Autonomous car era brings risk of hijacking by hackers

LONDON -- A red VW Golf jerks back and forth as it maneuvers into a parking space in the English spa town of Cheltenham.

The halting efforts resemble those of a new driver, and in a sense they are -- just not from the person sitting at the wheel.

The car itself is navigating into the spot, which it manages without a scratch. The man in the driver's seat, who has his hands resting leisurely on his lap except for the occasional gear change, is a mere onlooker in this demonstration of the latest automated-car technology.

SYMBOLIC IMAGE

While the idea of robo-cars whisking us off to our destinations may sound like science fiction, the technology exists and is largely ready for the real world.

What's harder to determine is the risk associated with the emergence of these vehicles.

If automakers effectively take the wheel, that puts them in the firing line for liability suits stemming from accidents. The vehicles would also be exposed to threats from hackers who could hijack cars and potentially control them remotely, turning them into mules for criminal purposes or even using them as weapons.

"A hacker could redirect a whole bunch of traffic to gridlock a city" or even "kidnap people," said Wil Rockall, director of information protection at consulting company KPMG in Tonbridge, England. "The risk goes from being one of human error on the part of the driver or road user to being human error on the part of a developer."

Autonomous S-class

Still, such worst-case scenarios aren't halting efforts to push the technology, which is forecast to become an $87 billion market by 2030, according to Boston-based Lux Research.

The Golf's self-directed parking job in the August presentation by Volkswagen AG is just one example of the trend. Google Inc. unveiled a cartoonish prototype of a self- driving car in May. A Mercedes-Benz S-Class drove itself 100 kilometers (62 miles) through real daytime traffic on crowded German roads last year, and parent Daimler AG is developing self-driving trucks.

The prospect of cars being controlled by online navigation systems is troubling to regulators and law enforcement agencies. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has determined that hackers could take over automated vehicles and use them as "lethal weapons," the Guardian reported in July, citing a study obtained by the British newspaper.

Yet there are benefits as well. The FBI report acknowledged that police could monitor connected cars more easily. In any case, automakers are attuned to the risks.

courtesy:- automative news