As the gentleman stated in that video, "car hacking" has quite a few definitions. Let me just state for clarity that the people in this project are not trying to modify anything in the car, not even displaying funny messages on the dash. We just want to know and use and display more data that the car is willing to share with us, primarily to drive and/or charge smarter.
There is no writing or uploading to any of the ECU's. The only "writing" on the CANbus we do is asking ECU's for functional parameters in a request-reply fashion, i.e. "give me the uncorrected speed please".
I am completely aware of the negative connotation some people have with the word "hacking". From wikipedia:
Currently, "hacker" is used in two main conflicting ways
- as someone who is able to subvert computer security; if doing so for malicious purposes, the person can also be called a cracker.
- an adherent of the technology and programming subculture.
The controversy is usually based on the assumption that the term originally meant someone messing about with something in a positive sense, that is, using playful cleverness to achieve a goal. But then, it is supposed, the meaning of the term shifted over the decades since it first came into use in a computer context and came to refer to computer criminals.
I leave it to the reader to figure out how the CanZE team should be qualified
On a completely different note, and I think I forgot to mention this earlier, the Fluence ZE is in terms of CANbus messages rather similar to the Zoe (and somewhat similar to the Nissan Leaf). So where I say "Zoe", what I really mean is "Zoe and Fluence ZE". The app will differentiate soon between those cars. As I am a Zoe owner myself, I cannot add much about Fluence ZE specifics though, but there are a couple of Fluence ZE owners aboard.