What data does your car gather about you?

Try to remember your actions the last time you were in your car. Did you connect your phone to make and receive calls, or listen to music and news? Did you use the different temperature options or navigation system?

Probably, now that I am asking these questions, you are realizing how much your car might know about you. And by your car, I mean the auto manufacturers and possibly other entities as well. They have information on your interaction with other people, your music taste, regular routes you take, and even health conditions.

Now imagine driving an autonomous vehicle. Yes, it may be convenient not to worry about the actual act of driving. But the price you pay is giving up terabytes of personal data. Autonomous vehicles need more devices that capture information on the inside and outside of the car in order to operate smoothly without a driver.

For example, Tesla has already received criticism about the potential usage of the amount of data it is gathering from the in-vehicle camera monitoring services. These cameras are running even when the autopilot is off, gathering information on driving habits and even the frequent charging places used. This is quite an extensive range of personal information that Tesla collects. Being aware of this fact is only the first step towards addressing the issue.

How can your car be a surveillance tool?

The classic issue with collecting private data circles around the entities that own it and the way they use it. Continuing with the case of Tesla, how the company uses the collected data is still unclear.

On the one hand, the automaker can be using the data to improve the existing tech. But on the other hand, the company may even be sharing it with other interested parties.

All can happen, as long as there is no current federal law that can regulate this type of data usage. The legislative loophole implies that the data can be shared with insurance companies, telecommunication companies, or even the police.

The next time you apply for car insurance, you might get a higher premium because you have driven faster than usual a couple of times, or because your blood pressure was up during the last week. This may sound dystopian, but it is increasingly becoming more realistic and probable.

The surveillance concern has gone beyond the individual level, to the point when it is a matter of national security. The most recent case is with China banning Tesla vehicles from entering its military facilities due to concern about the vehicles’ built-in cameras. Even though Tesla has stated that the data from cameras overseas are not collected by the company, the scrutiny remains at high levels.

What is the ethical concern about the use of AI in the auto industry?

The function of the car has changed dramatically during the last couple of decades. Before it was perceived simply as a transportation means to take people from point A to B. However, with technological progress, the concept of a car has shifted to a set of offered services, where transportation is just one of them. You may think that you have privacy in your car but as we have shown in this article, the privacy line is blurry.

Does it have to be this way, though? Do we have to sacrifice our privacy for the sake of progress or is there a more ethical way to balance both? I think that the key to managing this issue lies in establishing stricter laws on disclosure of data collection and usage. These laws should be strictly enforced and followed by penalties when violated.

After all, information, like any other tool, can be very useful or can become a weapon in the wrong hands. If there is an already existing legislature on confidentiality in traditional business settings, why not raise awareness and push for high standards in information security in the automobile sector? What are your thoughts on this matter? Feel free to initiate a conversation below.

The post Could you car be a tool for surveillance? appeared first on Altered Steel.

Understanding the autonomous driving levels is important in order to be able to fully grasp the evolution of driverless cars and how they will change mobility as we know it. How much control are we giving up at each level? Join me in this post as I explore these questions.

What are the different autonomous driving levels?

As driving gets enhanced by various levels of technology, our cars become less and less dependant on human drivers. Based on the automated features, there are 6 levels of autonomy – from 0 (fully manual) to 5 (fully autonomous). Below is a breakdown:

Level 0

This is a fully manual level. The driver needs to be all eyes and ears and hands-on, in order to drive a vehicle. There might be some warning signals from the car, such as for the fuel level or battery, but it is up to the driver to ignore or to keep going. Usually, classic cars and other older vehicles fall under this category. And although there’re talks of modernizing classic vehicles, most still fully depend on their drivers.

Level 1

Level 1 cars offer some driving assistance, but the driver still needs to be hands-on all the time. The automated features come in the form of adaptive cruise control, which helps maintain a safe distance between vehicles applies breaks when the distance becomes too dangerous. Other features include lane keep assist and parking assistant. Most cars produced within the last 5 years have this level of automation. One example is the 2018 Toyota Corolla, equipped with different sensors to avoid pre-collision or lane deviation.

Level 2

In addition to the previous level features, level 2 cars can also do the steering. However, the driver still needs to be alert when to intervene. Tesla Full Self-Driving Autopilot system is one of the Level 2 vehicle examples. It is important to remember that even though the vehicle can adjust its speed, know when to change lanes, or when to stop, the driver still needs to keep their eyes on the road, to avoid any accidents. Tesla sometimes is treated as a level 3 or even 4 car, but remember that technically, it hasn’t reached that driverless level yet.

Level 3

At this point, the car knows how to monitor the environment, and the driver can relax a bit, maybe even read a book or answer messages on their phone. The “co-driver” will be in charge. This can be considered a conditional autonomy. The vehicle can’t be driver-independent in all circumstances, but only when traffic is sufficiently slow.

When the Japanese government announced in 2019 that it would allow level 3 autonomous cars in the streets, Honda took heed. The automaker promised a level 3 model before this year ends. Even though the pandemic has slowed the development, we are all curious to learn about Japan’s experience with level 3 cars on the road.

Level 4

By this level, your car will already be highly automated. Your intervention will be minimal, limited to certain driving modes, or in difficult situations. Otherwise, you can expect to stay hands-off the steering wheel, eyes-off the road most of the time, and you can even watch a movie meanwhile.

As we move up the levels, it is harder to find car models that fully reflect high autonomy. In this case, one of the best representatives is Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Waymo offers self-driving taxi service in Arizona, and during the last 5 years has been continuously increasing the autonomy features of its fleet. For example, currently, the autonomous taxis can freely drive on the road in Arizona. However, they are not yet prepared to drive in areas with harsh weather or rough road conditions.

Level 5

This is the ultimate level of full autonomy that tech companies and car manufacturers are aiming to achieve. If your car reaches this level, then it will know how to drive at different speeds, choose lanes, and respect traffic signs the same way or even better than you would (ideally, if nothing goes wrong!). A fully autonomous car in all drive modes and conditions is still not legally operating in the US market. However, continuous tests and improvements on existing models are in progress in order to reach level 5 soon.

The path to autonomy is complex, in every aspect of life. In the automotive sector, it is the same. Reaching autonomy presents challenges from the regulatory and safety perspective, which ultimately will require innovative hardware and software solutions.

How do you feel about riding a level 5 car one day? Are you ready to get hands-off and let your car make decisions for you?

The post Understanding the autonomous driving levels appeared first on Altered Steel.

At first glance, the whole question sounds ridiculous. As if you are asking “Will taking away your ability to drive kill the joy of driving?”. Of course, it will!

But let us take a step back since things get a bit more complicated than most of us think. To actually understand the whole issue, we have to answer three questions:

• What does it mean for a car to be autonomous (and will it ever happen)?
• Can autonomous and non-autonomous cars coexist?
• What is the joy of driving worth?

What is an autonomous car?

Honestly, most of us do not even understand what “self-driving” even means. To clear things up, engineers have proposed 5+1 theoretical levels of autonomy. However, the definitions are rather fluid, so take them with a grain of salt.

Level 0 means no autonomy at all, and the drivers have to do everything on their own. You may be surprised, but most cars no longer fall into this category. They are actually Level 1: some driver assistance present. Think of this as adaptive cruise control, sensors for emergency braking, or park assistance, among other features.

Then comes Level 2, which some luxury models have already. They can keep you in your lane, steer in certain situations, and even accelerate if necessary. From there we get to Level 3, where you can take your eyes of the road in certain conditions. At this point, the car has some self-driving capabilities, but you need to be present for navigating more complex situations (e.g. traffic jams, maneuvering). As of now, no cars are truly Level 3, and anything above that still lies in the future.

Think of Level 4 cars as “drivers in training”. They are autonomous, for the most part, but you still have to handle emergencies. Finally, we get to Level 5: full autonomy. At this point, the vehicle does not even need a steering wheel.

Although Elon Musk has said Tesla is close to level 5 autonomy, I remain skeptical. In order for Level 5 cars to actually work, we need to solve more things than just automation. Such vehicles will need fast internet, stable networks, standardized communication, and other crucial details. That leads us to our second question.

Can autonomous and non-autonomous cars coexist?

If both types of vehicles can work together, driving enthusiasts will have nothing to worry about. In other words, we can have our cake and eat it too. Or can we?

Most of the arguments for self-driving cars require us to go to the extreme. That means getting rid of any traditional vehicles. Though that sounds harsh, it is a logical conclusion.

Let’s look at the self-driving vehicles’ case. Autonomous cars will supposedly reduce accidents, alleviate road congestion, minimize traffic overall by improving efficiency, cost you less, and the list goes on. Even if we accept these benefits at a face value, the only way to get them will be… to do away with conventional cars. Why? Because autonomous vehicles rely on near-perfect data sharing and AI reactions.

If you are a fan of driving, this news sounds horrible. Some folks have proposed compromises, but we still do not know if they will work. For instance, we can have “driver” and “driverless” roads. Or we can just vote whether we even want Level 5 everywhere. Though it comes down to one final thing…

What is the joy of driving worth?

According to official data, more than 12 people per 100,000 die in a traffic accident in the US. Many more get severe injuries. If self-driving vehicles can halve that, will it not be worth it? Even a 25% accident reduction translates to millions of lives saved worldwide. Or do we care more about pleasure?

Currently, statistical models show that autonomous cars will reduce deaths by more than 90%. Of course, you may not agree with such estimates, but real-world data will start piling up at some point, and then we will have to face the results. Still, I will be happy to hear the opposing argument. Unfortunately, even enthusiasts agree that autonomous cars will reduce accidents if they take over.

Plus, it looks like most people are not that fond of driving anyway. In fact, folks in Europe are now fighting for car-free zones. Maybe giving up on driving will not be that big of a problem for most of us.

That does not mean driving should cease to exist altogether. Maybe it can be a hobby for special tracks or off-road routes. You can manually do plenty of other automated things for fun nowadays (e.g. woodworking). Why should driving be different?

So, yes – in a sense, autonomous cars will kill the joy of driving. But hopefully, they will make it harder for driving to continue with its actual killing spree. Or maybe they will not? That would be a topic for another day.

The post Will autonomous cars kill the joy of driving? appeared first on Altered Steel.

Imagine a vehicle that knows you as well as you know it – a car that seizes to be just a car, it becomes your partner. Imagine that it knows your driving habits and daily routine and uses that information to suggest routes; it knows your music preferences and is capable of holding a conversation. This is also the path towards fully autonomous cars.

However, as you expose more personal data to your car, you may want to be aware of what happens with that information, and who ultimately owns it.

Join me as I explore this subject and learn how we can protect ourselves from revealing too much.

What information is my car gathering?

The car’s onboard sensors and computerized systems gather information on your driving patterns such as speed, routes, and destinations, and keep track of your climate control preferences. Furthermore, if you connect your phone to your car, then you have automatically shared your contacts, emails, music, messages, browsing history, and sometimes photos and financial information too.

Interestingly, we are aware of the huge amount of personal information that platforms such as Facebook or Google collect and store. Many would agree that their control of our digital lives undermines the very essence of privacy. Thus, we demand accountability from the tech giants, as well as ownership of our private data. Yet, when it comes to the information that auto manufacturers are obtaining from the vehicle infotainment systems, by offering highly connected cars, we still have to work on spreading awareness among car drivers.

What happens to the information collected by my car?

Often times, we think that once we disconnect our phones from our car’s infotainment platform, we automatically erase all the data from it. However, this is wrong! The car computer systems continuously record data – on average, 25 gigabytes every hour. This data is processed and stored in the cloud afterward, becoming a matter of interest for other businesses.

Moreover, as cars are converting into big data centers, automakers have many incentives to further monetize this data. For example, information on your driving patterns helps insurance companies determine your premium. Data on the most frequented streets can be helpful to coffee chains, gas stations, or other stores for their marketing and network expansion strategy. Online purchasing data can further indicate your spending behavior pattern and be of use for fintech companies or other businesses to give you personalized offers.

Who owns the data my smart car collects?

Ideally, this data should be yours, and yours only. After all, it is private information, and you need to be aware of what your car knows about you and how it is used. However, unfortunately, there is no specific federal legislation that regulates car manufacturers on data processing and sharing.

It means that the whole picture on who ultimately gets to use your data, and even monetize it, is still blurry. There are some privacy policies that you sign at the time of the car purchase. However, the language is too technical, and usually, people do not bother to read and understand them fully.

How can I protect my smart car data from unauthorized sharing?

In the absence of a well-defined legal framework, it is up to you to follow a more proactive approach in protecting your data.

• Increasing your awareness is a good first step in making you more cautious about what you share.
• When you connect your phone to your car, try not to have saved passwords on your phone or make any online purchases.
• If you rent a car, avoid connecting your phone to it. However, if you decide otherwise, take some time to delete whatever information you can on the car computer, before returning your rental.
• If you decide to sell your car, take it to an authorized maintenance shop and ask for help permanently deleting your data from the car’s systems.
• When you buy a new car, get as much information as you can on the manufacturer’s data security policy and how to turn off certain data connection features so that you can control what gets stored.

Even though these tips can help you minimize the risk of unauthorized data sharing, they still won’t fix the privacy issue.

Proper fully-developed cybersecurity legislation should be implemented on a federal and state level in order to limit data mining applications within the auto industry and increase transparency.

However, until that time comes, the only thing we can do is grow awareness of our private data usage and try to preserve it as much as we can.

What is your stance on this issue? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

The post What your car knows about you appeared first on Altered Steel.

When you buy something, you own it and, theoretically, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. Yet in practice, things get a lot more complicated.

Currently, a number of organizations are fighting for the so-called electronics right to repair. But did you know it extends way farther than that? It actually started with the automotive industry, and this is what we are going to explore today. Is your car really yours? Surprisingly, it is not a clear-cut answer!

What is the right to repair?

In today’s world, the repairs niche suffers quite a bit. We are more eager to buy something new when the old breaks (or just gets too old) than fix it. That said, you can still opt for repair… usually.

Think of it like this – if your coffee machine breaks out of warranty, you can get it repaired wherever you see fit. You can try it yourself, or have a specialist do it. The manufacturer of the appliance should not have a say in your decision. Or to put it simply – they cannot require you to only use their repair services. However, things often play out differently.

To get technical, a general “right to repair” does not exist to apply wherever you want. Some say it is implied by the nature of ownership. And while this has rarely been an issue in the past, our world is now split on it. Why? Because the products we use are no longer just “a product”. You buy the hardware, but you also need software to use it. Here things get complicated!

Companies say that while you do own the hardware, you only license the software. Want to break your phone? Go ahead. Want to repair it? Well, that involves a lot of software tinkering as well, and that is often proprietary. It does not stop with phones either – all that also applies to cars!

Do you have the right to repair your car?

Vehicles used to be mostly hardware. You could go to any old mechanic and they could do wonders on your ride. They did not have to know programming, microscale electronics, or software diagnostics. For better or worse, this is changing.

Now Elon Musk calls his vehicles “computers on wheels”. Thanks to the EV revolution he sparked, you can apply the same description to conventional cars too. They are filled to the brim with electronics and proprietary software.

So, what happens when your vehicle’s sensors shout out “ISSUE”? You go to an authorized shop, of course! Only they can decipher what that even means, thanks to the closed source software that runs your car. At least, manufacturers want it to be that way.

What you need to know about the automotive repair rights

Because of legislation passed back in 2012, car companies have agreed to provide third parties with their diagnostic tools. That means that in theory, you do have the right to repair your car.

As you would expect, there is still a catch. Official diagnostics are available… for a hefty fee. That leaves smaller shops to rely on aftermarket tools, which may or may not work. Furthermore, your local mechanic will likely not be able to fix software problems.

This raises the question: Which problems are considered software? Here is how we can classify issues after running diagnostics:

• Mechanical – Those would be your regular part failures. Any repair shop should be able to take care of them without too much trouble.
• Electronic – Those have to do with the electrical system of the car, often related to sensors that talk to the software. Here you might run into repair problems if you opt for aftermarket solutions. Though on paper you can fix such issues anywhere, you may still have to rely on OEM parts.
• Software – While some repair shops can probably handle certain software problems, the “official” way of handling them is to go to authorized shops.
• Mixed – Such issues involve a mechanical/electrical and a software system. Here we get into murky waters. This may be the loophole for companies to go around any further legislation.

Where are the limits of the right to repair your vehicle?

Thanks to current laws, you have the right to repair mechanical and possibly electrical issues. But that may also change. If the modern trend continues, cars will become more and more like computers. How long until car manufacturers start labeling themselves as IT companies? Tesla is halfway there already.

The more vehicle repairs get tangled up with software the harder they will become. Manufacturers can complicate the process, label their software as intellectual property, and gatekeep any further repairs.

To make things worse, they can actually make a good legal case. With more complicated systems, driving safety becomes even more important. Sure, a simple battery change may not amount to much, but what if it disrupts some signals, which compromise the safety features of the software? Dress that up in more technical lingo and you have a recipe for denial of any repair rights.

Put all of this together and you can see how companies can start working towards labeling all issues as “mixed”. Meaning they would all require some sort of software calibration. Where does this leave us then?

Do you really own your car?

According to Apple, you own your iPhone, not its operating system. The tech giant is licensing it to you. In simpler terms, you are renting the software. That renders the device virtually useless on its own.

Could we be heading the same way with vehicles? Of course, you own the car, but you have no rights to the software systems that make it move. For all intents and purposes, all your car’s functions have to be rented. And repairing them? Well, that is messing with the intellectual property!

Do you think that is going to happen soon? Or does it sound a bit too far-fetched for you? To be honest, I think the future of mobility does not favor car ownership.

The post Right to Repair: Is your car really yours? appeared first on Altered Steel.

These events are proof that new, much more human topics are gaining our interest quickly. But among science, human rights, and climate change, two more subjects emerge – technology and mental health. Should we be surprised by this combination?

We decided to look at this combination in the automotive industry. The all-time hottest topic – autonomous vehicles, – and the quality that makes us human – our emotions. Looking into these two together, we found something quite peculiar. One of the newest trends in autonomous vehicles is the development of their emotions. “Wait, what?”

Empathetic cars – the real revolution

New companies emerge with the core purpose of helping vehicles to be more aware of human emotions. Some of the names include Affectiva, Guardian Optical, Smart Eye, Seeing Machines, Nuance Automotive, BeyondVerbal, and Sensay. All of them have picked their names quite well, don’t you think? They all point to the human features and the emotional benefits they will be bringing to cars. An entirely new development for the automotive industry.

None of the names sound like the big old automotive producers, do they?  These companies choose to connect to their target audiences … on a rather human level. They are entering a completely new industry which, literally, did not exist a couple of years ago. And now, they face the task of making a rather new concept friendly and appealing to the regular people. It’s a tough challenge.

Teaching our cars emotional awareness

Naturally, artificial intelligence is at the core of these new tech dashboards. It teaches cars to “understand” the context of human behavior in order to respond in a way that supports human life, health, and happiness.

Today, car technology can do so much already. But with the new developments, vehicles will not only be able to send signals when danger arises but also alter and override the driver’s choices. Not only will technologies understand the way we drive, but they will outsmart us.

Some of the basic human conditions that car technologies will detect are the driver’s level of soberness, stress, confusion, distraction, or sleepiness. But wait, this is only the minimum. Moreover, they will know how to pay attention to other people in the car – the actions and emotional conditions, too.

Why do we need “sensitive” cars?

Why do we need to make cars more sensitive? It sounds a little absurd, really. There are people who lack emotional intelligence, and we are making machines more emotional. Because after all, cars are just machines. Just like a computer or a washing machine. All are man-made items that require humans to operate them.

Why do they need to be sensitive? Sensitive to workload, yes. But why would we want to have a machine that is sensitive to human emotions? The primary reason – safety.

Тechnically, all these companies are working on making automotive technologies more protective of us. Or more protective from us. We can say that, too. Because we know that it is often our own fault when something bad happens on the road.

As much as we want to blame technologies for accidents on the roads, in reality, we should be the ones to blame. According to various researches, the driver is at the core of most car-related accidents. Over 90 percent of all motor vehicle crashes happen due to human error.

It turns out we need to have guardians with artificial intellect to protect us from ourselves.

Data shows that drivers get distracted by things that are not directly related to road traffic and conditions. Such would be a nearby animal or a coffee spill in the car. If you are traveling with kids, the chances of distraction get even higher. How often do you look at the car radio when a sad song comes up and you want to change the station? Yes, that’s a potential disaster right there.

Are we OK with emotionally intelligent cars?

Let’s be honest about this. There are too many questions regarding the ethical perspective of the question. How can artificial intelligence make ethical decisions, really?

Researchers and automakers have been conducting studies to determine the basics principles for guiding the ethical decisions of self-driving vehicles. Thankfully, there are some principles people agree on. This study shows that on average, people want to spare human lives over animals, to save more lives over fewer, and to prioritize young over elderly. Somehow, these decisions are in harmony with global moral norms.

Yet, what happens when we look at more specific topics? For example, how does a vehicle treat a person who is jaywalking?

Some people are quite tolerant of this. And there are others who want to punish a jaywalker every time they see one. How does a vehicle decide what to do? If we zoom out a bit from the individual perspective, we will see that there are cultural factors that also play a role in our decisions.

Some cultures are more tolerant and protective of the community, others are more individualistic. Maybe Hofstede Insights should also have a say here. And even then, we see that autonomous vehicles will have a hard time evaluating ambiguous situations. When we consider the cultural differences in our moral understanding, things don’t seem as clear. People express their emotions differently, for various reasons across the world.

Moreover, we should question the reliability of such studies, too. There’s often a disconnect between what people say they feel and what they actually feel. This makes it hard to capture emotions in a trustworthy way and use the data as a reliable source to make decisions.

Back to the Future?

The safety of autonomous vehicles is under question because there isn’t enough data to back it up. Probably that’s how it also was at the start of the automobile era, too. No one had enough information to prove that cars are useful and safe. It took time, quite a bit of marketing, and audacity. Nobody talked about cars being emotional back then. It was quite a rational argument to prove why a car is better than a horse. It’s a machine, it’s all mechanics.

Now it seems like we are trying to make cars a bit like horses. Even though people don’t ride horses for transportation purposes in most parts of the world anymore, they are still a subject of interest for researchers. In fact, studies show that horses can recognize human emotions.

The Independent shares insights from more recent research that these animals can not only pick up on a person’s mood but have a “memory for emotion” that guides their future interactions with an individual.

People in the past did not need research to prove that. From the moment they owned a horse, they started building a relationship with it. Just like relating to any other sort of animal, this process goes through understanding and teaching. And in the end, a person can receive exactly what they want from the horse.

During riding, the horse would be alert, both subject to his rider’s commands, and also aware of his/her state. Whenever a horse sees a threat on the road, it would gallop to the side, even if its master pulled the bridle to go forward, wouldn’t it? A horse has its own emotions and character.

Going forward to conventional vehicles, it seems like the process is somewhat reversed. Once the vehicle is manufactured, it is the driver’s task to understand how it operates and learn how to work with it. A driver cannot really teach the car how to operate independently. He/she just has to learn how to drive it and adapt his/her driving skills based on personal condition, and the weather and traffic outside.

Now, with autonomous vehicles, it feels like we are going back to the two-sided relationship that people had with horses. Each can recognize the emotions of the other. Each can react protectively when the other can’t.

Should we stop nay-saying?

All of this leads to one simple conclusion. Maybe a self-driving car is the upgraded version of a horse? More so than we thought previously. It sounds a little funny and absurd, and it will for quite some time. Yet, this comparison might make us more open to autonomous vehicles.

While before we were asking questions on how an emotional self-driving car operates and how safe it is, now we want to know more about its personality.

Does this new feature give an autonomous vehicle… a soul? Does it make it equal to humans?

Would a person have to find a match when choosing a self-driving vehicle? Will there be a special one that matches one’s emotions and character?

And what would happen when a car gets emotional? Can other cars sense that, too? Is there such a thing as automotive empathy?

There is so much more we want to ask, both auto manufacturers and tech companies who create solutions for autonomous vehicles. But maybe we should just take a breath and do things the old-fashioned way. No neigh-ing, just giving it time.

The post Autonomous cars and human emotions appeared first on Altered Steel.

Why will driverless cars disrupt the future of mobility? Not because of their “driverlessness”, but because of their connectedness. They can share information at lightning-fast speeds all over the world, all at once. This is what makes them so appealing – they can react in real-time to issues happening miles away. No congestion, no slowdowns, perfect efficiency. Well, not without its price.

Where there is internet, there are cyberattacks. But hold on a second… Why should we bother discussing this? Smarter people are definitely all over those risks, are they not? Not to mention self-driving cars are not even here yet anyway. Do you know what is here though? Connected cars. They may not drive themselves yet, but they are speaking to one another. This begs the question: Who is listening?

The underlying issue of connected cars

Do you want to know a great rule of thumb? Always assume that behind every great innovation hides an equally great risk. Social media is a perfect example. We have all been sold the idea of it connecting us, but studies show it may actually be making us less social. And it may also have detrimental effects on our mental health.

There are two sides to every great invention, and connected vehicles are no exception. Do they have benefits? Without a doubt. Software updates on the go, instant crash reports, and a plethora of convenience options. On a statistical level, they make perfect sense. Autonomous vehicles are also paving the way for much-improved connectedness when they hit the market. But may we end up paying a bit too much for that?

No one considered airplanes becoming a weapon for terrorism, yet here we are. The internet that connects us has also allowed people to run underground networks more efficiently. And cars that make mobility better because they talk to one another… Well, is it hard to imagine that human ingenuity can figure out a way to exploit them?

Of course, concerns about cybersecurity have been raised before, but we hardly take them seriously. We simply do not understand them, as we find it difficult to get a grasp of the digital world. How can something not physically present harm us? What can be so dangerous about a hacked car network? Let us see!

What are the cybersecurity risks

When most people hear about cyber vulnerabilities, they imagine data leaks or virus issues. While in today’s day and age these are among the most common digital attacks, they are not the only ones. In fact, the most common by far are DDoS attacks.

With a DDoS issue, the entire car network can be brought down. It works by flooding the bandwidth with pointless queries, thus creating digital congestion. In other words, your car cannot communicate with the network. Right now, this may sound like a minor inconvenience, but imagine such vulnerability with autonomous vehicles. Their whole point is to be able to communicate with one another, and a DDoS attack prevents that.

What is even worse is that any wannabe hacker can initiate such an attack. It is very easy and with the advancement of technology, it gets progressively easier. So much so that the biggest networks in the world cannot prevent it. PayPal, Etsy, Twitter, Reddit, and countless others have all been victims of it.

Okay, you may say that this is an issue of the future. What should we worry about today? Here are just a few notable “hacks”:

• Car theft – There have been cases of car theft through exploiting security holes of various car systems. The scary part? Some thieves have done that through a vulnerability in the entertainment system. Through it, they have managed to gain access to the entire vehicle.
• Vehicle Control Exploits – Car theft is still relatively harmless. Imagine the possibility of losing control over your vehicle as you drive. It gets even worse – it can happen from a distant location, opening a door for a new kind of terrorism. This is a real scenario and is one of the things that security companies are working heavily against.
• Data Leaks – We have to mention those, of course. Since your car is likely to be connected to your phone, certain vulnerabilities can give access to valuable personal information. Your entire driving history can be leaked. Driving habits, frequented locations, and other info can get compromised. Not a small concern, I would say.

Unfortunately, there are many points in the network that can have a vulnerability. Virtually every system that has to communicate with another one can house a potential risk. That means vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, vehicle-to-device, vehicle-to-grid and who knows how many other communication routes.

Right. So far, I have probably done a good job of scaring you. Or at least raising your concern. It would not be fair though if I didn’t look at the counterpoint – that this whole thing is just fearmongering. One may say it is a Luddite attempt to slow down progress. Shall we check that theory out?

Is it simply fearmongering?

Some people have expressed skepticism towards all the remarks against the digital security of connected cars. To be fair, they do raise some interesting points.

Firstly, car thefts happen anyway. Whether a digital vulnerability makes it easier has not been proven. It may be another way of stealing the car, but there is no argument saying that car theft goes on the rise because of it. To put it simply – car thieves do not go up in numbers just because of digital vulnerabilities. Not to mention that those need to be some seriously tech-savvy car thieves.

Secondly, connected vehicles are a niche in the whole Internet of Things space. As the latter develops better security, so will connected cars. Plus, the chances of having your vehicle exploited through a vulnerability are not that high. Certainly not higher than having your identity stolen, for example.

Lastly, security companies are making full use of the current situation. They are developing solutions to help with cybersecurity in connected cars. Those who fear such issues may find a solace there. It is also likely big car companies will develop security teams of their own to deal with those issues.

What is the solution?

As connected cars become more of a thing, fearmongering will definitely come into play (if it has not already). This is the primary way some companies sell their services. Even now digital security companies are selling their services partly via fearmongering.

Interestingly enough though, nothing can protect your digital devices better than good personal privacy habits. I, for example, have not had a malware issue for ages. Yet this is not the case for many members of my family. They are simply not aware of how to properly navigate the digital world. That has them in a constant battle against viruses even though they have all kinds of anti-malware software installed. How do I know? Guess who they call for help!

The situation with connected cars is somewhat similar. It is up to you to learn some proper security habits when it comes down to it. For example, do not leave Bluetooth or Wi-fi connections open. Do not connect every random device to your car either. Using alternative accounts for your car alone may also be a good idea for privacy reasons.

That being said, this may not be that necessary. As connected car tech is finding its way into more vehicles, companies are doing their best to protect it. They have to because it would hurt them otherwise. As flying cars are being developed, imagine the issues if they do not have proper protection.

A few of the things that companies are currently doing include advanced encryption of all the vehicle connections. They also make sure to separate the different systems as much as possible. That way stealing your car through the entertainment system should not be a thing anymore. Additionally, apps are being heavily vetted to be allowed on cars. And finally, they are employing different verification algorithms to ensure maximum protection.

What do you think about connected cars?

I would not blame you if you are not convinced that connected cars are safe enough. Even I approach them with some skepticism, even though I am all about new technology. However, I do not think it is worthwhile to worry over things I cannot really control. If all cars become connected, I would still use them and not think twice about it.

What about you though? Do you still have some reservations about them, or are you looking forward to everything that connected cars are going to bring us?

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