Hackers have devised a way to exploit the LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system that is being used in many driverless car prototypes using a handheld laser, according to Popular Science. The laser can be created on a budget of just $60 and allows the hacker to trick the car into thinking there are objects in front of it, allowing them to make it stop, swerve or slow down.
"I can take echoes of a fake car and put them at any location I want," said Jonathan Petit of Security Innovation. "And I can do the same with a pedestrian or a wall."
The low-power laser is used in conjunction with a pulse generator, which could also be substituted with a Raspberry Pi computer board, which records laser pulses reflected by the LiDAR system and then mimics them.
The news comes shortly after a series of car hacks that surfaced earlier this year and affected BMW, GM, Jeep and Tesla, according to The Telegraph.
"Such incidents could demolish public confidence in autonomous vehicles overnight and undo years of costly research and development," said Jan Mohr, co-author of a report by Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum on the obstacles faced by driverless cars.
Doug Dilman, automotive and transportation industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan, believes that the industry must address these problems quickly, according to Tech News World.
"The automotive industry must begin to take a more proactive and holistic cybersecurity approach," he said. "The recently announced SPY Car Act will help kick-start these efforts. Fully securing a vehicle in the next two to three years will be a difficult task, but collaboration with the security community will be pivotal to accomplishing it."
