PEPAZZ: One BYD car owner reported that the vehicle’s internal SIM card could be dialled by external parties, enabling audio from inside the car to be transmitted without the driver’s knowledge. In a video demonstration, the owner showed how calling the car’s SIM resulted in audio being relayed to their phone, with no visible indication on the car’s touchscreen that a call was occurring. Alarmingly, there was no method to terminate the call from the vehicle itself, leading to significant privacy concerns.
The owner explained, “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. 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.”
While eSIM technology is increasingly common in modern vehicles, this appears to be an isolated incident concerning BYD in Australia, with no other automaker reporting similar vulnerabilities.
Users allege BYD electric vehicles have hidden backdoor for eavesdropping - Dimsum Dailyhttps://www.dimsumdaily.hk/users-allege-byd-electric-vehicles-have-hidden-backdoor-for-eavesdropping/