Autonomous vehicle security

Over the past two decades, vehicular engineering and design have made significant developments in driving assistance systems. The focus is gradually shifting from partial to full autonomy with the possibility of self-driving cars on the author's roads becoming an absolute reality. This is an important transformation, as vehicular controls start to critically rely on a range of sensing and communication systems. Such dependencies also make vehicular platforms vulnerable to a multitude of cyber security threats, which have the potential to disrupt and damage vehicles alongside endangering driver and passenger safety, with only nascent security controls (derived, in the main, from safety techniques) to prevent or mitigate these dangers. This article critically examines some such threats and reviews the state-of-the-art of controls and countermeasures to counter such threats.