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A security researcher feel a concealed unreleased feature in the Waymo app that allowed her to expose whatever character she want on the robotaxi ’s top exhibit .
Jane Manchun Wong , a well - known security department researcher , post an image on Xon Saturday showing the top video display of a Waymo machine — officially called “ domed stadium ” — that include her X handgrip and other strings of characters .
“ I hack my Waymo into showing weird texts like empty string , ‘ wongmjane , ’ and emojis as the Car ID , pls do n’t ban me or patch up it @waymo lol , ” she wrote .
I hacked my Waymo into shew weird textbook like empty string , “ wongmjane ” , and emojis as the Car IDpls do n’t ban me or piece it@waymololpic.twitter.com/Cf8lvZelrr
Wong , who lives in San Francisco , told TechCrunch that she was capable to customize the characters on the self - driving Jaguar I - Pace dome by fiddling with the Waymo wandering app on her Android phone as she waited for the robotaxi to show up .
“ The in force older magic of messing around with the Waymo mobile app . I opine their server did n’t corroborate the input for the Car ID from non - employee , ” state Wong . “ So no ‘ jailbreaking ’ or ‘ rooting ’ the car itself . All I did was exchange the railway car ID to something beyond what it ’d ordinarily accept . A passably harmless thing I reckon . ”
Despite her pleas , it appears Waymo updated the app to cease riders from customizing the dome like Wong did . On Tuesday , Wongposted an updatesaying she was not able-bodied to interchange the railway car ID any longer .
Waymo spokesperson Sandy Karp confirmed that Wong come up a out of sight feature , and the company shut it down for regular user like Wong .
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“ Jane identified an unreleased feature given her forward-looking Android cognition , ” Karp tell TechCrunch . “ We have restrict access to the dome display lineament . ”
In 2020,Waymoannouncedthat it bring moving light-emitting diode to its noggin “ so that it can act as a mechanism for rider to discover the vehicle solar day and night and know which vehicle is theirs when there may be more than one Waymo elevator car waiting . ”
The domeis also used to communicatewith walker that the car is yielding to them , or to cyclists that the passenger is about to open up the railway car ’s door . And the company has also used the displayfor merchandising aim .
