Land Rover is recalling 65,000 cars thanks to a door-unlocking software bug

We’re truly in the digital age now, folks – Land Rover is recalling 65,000 cars because of a software bug.

Specifically, the Range Rovers in question suffer from a glitch that can unlock the vehicles’ doors.

The bug affects Range Rover and Range Rover Sport models that were sold between 2013 and today, as reported by the BBC.

It’s a particularly worrying bug because the dashboard doesn’t register that doors have been unlocked, leaving the driver unaware.

This could, according to the report, increase the risk of theft-by-hijack, and as such has forced Land Rover to recall a huge number of models.

Unfortunately, Land Rover has to update its car software manually, unlike Tesla, which offers over-the-air-updates for its vehicles.

“The recall is sensible. It’s positive to see automotive firms taking the proper steps to address evolving criminal threats. Vehicle crime, like so many other things, is going digital,” said Mark Hughes, president of BT Security.

He continued: “The challenge is that systems are now getting connected that were not originally designed for that purpose. THere is a need to carefully test vehicles, identify possible vulnerabilities, and fix them before criminals exploit them. We believe there’s a need to adopt established methods from the IT industry, like ethical hacking, for connected cars.”

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The recall comes after last year’s reports that car thieves were targeting computer-locking vehicles because the security software could be circumvented.

A handheld ‘black box’ was reported to be in use by a number of criminal groups that could unlock and start cars with keyless ignitions. The cars targeted at the time included Range Rovers and BMW X5s.