Cybersecurity and privacy issues when applying railway technologies to intelligent roadway systems

Abstract

We are seeing a rapid proliferation of in-vehicle and ex-vehicle information and control systems as manufacturers, service providers, government agencies, and others push towards the goal of universal self-driving vehicles. But little attention is being paid to the intelligence requirements of supporting roadways and infrastructures. Locomotive engineers generally control speed but are restricted to only forward and backward direction. Car drivers control both speed and direction, where the only constraint is the roadway. Robotic road vehicles may eventually be replaced by centrally-controlled driverless vehicles running on virtual tracks. Cybersecurity requirements for the latter are very different from the former. Not only must we be concerned about in-vehicle systems being manipulated by hackers; we must also consider the repercussions of takeovers of centrally-controlled systems by those intending to disrupt the entire system. Here, we examine cybersecurity, privacy and safety issues that would arise if the railroad model is adopted for road vehicles and suggest how cybersecurity concerns about such highly-complex control requirements might be addressed.