For the past couple of years now, Minnesota residents have been hearing quite a bit about the development of self-driving vehicle technology. As technology companies and auto manufacturers alike seem to be in a virtual race to get this technology into play and get vehicles on the road, it is important to remember the primary benefit being touted by this advance: safety.
Helping people be safer on the road by reducing the number of motor vehicle accidents that happen is said to be the biggest gain expected by the introduction of autonomous vehicles on America's roads. This is expected to be able to happen because statistics show that so many crashes are caused by human error or poor human decision making. By putting computers in charge, these errors and wrong choices can be avoided. However, computers come with their own risks and these ironically come in the form of humans as hackers.
Some companies have already found vulnerabilities in their self-driving technology that could leave their vehicles susceptible to being hacked. One even involved a the ability to gain control of a vehicle's brake system while the vehicle was in motion. Clearly this could be a huge safety issue. One foreign company has been actively seeking investment funds to develop what it says is robust security systems and software to guard against these problems.
Minnesota residents who are involved in accidents with vehicles of any kind may find it helpful to learn how to seek compensation by talking with an attorney.
Source: Tech Crunch, "To stop hackers from invading self-driving cars, Karamba Security raises $12 million," Lora Kolodny, May 16, 2017