability coverage that each state has required by law that residents purchase. Because of this, people must be able to purchase their liability coverage from an online auto insurance company. too. 

For example, the state of Ohio requires that drivers purchase bodily injury liability coverage for one person they have injured in a car collision for $12,500. For everyone hurt in the accident, they must have $25,000 and to pay for the property damaged in the accident, they must have $7,500 property damage liability coverage. 

Sometimes, people decide that the mandatory minimum requirements aren't sufficient coverage and they would like to purchase more insurance. Online auto insurance companies are also capable of fulfilling this need for their clients. 

Optional Coverage 

Online auto insurance companies also can insure the policyholders' vehicles with optional auto insurance coverage. Liability coverage only covers the bodily injuries and property damages of third parties and not those of the policyholders. In order to be competitive with the offline insurance companies, online auto insurance companies also need to give their clients the option to purchase extra coverage from them. 

To insure the policyholders' vehicles, online auto insurance companies offer: 

- Collision coverage

- Comprehensive coverage

- Uninsured motorist bodily injury

- Underinsured motorist bodily injury

- Uninsured motorist property damage

- Underinsured motorist property damage

- Medical payments

- Guaranteed auto protection (GAP) insurance

- Rental car reimbursement and

- Towing 

Convenience 

Obtaining auto insurance online is highly convenient for people who like to use the Internet for conducting business. With an online account, online auto insurance customers may pay their bills from the website. They no longer have to write a check, buy a stamp and travel to the post office to mail their premiums every month. 

They may even be entitled to a discount for paying their premiums online. Auto insurance companies that are required to bill their clients every month have administrative costs they must pay including paying their employees to perform duties such as printing bills, putting the bills in envelopes, mailing the bills, purchasing postage, receiving the bills, entering the payments and taking the checks to the bank to cash them. 

When people pay online, it's electronic and the online auto insurance company is relieved of performing all of the duties listed above. They will thank their clients for this fact by taking a percentage off of their premiums. 

If these customers have an accident and they need to file a claim, they may be able to do this online. Times when it may not be possible are if the accident is highly complicated; in those cases, they may call their insurance companies' toll-free numbers as they would with any other auto insurance company. 

Receive Quotes from Multiple Online Auto Insurance Companies 

Finding auto insurance for the most affordable prices is the easiest when people search for them online. Those who decide to seek a quote from an auto insurance company that doesn't have an online presence will have to call each company individually and give their information over and over again. They will only be able to receive one quote at a time after spending a considerable amount of time on the telephone with the company's representatives. 

When people seek a quote from an online auto insurance website that represents more than one online auto insurance company, they will only have to give their personal information and the type of coverage they would like to purchase once. They will immediately receive several quotes from these online auto insurance companies. If these people like what they have to offer, they have the opportunity to click on a button to be taken to the auto insurance company's website. If the client and auto insurance company are a good match, the client may be able to find and purchase auto insurance all in the same day. 

USA Hybrid Car Technology

After spending dozens of hours considering every hybrid that’s currently on sale (and driving and living with the better ones), we found the best choice for most is the standard 2015 Toyota Prius Two, which starts around $25,0001 but can be bought by most for as little as $23,000.2 No duh, huh?

Most hybrids have moved into the 2016 model year, and quite a few brand-new ones are waiting in the wings. That group includes an all-new version of our top pick, the 2016 Toyota Prius, as well as the Chevrolet Malibu Hybrid, which may rival the Honda Accord Hybrid as a more comfortable and conventional alternative. We’ll evaluate them both when they go on sale in January, but if you like the current Prius, now is the time to seek out a deal while Toyota sells off the 2015 model. We also received some reader requests to give our opinion of every hybrid that’s available to buy, so we’re doing just that in a new section called “The rest.”

The Prius is purpose-built for fuel efficiency and achieves the country’s second-best rating of 50 miles per gallon (2.0 gp1003) without much effort required by the driver. And unlike many of its competitors, it doesn’t cost that much more than a comparable non-hybrid compact car, but would start saving you gas money, and lots of it, from day one.

It prefers to be driven slowly and easy to burn less gas, but the Prius also has enough power to merge, pass, and pull away from stoplights with some gusto. It’s also durable, has plenty of room for people and cargo, and boasts what no other hybrid can: a 14-year record of proven reliability and the title of World’s Most Popular Hybrid. Until a new crop of competitors arrives later this year, including an all-new Prius, this current model remains atop the hybrid heap.

The Prius family includes three models: the small Prius c, the large Prius v (we’ll talk about both later), and the standard Prius lift-back. The last is our pick, and it’s the one you’re probably most familiar with because it’s been the poster car for hybrids for over a decade. There are five trim levels of the standard Prius lift-back. Some of them can cost as much as a luxury car when fully loaded, but the base model Prius Two is best for most because it’s equipped well-enough: with standard features like Bluetooth phone and audio, a rear view camera, and push-button start. Its lower starting price also means you’ll start saving money sooner.

This guide focuses on traditional parallel hybrids like the Prius, which make up the bulk of what’s for sale out there. We decided not to consider plug-in hybrids because they cost considerably more than traditional hybrids and work a little differently; they’ll get their own guide in the near future. We threw out mild hybrids too because they’re all but extinct and have always played second fiddle to full-on parallel hybrids like the Prius.

2014 Ram 2500 HD Crew Cab 4x4 6.4-Liter V-8

or truck buyers whose paychecks are dependent on hauling capability, the longstanding school of thought is that diesel power is the only choice once you enter three-quarter-ton-and-up territory. After all, it’s hard to argue with the massive low-end grunt of an oil burner when you have a weighty job to do. But as with politics, access to power takes money, and putting a Cummins diesel under the hood of the Ram 2500 will set you back an additional $7995 over the cost of the standard 5.7-liter gasoline V-8.

To bridge that gap, Ram now offers the 6.4-liter Hemi in its 2500 and 3500 HD pickups. A $1495 option, this V-8 packs 410 horsepower and 429 lb-ft of twist, increases of 27 and 29 over the base 5.7-liter Hemi. And while it is certainly shy of the top-rated diesel's impressive and influential 800 lb-ft of torque, it does beat the Cummins' 370-hp rating.

Different Strokes

With the 6.4-liter Hemi engine nestled between its fenders, the Ram 2500 has an entirely different personality than does its diesel analogue. Step hard on the accelerator in the 2500 Hemi, and the run to 60 mph takes 7.9 seconds; stay in it, and the quarter-mile mark arrives in 16.1 at 88 mph. (Note: Our test truck substituted a 4.11:1 rear end for the stock 3.73:1, a $125 option.) Although that’s 0.6 second better in the 0-to-60 and quarter-mile measures than the 2012 Ram 2500 diesel we last tested, it doesn’t tell the entire story. When it comes to motivating 7039 pounds of Ram truck, the gasoline Hemi is all hands on deck, working overtime to rush through its six-speed automatic transmission. Its diesel-powered sibling, however, goes about its business with conviction, working hard but never feeling stressed or short of muscle.

Deciphering tow ratings for pickups can be a gray area—the trailering tables for Ram’s HD pickups are 23 pages long—but checking the box for the aforementioned 4.10:1 rear axle increased the tow rating of our Ram 2500 Big Horn crew-cab 4x4 test truck to 15,500 pounds from the 12,500-pound figure quoted for the standard 3.73:1 axle. Tow ratings for the standard 5.7-liter gas engine check in at 11,060 pounds for the 3.73:1 axle and 13,060 pounds for the 4.10:1. Despite having nearly double the amount of torque on tap, the Cummins diesel with six-speed automatic combo in the Ram 2500 Big Horn crew-cab 4x4 ups the max tow figure to only 17,120 pounds. In that light, the eight-grand less-expensive 6.4-liter Hemi begins to make more sense, particularly for buyers who don’t tow on a daily basis. (Curiously, selecting the popular RamBox bed storage bins lowers the tow figure by a seemingly inconsequential 140 pounds in the 6.4-liter gas trucks and 110 pounds in the diesel.) Fuel economy is an equally close race: We averaged 11 mpg in the Ram 2500 Hemi compared with 12 mpg in the 2012 Ram 2500 diesel. A 2013 Ram 3500dualie we tested last year averaged 13 mpg.

Get Sprung

Until now, virtually every truck rated at three-quarter tons and higher employed rear leaf springs, technology almost as old as the wheel itself. Reliable and dumb-nuts simple, poor ride quality is the leaf spring’s enduring sore spot. To get a handle on it without compromising payload capability, Ram has outfitted the 2500 with a new five-link coil-spring rear suspension for 2014. We’re sure it’s a fine arrangement on its own merits, but our tester was outfitted with the also-new-for-2014 auto-leveling rear air suspension ($1595) that replaces the springs with airbags. So equipped, the 2500 Big Horn crew cab challenged our preconceived notions regarding the unladen ride quality of a heavy-duty truck. There’s no mistaking the giant Ram 2500 for a car, but the engineers have certainly taken some rough edges off the truck’s ride, particularly in regard to impact harshness. (We’ve gone on record with our appreciation of the smooth ride offered by ourlong-term Ram 1500 4x4’s four-corner air-spring suspension.)

Ease of maneuvering the 7039-pound Ram and reducing driver fatigue are top priorities for the truck’s hydraulic power steering, so attributes such as feedback and on-center feel are absent. Nonetheless, the big 2500 displays surprisingly good transient responses in town and tracks true on the highway, with one caveat: when the winds kick up, the truck wanders like a college dropout with a trust fund, requiring constant correction to stay on the path. Pressed hard on our 300-foot skidpad, the Ram 2500 pulled 0.70 g of lateral grip while exhibiting heavy understeer. Hauling the truck down to a stop from 70 mph consumed 202 feet, with the driver reporting no fade in repeated stops. “Pedal feel” is a relative term in the HD truck world, and the Ram 2500’s brake pedal gets the job done, but without distinction.

Cowboy Deluxe

The Big Horn trim level of our test truck sits above the Tradesman and SLT in Ram truck hierarchy. Our example included the 22Z package ($1835), with steering-wheel-mounted audio controls, underhood illumination, Big Horn badging, and a 10-way power-adjustable driver’s seat. The Luxury Group package ($640) added, among other niceties, a heated steering wheel and seats, auto-dimming mirrors, and Ram’s trick, configurable seven-inch multiview screen in the instrument cluster. Checking the box for Chrysler’s familiar Uconnect system ($1005) brought an 8.4-inch touch screen, satellite radio, navigation, and multiple connectivity options.

So equipped, the 2500 crew cab’s interior is the same comfy place we’ve come to know and love in recent Ram trucks. Controls are within easy reach, storage is ample (dual glove boxes!), and dual rearview cameras (cargo view, $325, andbackup, $200) made it easy to forget we were in a nearly 20-foot-long vehicle. But it was ready to work, with the Fifth-Wheel/Gooseneck Towing Prep group ($400), 220-amp alternator ($100), side steps ($600), LT275/70-18 on-/off-road tires ($200), a spray-in bedliner ($475), and finally, the Protection group ($100), which adds tow hooks and a transfer-case skid plate. By the time the Ram 2500 Big Horn cleared the ticket window, it was commanding an as-tested $52,600.

We’re impressed with how civilized the HD-truck segment has become over the past decade or so, but there’s still no getting around the fact that this 6.4-liter Hemi-powered Ram is a 3.5-ton rolling workhorse. There is a price to pay at the pump, regardless of which fossil fuel you choose to burn, and the choice between gas and diesel seems to boil down to whether you’ll haul piles of stuff most often behind or in your truck.

Specifications

VEHICLE TYPE:front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door truck

PRICE AS TESTED:$52,600 (base price: $37,740)

ENGINE TYPE:pushrod 16-valve V-8, iron block and aluminum heads, port fuel injection

DISPLACEMENT:392 cu in, 6417 cc
Power: 410 hp @ 5600 rpm
Torque: 429 lb-ft @ 4000 rpm

TRANSMISSION:6-speed automatic

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 148.9 in
Length: 237.4 in
Width: 79.1 in Height:77.7 in
Curb weight: 7039 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:
Zero to 60 mph: 7.9 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 22.5 sec
Rolling start, 5-60 mph: 7.9 sec
Top gear, 30-50 mph: 3.9 sec
Top gear, 50-70 mph: 5.2 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 16.1 sec @ 88 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 106 mph
Braking, 70-0 mph: 202 ft
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad*: 0.70 g

FUEL ECONOMY:
C/D observed: 11 mpg
*Stability-control-inhibited.