Increasingly, sophisticated autonomous vehicles (AVs) use computers both for guidance purposes and for the collection and processing of data, including information whose collection and dissemination is controlled by generally applicable (or “legacy”) privacy and data security law.
Continue Reading Adapting the Law to Autonomous Vehicles
On June 29, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) issued an order requiring autonomous vehicle and advance driver assistance systems manufacturers and operators to report serious crashes within a day of learning of them. The order applies specifically to manufacturers and operators of vehicles equipped with SAE Level 2 advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) or SAE Levels 3-5 automated driving systems (ADS).
Continue Reading NHTSA Requires Reporting of Autonomous or Assisted-Driving Vehicle Crashes
Data security is not just hackers in cyberspace. It also exists in the physical world, and some of it relates to pedestrian but necessary security protocols for nuts-and-bolts objects. A recent report of a data leak shows how focusing exclusively on active systems can lead to unexpected and potentially problematic results.
In the story linked above, a manufacturer of connected vehicles replaced a number of its data storage appliances. A white-hat hacker reported that he had purchased four of the replaced units from eBay and found that they still contained the customers’ personal data, including the owners’ home and work locations, all saved wifi passwords, calendar entries from the customers’ phones, call lists and address books from paired phones, and Netflix and other stored session cookies. This incident follows a report from white-hat hackers last year who discovered drivers’ personal information in the electronic systems of salvaged vehicles.
Continue Reading Data Security: What Happens at the End of the Road?