Skip to main content

Japan looking at technology to prevent hacking of self-driving cars

According to the Japan Times, Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is concerned about the possibility that a cyber attack on self-driving car systems might lead to traffic accidents. It has drawn up guidelines in a bid to defend against the hacking of a proposed next-generation driving support system that aims to help accelerate the development of autonomous driving cars. The ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Connect Promotion Consortium, which is made up of automakers and electronics-m
August 24, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
According to the Japan Times, Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry is concerned about the possibility that a cyber attack on self-driving car systems might lead to traffic accidents. It has drawn up guidelines in a bid to defend against the hacking of a proposed next-generation driving support system that aims to help accelerate the development of autonomous driving cars.

The ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) Connect Promotion Consortium, which is made up of automakers and electronics-maker, is developing the system with the government. It plans to establish specifications on the technology to prevent cyber attacks in autumn this year.

The system is aimed at helping ensure safe driving by distributing information on nearby automobiles and pedestrians, traffic signals and data collected through radio communications to moving vehicles and alerting drivers to possible dangers such as blind spots. It is also expected to improve automatic emergency braking technologies to prevent collisions.

The consortium will consider encrypting such information by using special technologies to prevent it from being altered.

Autonomous driving uses such equipment as an on-vehicle camera and sensor that collect information on the surrounding environment, with related technologies being developed by automakers and electronics-makers.

Toyota is said to be considering introducing equipment compatible with the system in a planned fully remodelled version of its Prius hybrid vehicle and other vehicle models.

Related Content

  • Michigan researchers show how easy it is to hack trucks
    August 5, 2016
    Cybersecurity researchers have already shown how easy it is to hack a Jeep Cherokee and take control of its brakes and steering, resulting in a recall for the vulnerability to be corrected. At the Usenix Workshop on Offensive Technologies conference next week, a group of University of Michigan researchers plan to demonstrate how trucks, which have also begun adding similar electronic control system, can be vulnerable to hacking. They plan to show how the openness of the SAE J1939 standard used across
  • Hikvision maximises safety with smart video technology
    September 12, 2022
    Around the world, thousands of people are injured or killed in road traffic accidents every day. To maximise safety for motorists and other road users, cities and highways authorities are implementing smart video solutions that alert emergency teams when an accident occurs in real time – supporting faster responses and potentially saving lives, says Juan Sádaba, ITS business development manager at Hikvision Spain
  • How on-board video systems can increase vehicle & road safety
    January 7, 2022
    Hikvision examines technology which can avert danger in cars, school buses, taxis and trucks
  • Ignoring deadly defects in autonomous cars serves no one, say auto safety advocates
    July 29, 2016
    The US Center for Auto Safety, Consumer Watchdog and former National Highway Traffic Administration (NHTSA) administrator Joan Claybrook have told NHTSA administrator Mark Rosekind that "you inexcusably are rushing full speed ahead" to promote the deployment of self-driving robot car technology instead of developing adequate safety standards "crucial to ensuring imperfect technologies do not kill people by being introduced into vehicles before the technology matures." In a letter to Rosekind in response