Topic: Self-Driving Cars

[daniel1948]

Actually, I hope that none of the above is susceptible to being hacked. But given the various news items about who's been hacked, I suspect that the public sector and companies whose entry into the computer age is ancillary to their primary expertise are probably more vulnerable than companies whose primary expertise is computers. Thus I have more confidence in the Google Car than in a power plant when it comes to putting up barriers to hacking.

[Billzbub]

I don't think the person who brought up the hacking is talking about hacking just one car at a time.  If someone hacked the Tesla system that provides over-the-air updates, then they could cause a serious problem.  Once all cars are self-driving and over-the-air updatable, this problem could get even worse.  Image a group of hackers installing an update on 50% of the self-driving cars that says at a specific date and time, they should all accelerate and turn left.

I'm still with all the people that pointed out all the other systems that are already like this that we depend on like traffic lights, air traffic control, etc.  Society isn't going to just say "oh, nevermind" with regard to the future of self driving cars just because there's the tiny possibility that cars can be hacked.  Rather, the government may push legislation that requires a hardware override that a person can use to gain manual control of a car in the event of a system-wide hack, or at least a hardware button that can gracefully stop the car if there's no human controls.

[Morvis13]

It only takes a fraction of a second for the hacker to make an accident unrecoverable. Human reaction times are not that good which is a major reason why we need robot drivers. Don't make the updates go over the air. use that air gap as a protection from hackers. Only update when plugged in overnight.

[CarbShark]

Volvo Trucks’ autonomous vehicle is hauling goods in Sweden

Volvo Trucks' autonomous vehicle Vera is ready to hit the road. In collaboration with ferry and logistics company DFDS, Vera will begin transporting goods between a logistics center and a port terminal in Gothenburg, Sweden. The vehicle will haul shipping containers along a predefined route, including a stretch of public roads.