The extra risk is slowing or stopping when people don't expect it. Unexpected things cause collisions. There's also extra risk in creating an obstruction, which creates risk for other drivers.
There's no doubt that driving is inherently a terribly risky activity. But I also don't think that pretending that taking your foot off the gas on a highway is a risk-free activity is particularly helpful.
its extra risk because the jeep's engine was turned off by someone accessing the car's computer on a public highway in traffic with the vehicle in the right lane
What's the baseline risk? Did this triple anyone's risk, or increase it by 0.01%?
Then combine that with the recall it spurs. The value of a live highway hack is very high. It got all the media to pay attention and got a commitment to a fix. You're freaked out about one car slowing down in traffic. Imagine many of the 500,000 vulnerable cars simultaneously accelerating wildly all across the nation if this was actually exploited.
What's the risk of doing nothing? Or of wasting years more with ignorable private disclosure?
"You're freaked out about one car slowing down in traffic."
No, I'm pointing out an idiot reporter endangered his fellow citizens to create hype instead of doing the reporting in a safe environment. Your the one who seems to be trying to justify endangering people to report someone else is endangering people.
The demonstration could have been done safely and effectively on a rented race track. It happens all the time when you want to test something around motor vehicles. Instead he went for cheap and sensational.
