Porsche Cars in Russia “Turn Into Bricks” After Massive Satellite Security Outage

Porsche owners throughout Russia are reporting that their vehicles have become immobile due to a failure of the factory satellite alarm system, the Rolf dealership network told RBC on December 1.

The surge in service requests began on November 28.

The outage was first highlighted by the Telegram channel Shot, which said that hundreds of Porsche vehicles had “turned into bricks” in cities including Moscow and Krasnodar. Drivers described being unable to start or unlock their cars as the system abruptly went offline.

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“Satellite connectivity is currently down for all models and all internal-combustion variants. Any vehicle can be blocked,” Rolf said. Technicians say the only known fix at the moment is a manual reboot of the alarm module, which requires disassembling the unit.

The dealership is still working to determine the cause, noting that “there is a possibility this was done intentionally.”

Some Mercedes-Benz owners have faced similar malfunctions, but these instances are rare and do not typically render cars completely unusable, Rolf added.

Porsche AG suspended official deliveries to Russia in 2022 after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though the company has not fully exited the market due to complications tied to selling its assets, RBC reports.

Earlier, it was reported that Russia is still equipping its military drones with Starlink satellite terminals despite previous US commitments to cut off such unauthorized use.

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