AUTONEWS

Swedish drivers receive air strike message on their car's multimedia screens

Surprised drivers in Blekinge (Sweden county) recently received an angry warning message about ongoing air strikes on their infotainment systems. Now it is being investigated who made the mistake.

It was last week as the message “Important traffic message. Blekinge län. Airstrike, danger” was sent to drivers in Blekinge, along with an angry warning tone over the loudspeakers.

Despite the situation around the world and Blekinge having an air base and the biggest naval base in Sweden, no one attacked from the air. The Swedish Transport Administration cannot respond why the unusual warning message was sent. They exclude hacking or the human factor.

The message came out via the RDS-TMC system which will soon be deactivated. The Swedish Transport Administration manages the system and can see that the message has expired, but not who sent it.

An internal investigation shows it did not come from the Swedish Transport Administration. Its press service claims that others who have access to the system are Radio Sveriges and the County Councils.

Surely this is a serious message and people should be worried?

– I understood that. If there is an important announcement to the public, you should listen to your local P4 station, which is emergency radio. And if you don't hear anything there, you can almost assume that something didn't work out. That's how it is, says Felicia Danielsson, press contact for the Swedish Transport Administration to DN.

The head of the traffic editorial office at Sveriges RadioMårten Randberg says they investigated whether the message could have come from them and concluded that this was not the case.

– It is not our format in the message and Terracom claims it was not sent by us.

The Blekinge County Board of Trustees announces through its communications manager that it is currently not aware of the cause of the message, but is continuing to investigate.

Mundoquatrorodas