Skip to main content

Automakers, US DOT agree on cybersecurity

The US Transportation Department and 17 automakers have reached agreement on efforts to enhance safety, including sharing information to thwart cyber-attacks on their increasingly wired vehicles, says Bloomberg. Companies including General Motors, Ford and Toyota also agreed to reform the way they report fatalities, injuries and warranty claims to the government. The companies are to meet regularly to exchange information and identify emerging safety issues. “Today DOT and the automakers represented h
January 19, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The US Transportation Department and 17 automakers have reached agreement on efforts to enhance safety, including sharing information to thwart cyber-attacks on their increasingly wired vehicles, says Bloomberg.

Companies including 948 General Motors, 278 Ford and 1686 Toyota also agreed to reform the way they report fatalities, injuries and warranty claims to the government. The companies are to meet regularly to exchange information and identify emerging safety issues.

“Today DOT and the automakers represented here are taking a strong stance in favour of a new approach, an approach that leans heavily on being proactive and less heavily on being reactive,” US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx in Detroit Friday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Company executives, including General Motors chief executive officer Mary Barra and 1674 Fiat Chrysler Automobiles chief executive officer Sergio Marchionne had met with Foxx in Washington in December. The transportation secretary asked the companies to come up with voluntary measures they could agree to outside the traditional regulatory framework.

The companies and regulators have agreed to suggest best practices on cybersecurity, share lessons learned and find ways to engage researchers to identify emerging threats. They will work with the information sharing and analysis centre established by the auto industry last year.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Leading Finland’s transport revolution
    July 18, 2017
    Anne Berner, Finland’s minister of transport and communications, does not fit the normal political mould. She is not a career politician but a business executive who became a member of parliament in 2015 and has said from the outset that she will only serve one term. Without concerns about being re-elected and a clear view of the future of transport, Berner can concentrate on what needs to be done - tackling some of the more contentious and intransigent subjects. Her name is best known for two major initiat
  • GM & Inrix widen field of View
    May 16, 2022
    Safety View cloud platform will give transport agencies more data for road safety initiatives
  • New partnership aims to make roads safer for motorcyclists
    November 23, 2016
    Highways England, the company responsible for running over 4000 miles of England’s motorways and major trunk roads, is to become the third partner in a collaboration to improve motorcycle rider safety. The government-owned company will join the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and the Motorcycle Industry Association (MCIA) as an equal partner in facilitating practical changes to roads, as detailed in a jointly written whitepaper: Realising the Motorcycling Opportunity: A Motorcycle Safety and Trans
  • More thought needed on ITS privacy and data protection
    February 27, 2012
    It's long been the case that policy should drive technology and not the other way round.