Humanity 'Not Ready' for Robot Cars, but Poised for Car Hackers
Missy Cummings - one of the US Navy’s first-ever female fighter pilots, who’s an engineering professor at Duke University, rained all over the car industry’s robot car parade, at a recent US Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
Professor Cummings - who is director of the Humans and Autonomy Lab at Duke, and who previously managed a $100 million US Navy project to build a robotic helicopter - spoke to Automotive News after the hearing and said of autonomous cars:
“We’re just not ready, and I haven’t seen any test data to suggest we are.”
So take that, useless Google robot car. [TILT HEAD] More on the biggest problem with robot cars here.
Video Report: Will robot cars kill? >>
MODERN CARS: READY TO HACK
Also in the US, the FBI and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has issued a warning that modern cars are increasingly vulnerable to being hacked. The two agencies are jointly:
“Warning the general public and manufacturers to maintain awareness of potential issues and cybersecurity threats related to connected vehicle technologies in modern vehicles.”
That means: Don’t leave backdoors open so malicious arseholes with laptops can connect via Bluetooth and take control of the car while it’s driving, or just unlock it and steal it using - I dunno - an iPad instead of a key. In 2014, Wired magazine reported that hackers (correction: cybersecurity researchers - so: professional hackers) Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek cracked the 2014 Jeep Cherokee, remotely seizing control of brakes, steering and transmission. Sounds like fun … but you probably wouldn’t want your ex-wife doing it.
That lead to a July 2015 recall of 1.4 million Fiat Chrysler vehicles.
MORE REPORTS
The Mitsubishi Outlander is an excellent-value seven-seat family vehicle with plenty of features and capability. It looks modern and tough, but you need to know if it’s going to be good enough compared with other medium SUVs.