[California98Civic]

Technicians are already demonstrating that cars with wireless communication devices for the ECU, even just the tire pressure sensors, make the whole car open to hostile hacker attacks. Imagine the terrorism of the future where a coordinated remote attack on the various automated lead cars--hundreds of them--paralyzes a city while killing hundreds and wreaking havoc on the public confidence in the highways. Wall Street sags, commerce slows, children weep.

Now imagine how the government learns to monitor everyone in new ways, through their cars and their mobile devices, secretly buying private databases on who you ride with, when, where, what you carry with you in order to protect the transportation network and the lives of people.

It's the stuff of great dystopic science fiction, which of course sometimes turns out to be a true future in part.