Thirty-six thousand autonomous vehicles "infiltrated" and commanded by a hacker would be enough to block all forms of mobility on the road in Manhattan. To outline a highly unlikely scenario - the "worst possible" in the words of the researchers - is a group of scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (USA).
Until now, simulations on the safety of autonomous vehicles have focused on the (difficult) relationship with pedestrians . A cyber attack on an autonomous car is complicated, but not impossible, and could be resolved with the car in complete control of a "pirate of the road" acting remotely. The scenario is particularly disturbing if you think about what a "crazy" car could do in a crowded city: a connected pirated car could turn into a moving weapon.
SUDDENLY STOPPED. In this case, the team focused on what would happen if a certain amount of smartcar were hacked simultaneously. An attack involving only 10% of Manhattan's total vehicles would be enough to paralyze wheeled traffic in the city and block emergency services (fire trucks, ambulances). In their simulations, the researchers arrested random vehicles on 2 to 6-lane roads.
In 85% of the cases, the traffic stopped completely. Hacking 13 cars per kilometer per lane would be enough to paralyze the entire city: the traffic jam would spread easily because the various areas of Manhattan are highly connected by road networks. Traffic would not be blocked entirely only in the areas and at times with few vehicles on the road, but even in that case the sliding speed would decrease.
A SYSTEM BUG. For Simon Parkinson , computer scientist and cybersecurity expert at the University of Huddersfield, UK, the study is the first to quantify the extent of a large-scale attack on autonomous vehicles. However, such a situation is very unlikely: it is easier for such a block to occur following the update of a software that has ended badly. Not to mention that, if the goal were to paralyze a city, one would first have to hack the "connected" road signage systems, capable of communicating with vehicles and regulating traffic accordingly.