Uber Is Hiring The Two Hackers That Were Able To Hack The Jeep Cherokee

The recent hack of the Jeep Cherokee was a pretty important story, and it resulted in Fiat Chrysler, the owner of Jeep, recalling a number of vehicles to undergo a software patch. This was reportedly the first recalling for a hack-related software issue ever.

It seems as though Uber has taken notice of the story, however, and has hired Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, the people behind the hack. An engineer at the Uber Advanced Technology Center in Pittsburgh made the announcement in a tweet.

Charlie Miller previously worked at Twitter, and Chris Valasek worked at a security firm called IOActive. The two will be officially announced as new hires at Uber on Monday, in an effort to grow the company’s technology efforts.

The news comes only a few days after Uber announced a partnership with the University of Arizona, a partnership that will see further development on autonomous car technology, which Uber has been working on for a number of months now.

When the report of the hacking first broke, Fiat Chrysler recalled a whopping 1.4 million cars equipped with Uconnect, which is where the cars failed in security. Owners were able to install the patch through a simple USB stick.

The hack of the Jeep is not the only car hacking to take place of late. Vulnerabilities were also found in Tesla cars as well as in GM’s OnStar system. Miller and Valasek’s hack was the most significant, largely because it allowed hackers to gain almost complete control over the car.

Uber’s self-driving car efforts are certainly gaining steam, and it will be interesting to see what the company comes up with. Many suggest that the company will one day use autonomous cars instead of drivers as a way to save money. Uber also recently acquired mapping company deCarta, as well as a large portion of Microsoft’s Bing Maps. This technology will be extremely important in the development of the company’s self-driving cars.

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