Attorney General Says Driverless Cars Could Be Used in Assassination Attempts
Self-driving cars like Google’s could be a potential weapon for assassinations and terrorist attacks.
Photo: General Physics Laboratory (GPL) vis Flickr
Driverless car technology is quickly becoming the new big thing in the automotive industry. During auto shows, there are only a few carmakers that don’t mention their future plans for an autonomous car. In truth, it’s hard not to get excited about the potential for vehicles that can drive themselves. Think about how much more we can get done if we didn’t have to pay attention while driving!
But there are also some pretty massive negative aspects of driverless vehicles.
The Attorney General wants to remind the world that we really need to consider the malevolent aspects of having self-driving vehicles—mainly, the fact these vehicles can be used in assassinations and terrorist attacks.
“There is no Internet-connected system where you can build a wall that’s high enough or deep enough to keep a dedicated nation-state adversary or a sophisticated criminal group out of the system,” said John Carlin, US assistant attorney General for national security at a Detroit car conference.
As the interest in autonomous technology continues to grow across the car industry, so does the emphasis of needing superior security to keep the vehicle from acting as a weapon. Recently there was a slight scare when a Jeep Cherokee was hacked to demonstrate the potential for remote takeover. This raised several security concerns over the ability of driver-controlled vehicles to become computer-control vehicles—and caused a recall of 1.5 million vehicles.
As Carlin points out, “If you were able to do something that could affect a large scale of an industry—like 100,000 cars—you could see that being in the arsenal of a nation-state’s took kit as a new form of warfare. We’ve seen rogue nation states try to assassinate those that do not share their beliefs. If they were able to do it remotely through a car, I don’t see why they consider that a safe zone.”
While moving towards driverless vehicles is a giant leap towards the future, it could also be potentially dangerous. So, the real question is this: Do the benefits of driverless technologies outweigh the potential of this same technology become the perfect weapon for malicious people?
News Source: Digital Trends
A born-and-raised Jersey girl, Caitlin Moran has somehow found herself settled in Edinburgh, Scotland. When she’s not spending her days trying to remember which side of the road to drive on, Caitlin enjoys getting down and nerdy with English. She continues to combine her love of writing with her love of cars for The News Wheel, while also learning more about the European car market—including the fact that the Seat brand is pronounced “se-at” not “seat” as you might think. See more articles by Caitlin.