Avast Blog_Security News: Get ready for the next great user interface: Connected cars

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Big privacy and safety questions loom as cars and trucks begin accelerating the collection of even richer personal data than is now harvested by our smartphones

Remember when a cell phone was primarily for making phone calls? Now smartphones have become our go-to digital interface.

Remember when the family station wagon was mainly for getting from Point A to Point B? You may have noticed that connectivity has begun to saturate the cars we so love to drive, putting them on a fast track to become our next great user interface.

Irresistible forces are in motion that will soon transform cars and trucks into eco-friendly transportation pods controlled by software. These smart vehicles will be integrated into a wider software-driven infrastructure of smart buildings, smart transportation systems, and cloud-delivered consumer services.

The anticipated benefits are manifold. But there are major concerns that must be addressed as well, more so with respect to privacy than safety. Here are a few things you should know about the coming of connected cars.

Rising connectivity

Our cars are destined to join our smartphones in tracking and analyzing our behaviors during every waking moment.

Driving today requires a human’s full attention. But cars are rising steadily up the Society of Automotive Engineers’ zero to five scale of vehicle autonomy. Most cars today are at level 0: equipped with automated systems that can send warnings, and temporarily intervene, but are not able to control the vehicle on their own.

But more and more models are being delivered at level 2, where automated systems can take over steering, accelerating and braking, though the driver must stay ready to intervene. And a few models have achieved level 3, at which the driver can divert his or her attention for brief periods, say to watch a video or answer email.

Level 4 widens the circumstances under which self-driving can take place, and at level 5, human driving is completely eliminated. Wide use of level 5 vehicles will require the kicking into high gear of next-gen business networks that make intensive use of IoT and AI.

“The industry is trying to move toward a vehicle-to-everything (V2X) connected model where cars will not only talk to each other, but also to the infrastructure around them and possibly more,” Stacy Janes told me. Janes is chief security architect at Irdeto, an Amsterdam-based supplier of antipiracy software that’s working on connected car security.

Anticipated benefits

Going forward, connected cars will increasingly make life-or-death decisions about physical objects and other digital systems they can sense nearby, while at the same time collecting and storing troves of monetizable operational and personal data.

Captains of industry and political leaders are all eager to reap the benefits of autonomous transportation: more efficient travel, less pollution, improved vehicle utilization, and a leadership role for the United States in autonomous vehicle innovation, according to a 2017 report from The Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank.

And think about all the texting, emailing, banking, shopping, or binge-watching you can squeeze in — once you don’t have to rivet your attention on driving defensively.

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