In recent years, the concept of vehicle safety has taken on increasingly broader meanings. From impact resistance and consequent ability to guarantee physical protection to the occupants, to the presence of forms of driving assistance capable of reducing risks on board. Up to cybersecurity, the last, essential frontier.
The hacker attack on some Tesla cars last January is just one of the episodes that brought attention to the phenomenon.
«A new revolution is underway in the automotive sector, driven by increasingly innovative vehicles: connected, electric and self-driving – explains Gianluca Cerio, Technology Project Manager Leader of Teoresi -. The entire hours supply chain must think of the vehicle as a device to be secured, to ensure efficiency of the car and privacy for the user “. If in 2019 connected cars represented 17.4% of the European fleet, it is estimated that in 2025 they will rise to 70%. In Italy, consumers are interested in connected vehicles, in particular in solutions related to autonomous driving, although some fears persist, such as the fear of losing control of the vehicle (40%). And there is no shortage of doubts related to security guarantees: 27% of consumers fear hacker attacks or improper use of sensitive information by companies.
To cope with this new scenario, the car manufacturers on the one hand are implementing cybersecurity processes in all production phases, and on the other are developing systems to monitor vehicles when they will be part of the fleet, also to respond to the entry into force. of the Unece wp.29 homologation standard which obliges manufacturers to comply with the cybersecurity standards set by the United Nations.
State of the art and developments of smart vehicles
To drive autonomously, cars “see” and “hear” through sensors and hardware technologies that allow you to acquire useful data from the surrounding environment. Lidar technology measures the distance from an object by illuminating it with a beam of laser pulses and thus returning high-resolution three-dimensional information about the surrounding environment. The cameras allow you to recognize objects in the vicinity of the car. Added to these are radar and sonar, and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) constantly monitors the position of the car on a preloaded map with a difference of less than one meter. These are the elements underlying the different levels of driving autonomy of vehicles.
Currently, self-driving cars cannot yet circulate, but the fleet of cars with assisted driving functionality or ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance System) is quite numerous. These are vehicles equipped with a safety pack that supports the driver, from the adaptive cruise control, which adjusts the cruising speed according to the vehicle in front, to the advanced anti-collision system with automatic emergency braking. The switch to autonomous driving, which will make the vehicle able to perform most driving actions without human intervention, requires the addition of additional sensors. The evolution of these possibilities will soon give life to cooperative driving systems, with cars connected via the 5G network that communicate with other vehicles and with infrastructures.
In the face of increasing driving safety, connected and communicating cars introduce a number of new risks.
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Cybersecurity e privacy a bordo
For connected and self-driving cars, there are various types of cybersecurity risks. The most critical is that which concerns the attachment to essential elements for driving such as brakes, steering or accelerator; then there are operational risks linked to specific functions such as the navigator, radio or air conditioner. “The infrastructures on board the vehicles – explains Gianluca Cerio – have computational limits and it is not easy to insert high levels of cybersecurity. They do not yet exist, but Security Operation Centers dedicated to smart cars will certainly be introduced: teams that monitor in real time what that happens to connected vehicles, so as to promptly intervene in the event of attacks “.
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No less important is the issue of privacy: today, inside the car there are private data, which detect even sensitive information. “An example – underlines Cerio – above all: the driver’s sleep detection system. The most reliable method is that which rests on a micro camera aimed at the driver’s eyes, detecting if they close and for how long they remain closed . It is very efficient, but creates obvious privacy concerns. Problems that are bound to increase with inter-vehicle communication (v2v): a car will transmit position, direction and other data to other vehicles on the road. For this information to be reliable it must be authenticated and come from a certain sender; this implies the dissemination of a lot of data that undermines the sphere of privacy. The problem is complex. Solutions are being studied through the use of the Blockchain, to have distributed authentication, able to keep the sender anonymous ” .
The question is therefore not only technological, but also normative. Within the year, a regulation of the sector is expected then, Teoresi estimates, it will take two or three years to have an overall vision of the critical issues to be addressed. “Above all – continues Cerio – the situation must always be monitored and the security systems constantly strengthened. The fight between cops and thieves never ends, there is a group that tries to prevent attacks and another always intent on finding leaks in the system”.
A final aspect to take into consideration is that linked to the financial and economic risk that can occur in the event of the theft of the vehicle or in the event of theft of means of payment stored inside the vehicle. “Precisely for this reason, those who produce cars or car components must collaborate with cybersecurity experts – concludes Cerio – also because in the coming years the management of cybersecurity will become an important element among the criteria for choosing a car.” In short, we have gone from evaluating performance and consumption to requesting an Internet connection and the presence of smart accessories. The next strong point will be cybersecurity systems and GDPR compliance.