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Earlier this week we had the views of US drivers on whether they would be happy with being ferried around in autonomous vehicles, and the response was less than unanimous. Now, survey data from UK insurance provider Bobatoo shows only a quarter of UK respondents would describe themselves as ‘excited’ about driverless cars.

This survey differs from the study by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI), which focused exclusively on respondents...

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Today’s cars connect to the Internet in ways never before imagined, placing amazing capabilities at the fingertips of drivers. Whether it is infotainment, navigation, safety, diagnostics, performance upgrades or fleet management, connected cars transmit data, update firmware, and deliver the latest in touchscreen, app store and voice-recognition and human sensor technologies.

With this said, connected cars are rapidly gaining market share. According to a report from...

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A whitepaper from Capgemini argues that, in the connected automotive world, the potential attack surface extends across the entire ecosystem, with autonomous driving increasing the surface even further.

The report, entitled 'Cybersecurity for the Connected Vehicle', asserts that information will become increasingly exposed as it is used in and travels to and from vehicles. Connected cars will be able to connect in a variety of ways; the introduction of telematics services and...

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The future of transport is intelligent, connected and increasingly autonomous. But while connectivity looks set to make exciting improvements to the way we travel, experts are warning of risks that need to be addressed to keep the vehicles on our roads safe from cyber threats.

For many years Hollywood has presented us with images of future cities buzzing with autonomous transport. In San Francisco, Google’s driverless cars already navigate the world-famous twists and turns of Lombard...

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A class action lawsuit filed in California has alleged Toyota, Ford and General Motors has failed customers in its duty to ensure its connected vehicles function properly and safely.

The suit, which can be found here, argues the defendants ‘failed to ensure the basic electronic security of their vehicles’. “Anyone can hack into them, take control of the basic functions of the vehicle, and thereby endanger the safety of the...

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A report from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN) argues the need for greater industry collaboration in developing connected and driverless cars.

The report outlines a variety of potential issues and threats covered in this publication before, from personal data theft to fraud and deception, freight and goods theft and automotive...

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The Hella group has released details of a new system called the Intelligent Damage Detection System that is capable of detecting scratches and dents as they happen.

Depending on the specification, anything from two to 12 sensors are positioned through a car’s body panels. A central control panel is able to detect a pressure being applied to the panel and then decide whether it is rain or something far less innocuous like a scratch.

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There is widespread discussion that driverless cars, and more broadly autonomous vehicles, will monumentally change the landscape of the automotive industry, arguably creating the biggest transformation of society’s view of the vehicle in the last 150 years.

Public acceptance of the vehicle began following the ‘Red Flag Act’ of 1865 when, by the 1890s, it became the ‘norm’ to see motor vehicles mingling, albeit uncomfortably, with the horse and...

Federal standards that secure cars and protect drivers’ privacy have taken a step closer to reality, after new legislation was announced at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

Senators Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut want the legislation to direct National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to create these new federal standards.

The concerted push for legislation comes after Markey’s own office

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United States Senator for Massachusetts, Ed Markey, has released a new report criticising the current connected car security measures that many top manufacturers currently employ.

Almost all modern vehicles have a wireless entry point, while some even have multiple WEPs, including Bluetooth, keyless entry, remote start, wi-fi and telematics. All of these are susceptible to vulnerabilities or hacking, according to Markey.

“Drivers have come to rely on these new...

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London has fallen victim to a new wave of tech-savvy criminals that have been breaking into cars through their keyless entry features.

To paint a picture of how commonplace this is, the Metropolitan Police Office reports that more than 6,000 cars and vans across the UK’s capital were stolen without the owners’ keys, which is an average of 17 vehicles each day. These figures represent 42% of all car and van thefts.

Thieves are said to be using a device that can...

A flaw discovered by Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club e.V. (ADAC) in BMW’s ConnectedDrive system has now been solved by the manufacturer.

More than 2.2 million vehicles were said to be affected by the vulnerability to ConnectedDrive, BMW’s in-car operating system. ADAC reported that a mobile was all that was required to access the platform.

By spoofing a phone network ADAC was able to break into ConnectedDrive. From here it was possible to control heating, ventilating, and air conditioning,...

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The number of people living in cities is expected to double by 2050, meaning congestion and pollution will increasingly be a problem for city dwellers. As a result the cities of the future will demand smarter traffic management solutions and more intelligent vehicles.

Experts say that the car industry will develop more in the next decade than it has in the last fifty years due to the rise in connectivity and mobile technology. The industry is gearing itself up for the age of the...

Insurance telematics concerns could simply be sensationalised hyperbole if new research by LexisNexis rings true for the wider population.

The company’s 2014 Usage-Based Insurance (UBI) white paper revealed how consumers’ comfort levels surrounding the sharing of UBI driving data were on a similar level to other internet-related tasks such as online banking and social media.

In fact, both online search data and social media personal rated higher on the study’s concern scale than UBI driving...

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Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation has moved to dismantle copyright legislation that prevents car owners from tinkering with their own vehicle's software programming.

The USA’s Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), a series of copyright laws that aims to protect the rights of both copyright owners and consumers, restricts access to a car’s electronic control unit (ECU) on the grounds of vehicle safety.

A host of requests have been filed with the...

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Nissan has partnered with Microsoft to launch a competition that the two companies hope will find in-car technology’s next big thing.

Aimed at product designers and engineers from various backgrounds, it is hoped that everybody from students to IT professionals will want to submit a technology idea for the the two company’s connected car competition.

Microsoft and Nissan hope to entice entrants with the...