Motorists, including hauliers have been advised that the computer systems used to control modern cars and trucks are very vulnerable to attack.
Researchers from the University of California-San Diego set out to see what resilience vehicle control systems had against attack.
The results were shocking.
The researchers developed software called CarShark to monitor communications between the ECUs and insert fake packets of data to carry out attacks.
The researchers mounted a series of attacks against a stationary and moving vehicle to see how much of the car could fall under their control.
In one attack, the team transformed the instrument panel into a clock that counted down to zero from 60 seconds.
They found that almost every system in the car, including engine, brakes, heating and cooling, lights, instrument panel, radio and locks was vulnerable.
