We know the future is here when we don’t need to drive anymore while letting the car do all the driving itself. Self-driving cars are no longer science fiction or futuristic concept, but rather a common phenomenon in this decade. A vehicle that no longer needs to be driven by someone physically sounds like a delight and a feature that people might just use and abuse at one point in time.
Self-driving cars have been around for a while. Believe it or not, but the first self-driving car was introduced in 1920, when Francis Houdina controlled a car through radio waves. People were shocked back then, and are still taken aback with the same technology today.
However, the present-day scenario of automated vehicles are far more advanced than just radio-waves. Vehicles today work like they have a brain of their own. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the main factors that make self-driving cars a reality. This AI learns driving while constantly observing the owners driving skills. It does sound a bit creepy, but most AI’s today simply watch and learn.
Why Are People So Concerned About Self-Driving Cars?
Autonomous vehicles or self-driving cars work with the help of an AI that gathers information about the car owners driving and parking style. After the AI has all the data it needs, it is ready to drive around.
When this technology first came out it seemed very secure, but shortly after self-driving cars were getting popular, it was demonstrated that these self-driving cars can be hacked and controlled as well.
This hacking is very much different from the usual hacking. Here the hacker has access to a vehicle or vehicles that can cause a lot of ruckus on road. What seemed like an impenetrable security system on the cars, just lost its credibility and was now vulnerable to the unlimited possibilities of cybercrimes in an all-new area of technology and life.
Self-driving cars can cause a lot of unwanted problems in populated cities like New York. People started worrying that these cars just became an asset to cybercriminals that could lead to unwanted collisions and even gridlocks in such cities.
Are Self-driving Vehicles Actually That Vulnerable?
A genuine misconception causes wrong rumors to spread which further causes ignorance. To hack an autonomous car is far more tough than hacking any traditional car. Traditional cars that are enabled with software that requires constant internet connectivity are the cars that can get easily hacked. This is because of the vulnerabilities of the internet-enabled software that provide loose ends for hackers to exploit.
In 2015, a security void in FCA’s Uconnect gave hackers the opportunity to take control of a traditional Fiat Chrysler. This was nothing but a traditional car that had software that needed the internet to function.
This forced the manufacturers to recall more than 1 million vehicles. Even the famous experiment that was done by hacking the Jeep Cherokee, was not a self-driving car, but an internet-connected car.