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A security researcher found a secret unreleased feature in Waymo’s software that allowed him to display whatever characters he wanted on the robotaxi’s overhead display.
Jane Manchun Wong, noted security researcher, X posted a photo Saturday shows the top display of the Waymo car, officially called the “dome,” which includes its X handle and other symbols.
“I hacked Waymo to show weird text like blank string, “wongmjane” and emojis as Vehicle ID please don’t ban me or patch @waymo lol,” he wrote.
Wong, who lives in San Francisco, told TechCrunch that he was able to customize the characters in the dome of the self-driving Jaguar I-Pace by playing with the Waymo mobile app on his Android phone while waiting for the robotaxis to show up.
“The good old magic of messing around with the Waymo mobile app. I guess their servers didn’t validate the login for the non-employee Vehicle ID,” Wong said. So, there is no jailbreaking or rooting on the car itself. All I did was change the Vehicle ID to something outside of what it normally accepts. Pretty harmless stuff, I guess.”
Despite his pleas, Waymo appears to have updated the app to stop riders like Wong from customizing the dome. Tuesday, Wong posted an update said he could no longer change the car’s ID card.
Waymo spokeswoman Sandy Karp confirmed that Wong found a hidden feature and the company has blocked it for regular users like Wong.
Karp told TechCrunch: “Jane, given her advanced Android knowledge, identified a feature that had not yet been released. “We have restricted our access to the dome display features.”
in 2020 Waymo announced It added moving LEDs to its dome to act as a mechanism for drivers to identify the vehicle day and night and know which car is theirs when multiple Waymo cars are waiting.
dome also used for communication with pedestrians given to them by the car or cyclists when the passenger is about to open the car door. The company also used the screen for marketing purposes.
