Skip to main content

American drivers concerned about hacking of autonomous cars, says survey

An online survey by the University of Michigan Sustainable Worldwide Transportation Department asked American adults about their level of concern with cyber-security of personally owned autonomous vehicles (with and without driver controls) and current conventional vehicles looked at both vehicle security and data privacy. Within vehicle security, the issues examined were hacking vehicles to cause crashes, hacking by terrorists to use the vehicle as a weapon, disabling many vehicles simultaneously and di
February 8, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
An online survey by the University of Michigan Sustainable Worldwide Transportation Department asked American adults about their level of concern with cyber-security of personally owned autonomous vehicles (with and without driver controls) and current conventional vehicles looked at both vehicle security and data privacy.

Within vehicle security, the issues examined were hacking vehicles to cause crashes, hacking by terrorists to use the vehicle as a weapon, disabling many vehicles simultaneously and disabling the main traffic-management system. Within data privacy, the issues examined were gaining access to data on personal travel patterns and gaining access to personal information not related to travel.

According to the report, Cyber-security Concerns with Self-Driving and Conventional Vehicles, researchers found that hacking of autonomous vehicles with controls is of greater concern than hacking of conventional vehicles. However, hacking of vehicles is of concern even for conventional vehicles.

Respondents also said hacking of autonomous vehicles without controls is of greater concern than hacking of autonomous vehicles with controls. They also expressed more concern about hacking to gain control of vehicles or the main traffic management system than hacking of vehicles to get access to personal information.

Related Content

  • Congestion pricing - no such thing as a free ride
    October 2, 2018
    The widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles is likely to increase congestion, many experts believe. But Wes Guckert of Traffic Group believes that tolling could provide the answer. While it is still hard to wrap your head around the idea of getting into a vehicle without a driver, the industry is now used to hearing, reading, participating in the advancement of autonomous vehicles (AVs). Those in the industry have heard about Uber delivering a shipment of Budweiser, or the convoy of driverless trucks
  • In-vehicle communication systems offer major safety benefits
    July 17, 2012
    Michael Schagrin and Raymond Resendes provide an update on the US Department of Transportation's vehicle-to-vehicle programme. The US Department of Transportation's (USDOT's) Vehicle-to- Vehicle (V2V) programme, which is concerned with wireless inter-vehicle communications for safety applications such as crash avoidance/mitigation, is a major safety component of the USDOT IntelliDrive cooperative infrastructure programme.
  • Single system simplicity for smarter city transport
    February 23, 2017
    All encompassing, city-wide transport monitoring and control systems are beginning to make their way onto the market, as Colin Sowman hears. The futuristic vision of cities where everything is connected and operated with maximum efficiency by a gigantic computer remains a distant prospect but related sectors and services are beginning to coalesce: transport monitoring and control for instance.
  • Suppliers reshape to provide tolling and traffic management expertise
    August 2, 2013
    Jason Barnes examines the trend towards single source supply of complete tolling and traffic management solutions with some senior tolling industry figures. Only a few years back, the major tolling system suppliers were aggressively positioning themselves as one-stop shops for tolling solutions and operations. No sooner has that little flurry of innovation settled than another trend has emerged – tolling companies wanting to become major ITS suppliers as well. Various tolling company seniors have in recent