Viral video: Helpless e-rickshaw driver in tears after miscreants cut power, disable vehicle using mobile app

The e-rickshaw ruckus has taken the social media by storm. Viral videos of pranksters switching off the vehicles mid-journey using mobile applications are doing the rounds. One such video shows distressed e-rickshaw driver who complained about hours of deadlock and lost opportunity to earn after miscreants disabled his vehicle using mobile apps. The driver who rented the vehicle said that it was his only source of income which helped him cover its rental cost and household expenses.

The widespread use of these apps for views on Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and X has brought in disastrous consequences not only for the livelihood of e-rickshaw drivers but is also disrupting traffic movement on roads.

Watch viral video here:

Identifying e-rickshaw shutdown apps

When the electric vehicle is switched off midway, its passengers, other vehicles plying on the road and driver bear the brunt of a person's few minutes of pleasure. These apps allegedly involved were identified as BAT-BMS and Lossigy, HT reported following empirical study. Both these apps are available on the Google Play Store. According to HT report, the disabled e-rickshaw cannot be activated again unless the action is reversed through the app rather than the vehicle’s own key.

How do e-rickshaw shutdown apps function?

These apps take advantage of the security gap common in unsecured lithium-ion battery packs sold in India. Battery Management Systems that connect over Bluetooth with no password protection can be turned off by any nearby smartphone device through these apps.

However, this problem is not universal as e-rickshaws running on older lead-acid batteries, without Bluetooth capability, are not susceptible to this scam. In addition to this, some lithium-powered vehicles use proprietary battery management software which is incompatible with third-party apps. These apps which allow real-time monitoring of battery status — voltage, temperature are “being used mischievously" to cut power.

Shutting down E-rickshaw is punishable offense with 3 years jail, ₹5 lakh fine, says official

Chairman of the International Commission on Cyber Security Law, Pawan Duggal in an interview with ANI said, “Today an e-rickshaw is not just an e-rickshaw it's a computer system and therefore, if it's operating in the digital format it's got some memory functions.”

Warning against legal action against perpetrators, he said, “I am very clear this is not a game this is an offense under section 66 read with section 43 of the Information Technology Act 2000 because this is an activity that's done dishonestly or fraudulently where people enter into the computer system of its e-rickshaw without the consent or the knowledge of the owner and that is punishable with 3 years imprisonment and a fine worth ₹5 lakh.”

An Uttar Pradesh-based manufacturer, Balvinder Singh Sahni, who runs more than 15,000 e-rickshaws in Delhi, said the battery systems were never built with passwords because no one anticipated the lack of security would cause disruption at this scale. “They were designed to be accessed by service engineers for maintenance and diagnostics, which is why password protection was not built in,” HT quoted Balvinder Singh Sahni as saying.