OREANDA-NEWS. May 04, 2016. The auto industry is only now coming to grips with the seriousness of car hacking. After several high-profile stories, including Wired's Jeep Cherokee feature that spurred a subsequent recall, some states are beginning to crack down on would-be electronic riff-raff. And then there's Michigan.

Two Michigan state senators -- Mike Kowall (R-White Lake) and Ken Horn (R-Frankenmuth) -- have put forth billsthat would implement a felony charge for people who "intentionally access or cause access to be made to an electronic system of a motor vehicle to willfully destroy, damage, impair, alter or gain unauthorized control of the motor vehicle." The maximum sentence for that charge is life in prison.