Hacked Driverless Cars Could Cause Collisions And Gridlock In Cities, Say Researchers

When 10-20% of vehicles are hacked, clusters of roads become inaccessible from each other. Even a small scale hack of automated cars could cause collisions and gridlock in Manhattan, hindering emergency services, according to the latest research. Researchers at Georgia Tech and Multiscale Systems Inc. investigated the'cyber-physical' risks of hacked Internet-connected vehicles, and this week will present their results to the 2019 American Physical Society March Meeting in Boston. The rise of connected cars, and the predicted future of automated cars have for some time being worrying regulators. However, until now most of the focus has been on preventing individual accidents, such as when a pedestrian was killed by a self-driving Uber in Arizona in 2018.