This isn't actually true, or at least it's a far more complex topic than it's being presented here.
What happened in Russia, as best we know, is a "flaw" in the cars' system, but it's a very predictable one and the cars aren't bricked. This is more of a case of "something that was maybe a bad idea from the start, had an obvious failure point, and effects a limited number of people."
To elaborate, there are a few hundred Porcshes in Russia. It's not that many cars, and they're extremely expensive cars. Because they're extremely expensive cars, the owners CHOSE to have the Vehicle Tracking System in their car. This system is expensive, and as best I can tell, Porsche is the only one currently including it as standard on the manufacturing side (some places offer this as a service, but it's generally a 3rd party support kind of thing, and it's something you have to actively opt into). Also worth noting that Porsche hasn't been doing business in Russia since 2022, and has no official customer support there. That has been the case for 3 years now.
IT IS AN INTENTIONAL FUNCTION OF THE VTS THAT IT STOPS THE CAR FROM STARTING. This is not an unexpected behavior, this is the entire point of the system. This is how it is sold to customers. If the loses connection to the satellite, the car refuses to start until that is restored. This is used to stop theft. The VTS is also difficult to remove, again, intentionally, to prevent theft. But it can be removed safely without damaging the car as long as the mechanic knows what they're doing. The cars aren't bricked for completely unknown reasons, a system is performing the function exactly how it was designed to, in a way the owner was explicitly made aware of.
The owners were not unaware this was installed in their car, while I find varying information for locations, as best I can tell, they would've had to have been actively paying a subscription for it or otherwise managing the service with an app. They also knew the cars were no longer supported in Russia and had 3 full years to consider removing or disabling the system. Again, these are expensive cars and an expensive system, particularly in Russia, a person that owned one of these cars would've had the resources to get it removed.
News reports I'm reading are varied, but currently we don't know exactly who did this. Likely it is a hack of some kind, with Porsche having little to no motivation to repair it.
But like, this is not an unknown factor. This not a "oh no it's unthinkable that this happened to my car and I had no idea it could occur" sort of thing. People were explicitly sold an expensive system, that is meant to disable the car if it loses connection or if other conditions are met, and then 3 years after support had been ended in the country, the cars that had the system lost connection, and did the exact thing they were meant to do. Temporarily disabled the cars in a way that is difficult to fix.
There's a lesson in here, namely "you should significantly consider the risks you are taking with a product designed to keep people out such that you do not lock yourself out with no way back in" and also maybe "if the company running a product ends support in my country, I should probably remove or replace the system that they support that has the ability to disable my car that I'm paying for". But like, this isn't a mysterious case where a company or entity could randomly brick every car (although a number of cars with satellite connections are vulnerable to software attacks of varying levels, that is an entirely separate issue and not really what happened here). This is a case where you had an easily foreseeable possible outcome on a very specific set of cars, that customers were aware of. Like, the ability to remotely disable the car was a feature that is a selling point for Porsche. It's a selling point that people should really think twice about. I would strongly recommend not buying one. But it's not some hidden aspect or anything. This was written clearly on the tin.
tl:dr; yes, if you actively get and pay for a service that lets you disable a car remotely, your car can be disabled remotely, and you should consider this risk when considering getting and paying for a service that lets you disable cars remotely. I recommend people think very carefully about getting and paying for a service to disable your car remotely. That being said, if you are not actively getting and paying for a service that lets you disable your car remotely, this is probably not of concern to you. Other things might be, but not this.
