Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons apparently hacked to imitate Musk, Zuck voices

https://www.paloaltoonline.com/technology/2025/04/12/silicon-valley-crosswalk-buttons-apparently-hacked-to-imitate-musk-zuckerberg-voices/

by coloneltcb • 1 year ago

490 116 1 year ago

paloaltoonline.com

jimmydoe• 1 year ago

this is fun.

it seems most of these crosswalks can be configured via app from https://polara.com/ . So either the authentication was leaked or got physically flashed/hacked?

systemswizard• 1 year ago

Probably factory defaults exposed to the world

SoftTalker• 1 year ago

Or a mischievous or disgruntled employee did it, or gave the password to someone.

janalsncm• 1 year ago

SIMPLE WIRELESS PROGRAMMING The iNX is easily programmed using our industry-leading Field Service App, available for iOS® & Android® – no expensive software or proprietary devices required! The app allows technicians to configure system settings and sounds, as well as access actionable data on button counts, flashing cycles, and more.

Security not included!

TheAceOfHearts• 1 year ago

The S in IoT stands for Security.

BHSPitMonkey• 1 year ago

They said "The app allows technicians to configure system settings and sounds"; They never said the app _doesn't_ allow _non-technicians_ to do the same. What's the big deal?

JKCalhoun• 1 year ago

Hoping it comes to the Flipper Zero.

Natsu• 1 year ago

Someone is either guessing the passwords, which may well be the same all over the city given the number of these devices out there, or cities could just be using the default password of 1234. Yes, really:

https://www.polara.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Polara-iN2...

PASSWORD ISSUES: The iCCU can be connected to thru Wi-Fi. The buttons can be connected to thru Bluetooth. A. Once Wi-Fi is turned on at the iCCU, the Wi-Fi password is DEFAULT1 (ALL CAPS). B. Following power up, each button will say “change password” every 30 seconds, until the default password is changed. There is one shared password for logging into an iCCU and all PBS connected to it. The factory default password is 1234. Using a Field Service app, use 1234 to log into the iCCU or any PBS the first time, and change the password. This changes the password for all PBS and the iCCU. See Section 5.2 in the Manual for details. C. If the password is unknown, a Password Reset requires a call to Polara Tech Support.

ryandrake3• 1 year ago

Very nice. Totally harmless prank and it clowns on jerks who deserve a good clowning! Hope the pranksters continue and keep it lowkey so they don’t get caught.

vkou• 1 year ago

The targets of this deserve every bit of shade that can be thrown at them, but unfortunately, this fucks with crosswalk accessibility for the visually impaired.

DennisP• 1 year ago

Not by much though, since "wait" and the tones still play. I suspect most visually impaired people will enjoy this as much as the rest of us.

gopher_space• 1 year ago

All of these machines loudly shout to begin walking before they tell you which intersection is safe. It’s really weird.

thomassmith65• 1 year ago

That's a fair point, but what is surprising is that - unlike 99% of exploits one has heard about, over the years - these hackers:

• had some civic-mindedness - enough to leave in the initial 'wait!' audio

• chose messages that, while falling short of comedy genius, are amusing and above the level of an adolescent

• didn't include any extremist nonsense

Grading on a curve, that's a lot to be thankful for.

lupusreal• 1 year ago

If we could not fuck with accessibility devices which disabled people rely on, that'd be great. Thanks.

lysace2• 1 year ago

Were you severely inconvenienced by this hack? If so, how?

scubbo3• 1 year ago

One does not have to be harmed by an action to be able to call out that it would have harmful impact.

delusional• 1 year ago

It sounds like they still make the normal/expected sounds. So kudos to the pranksters for keeping them safe and available for the people in need of accessibility.

googlryas2• 1 year ago

The expected sounds are mark Zuckerberg talking about AI for 20 seconds?

No, no kudos to anyone who fucks with safety devices to make some point of theirs.

xoxxala• 1 year ago

Deviant Ollam has a video with clips from the crosswalks. He also mentions the accessibility is not impacted. Worth a watch if you haven’t heard the AI impressions.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=woQEJ_fY8Mw

yuhong• 1 year ago

That being said at least in one case “The pedestrian push buttons have been deactivated and crosswalks are currently operating on a timer”.

badgersnake• 1 year ago

Don’t be such a killjoy. It still makes sounds.

magixx• 1 year ago

I wonder how soon it will be before some company starts renting these out from the city for ad space.

cooper_ganglia• 1 year ago

That's actually a genius idea in the worst way possible!

potato3732842• 1 year ago

I'll take garbage ads over dystopian "the city implores you to <some thing I probably would have done anyway if left to my own devices>" messages any day.

idle_zealot2• 1 year ago

Yeah, PSAs are dystopian, ads designed to get me to act against my best interests are the sign of a functioning non-dystopian society.

steve_adams_86• 1 year ago

I think these PSAs are for kids and people who might not be familiar with the norms (such as tourists), and for that purpose, they’re worth having.

twobitshifter• 1 year ago

It will be just like the gas pumps.

nxobject• 1 year ago

(Just to be clear, this is sarcasm.) If you're in a city that relies significantly on parking fees for revenue, this might help subsidize a shift away from cars...

elpocko2• 1 year ago

This HN post is seven days old but displayed and ranked as if it was posted 9 hours ago, with all timestamps falsified. The déjà vu effect is disconcerting and an absolute mind fuck. Please stop doing this, ffs. The person who thought this would be a good idea is a madman.

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Silicon%20Valley%20crosswalk%2...

zniturah• 1 year ago

How is it technically possible?

greyface-• 1 year ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380

https://news.ycombinator.com/pool (specifically, this post can be found on page 8: https://news.ycombinator.com/pool?next=43673425)

ryandrake3• 1 year ago

Wild! I definitely remember commenting on this last week and sure enough my comment shows below as “8 hours ago” (while I was asleep). What kind of sorcery is going on?

yellowapple4• 1 year ago

HN has a "second chance queue" for posts that the powers-that-be believe could've/should've gotten more attention but didn't. Happened to one of my posts once, which was confusing as all hell at first but made sense once I learned about it.

reubenswartz• 1 year ago

And is Seattle, “Jeff Bezos” says the crosswalk is sponsored by Amazon Prime and exhorts you not to tax the rich.

divbzero• 1 year ago

At South Lake Union and University District crosswalks earlier this week:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/seattle-crosswalk-...

noxa• 1 year ago

I love that it played the Bo Burnham "jeff bezos" song - such incredible art.

drillsteps5• 1 year ago

Absolutely random thought semi-related to the topic.

This is one of the better voice clones of Musk but it's still really bad because he never lost his whatever accent, and every voice clone I've heard (mostly the ones on fake Starship launch videos) speaks with perfect American accent.

Something to think about I guess :)

UberFly• 1 year ago

South African accent is the one you're looking for.

Lammy• 1 year ago

Souf Êfrican

dijit• 1 year ago

Sorta, he has a blended accent of upper-class south african that has been americanised.

You will be hard pressed to find south africans with his accent.

For specifics of what I mean, the breathy “â” (as in, a posh british person saying bâth) is present, but so is the american hard-R.

He has a lot of stubbed tones in words like “heart” though which is clearly very south african.

schwartzworld• 1 year ago

What makes you so sure it’s a clone? I see a lot of impressionists doing Elon and some of them are really good.

fuzztester• 1 year ago

high pitch?

pun intended.

jpollock• 1 year ago

I've come across several of these that if you press them enough say "Change Password". I'm guessing they've never had their passwords changed from default.

userbinator2• 1 year ago

Political satire is the best form of satire, but someone should hack them in the other direction too.

binarno_sp• 1 year ago

The other direction lacks sense of humor.

userbinator2• 1 year ago

"Walk into traffic and be unburdened by what has been."

aaronharnly• 1 year ago

Like what, making fun of poor disenfranchised people instead of rich people with vast power?

mock-possum• 1 year ago

What would be an example of ‘the other direction?’

skylerwiernik• 1 year ago

Great video on how this works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvvVSTlbqEI

Silicon Valley crosswalk buttons apparently hacked to imitate Musk, Zuck voices

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