Is it safe to drive a car that relies a lot on the Internet today? Probably not, as security researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, recently showed that they could hack into a car over the Internet and play around with the driver's wheel, along with the engine and other things.

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We understand that the car in question is the 2014 Jeep Cherokee. The researchers managed to slightly move the steering wheel, shut down the engine entirely, along with disabling the brakes. This should be viewed as a huge problem because driverless cars are the next big thing, and they are all connected.

"They haven't been able to weaponize it. They haven't been able to package it yet so that it's easily exploitable," said John Ellis, a former global technologist for Ford. "You can do it on a one-car basis. You can't yet do it on a 100,000-car basis."

While not a single connected car has been hacked in recent times, government officials and car manufacturers are scrambling to make sure the software that powers these vehicles are not easily accessed by hackers, especially those with deadly intent.

The good news is, not every car manufacturer uses the same software, so if a hacker managed to gain access into one, chances are he or she would fail to hack the others. Furthermore, the software running on a car this year could be different next year, making much more difficult for hackers to be successful.

We're glad that researchers are working hard to make sure nothing happens that could force the world to rethink the need for certain aspects of cars to be linked to the web. In our eyes, the steering wheel, the brakes, and the engine of a vehicle should never be connected to the Internet in any way or form, and it may take a dangerous hacking related accident for manufacturers to realize their mistake.

One must always bear in mind that hacking is the new battleground, and it is going to get tough in the years to come.

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