Towards an Autonomous Vehicle Enabled Society :

There are numerous exciting benefits of autonomous vehicles, which are very much at the frontier of development of vehicular technology. The level of cyber security provided by autonomous vehicles is, however, less well understood. Cyberattacks against autonomous vehicles could have grave implications for safety, privacy, reputation of manufacturers, and public perception. We examine the threats and vulnerabilities associated with autonomous vehicles, as well as discussing appropriate countermeasures. We argue that the successful embracing of autonomous vehicles in future transport systems will be best achieved by taking a sensible risk-management approach to tackling the potential cyber security threat. Autonomous Vehicles Over the years vehicles have become much more intelligent in a number of different ways. The latest wave of technological evolution is bringing vehicles that offer unprecedented levels of autonomy. Autonomous vehicles are capable of sensing their environment using sensors such as radar, laser-based lidar, GPS, cameras, compasses and wheel odometers. They can then take this information and make navigational decisions without human intervention. The UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology has defined differing levels of autonomy (see Table 1). These range from vehicles with automated subsystems through to fully autonomous vehicles that are capable of completing an entire journey without any human input. Fully autonomous vehicles have already been developed and are available, but thus far are only suitable for pedestrianised zones. Highly autonomous prototype vehicles are already taking part in road trials. It is estimated that it will be approximately 20 years before widely deployed fully autonomous vehicles and the necessary supporting infrastructure are a reality on public roads. 1 This article is to be published online by Computer Weekly as part of the 2016 Royal Holloway information security thesis series. It is based on an MSc dissertation written as part of the MSc in Information Security at the ISG, Royal Holloway, University of London. The full MSc thesis is published on the ISG's website.