ICT engineers can ensure safety
Many people are worried about the safety of unmanned vehicles. Technologically, the safety problem can be divided into road safety and network security. The first is easier to solve. Engineers can install more sensitive sensors and faster, more reliable processors to ensure AI detects road emergencies in time and make timely responses.
The second seems a little more difficult, because people tend to use the film Matrix as a reference, fearing the worst could turn into reality. This is understandable, because an AI-driving bus can nev- er be offline. It must be linked to a network so as to get updates on road condition and coordinate with other AI-driven cars and buses through cloud computing. Which means hackers can intrude into its system and control its functions.
Many cases of people hacking into the computers installed in unmanned cars have been reported. On July 24, 2015, Fiat Chrysler had to recall 1.4 million cars from the United States market, because two hackers access to their computer system in one of its cars, controlling its air conditioner, windshield wiper and brake, even its wheels.
But engineers have already managed to strengthen the protection mechanism in such cars. Essentially, AI-driven automobiles use an Internet of Things-type of technology, which links a car or a bus with data transmission. And once the entire security system of IOT is improved, AI-driven automobiles will have much better protection against hackers.
Of course, that problem deserves the greatest attention, because when it comes to a fully AI-operated car, we cannot afford to have even one single flaw lest terrorists use it to cause devastation. That problem must be solved before AI-driven cars can be universally used. And there is enough reason to believe information and communications technology experts can solve the problem, as AI-driven cars’ network security is associated with the security of the internet and IOT as a whole.
Gao Sheng, an associate professor of automation studies at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunication