Computer security experts who played as hackers have recently demonstrated that they can take control of a car just by using their laptops. 

These hackers are Twitter’s St. Louis-based security engineer Charlie Miller and fellow hacker Chris Valasek, director of intelligence at a computer security consulting firm in Pittsburgh. They have managed to penetrate the computer systems of a 2010 Ford Escape and 2010 Toyota Prius by using a port mechanics.

The demonstrations provided by the hackers aim to reveal susceptibility of the car’s computer boxes. Almost all vehicles have computers and a number of hackers have managed to get into these intricate works.

There are already cases where hackers maneuvered a couple of cars just by plugging a laptop into a port under the dashboard where mechanics connect their computers to look for problems. There was also a case wherein hackers were able to control a car’s computer using a cellular phone and bluetooth device.

Just to clear things out, there have been no real cases of these illegal happenings. However, experts warned that high-tech hijackings could be a new strategy which criminals may use. The automobile makers could use the information as a tip-off to consider reinventing their product’s computer-controlled safety measures.

Automakers, for the past two decades, have progressively improved computerized functions like accelerating, braking, shifting and steering. They have also improved electronic gas pedal position sensors and other electronic parts that reduce heaviness and allow cars to use little amount of gasoline.

Miller and Valasek released a report in August with instructions on how to break into the cars’ networks, at a hacker convention. They admitted that they did this to gain attention to the problems and have automakers to do something about them because they claim that automakers haven’t installed security to the ports.