Best Case: Protective Measures in Place

• Preventive measures: During the development phase of the autonomous vehicle, strict security and safety requirements were taken into account in the hardware and software used - with the aim of preventing or making more difficult any attacks on the highly networked and complex mobility system. While security-by-design aims to ensure the security of IT systems (for example, through encryption), safety-by-design focuses on preventing accidents. In autonomous driving, technical precautions are considered a prerequisite for physical safety. However, since not all attack scenarios can be anticipated during development, drivers must also be able to take appropriate countermeasures in an acute hazardous situation.
• Immediate countermeasures: Thanks to AI-supported anomaly detection, an early warning can be issued in the vehicle and consequences to life and limb can be prevented or made more difficult by implemented, non-rewritable rule sets for the protection of people. Alerted by a warning signal, the driver can manually switch off the autonomous driving mode and switch to a so-called safe state. This enables her to bring the car to a safe stop at a suitable location.
• Consequences: The attack is successfully repelled, the vehicle does not injure anyone.