March 22, 2016

Can automated vehicles ever be safe?

Increasing safety is one of the main goals of automating vehicles, since human error is identified as the critical factor in 94% of crashes.

However, automated vehicles raise different sorts of safety issues.

On March 17^th, the FBI released an announcement to warn users of the vulnerability of vehicles to remote exploit. Based on this announcement and a report from IOActive, different functions of a vehicle can be targeted. For example, for speed of 5-10 mph, it is possible to shutdown the engine and disable the brakes and steering. Door locks, turn signals, tachometer, GPS, and more can be targeted at any speed. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, however. After all, researchers from the University of Washington and UC San Diego reported hacking a car back in 2010.

This adds to the turmoil for automated vehicles, which are already posing legal and insurance related challenges. In a world with hackable, automated vehicles, cyber security is not limited to identity and privacy issues anymore; it can result in physical damage and loss.

At Defcon 2015, Tesla invited hackers and researchers to try to penetrate to their systems and find bugs and vulnerabilities which help them to improve their systems.  The Tesla Model S, which is arguably the market leader with its Autopilot and Summon features, was hacked by a research team. Although they claimed that it was extremely difficult to hack it, it was possible – and that is scary. Yet, people trust this technology with their lives!

IEEE social media followers and IEEE intelligent vehicle experts participated in a survey in 2015. The results of the survey indicate that trust in technology and safety are the main concerns in owning driverless vehicles for this group of people and cyber security is one the issues was chosen as if it be addressed, consumers feel safer with these cars.

Taking care of the bugs and current problems of the systems is one thing, preventing hackers from penetrating is another thing. It is essential to keep up with the technology and improve cyber safety continuously. As technology advances, hacking methods develop as well. One of the best ways to make sure that the security systems are up to date and ahead of hacking techniques is collaboration of tech companies and pioneers in cyber safety with automated vehicles manufacturers. Major software companies have deep expertise in cyber security. However, key players have already started or planned to start manufacturing their own self-driving vehicles. With cybsersecurity experts in great demand, will the established car companies be able to recruit the talent they need?