Category: Blog

26 March, 2021 . 8 mins read

Top 7 Smart Cities and Their ITS Achievements

The Challenge of Megacities

As the fourth industrial revolution continues to transform the global economy, people around the world are flocking to cities in the seemingly never-ending urbanization trend. Apart from global cities like New York and London, nearly every regional population center around the world is experiencing population growth, forcing these cities to expand into nearby suburbs by building new roads and infrastructure.

Consequently, the problem with expanding outwards is that these cities become so large, forcing their residents to travel long distances on a daily basis – not just for work, but also for social gatherings, shopping, and recreational activities. This puts significant strain on roads and highways, leading to constant traffic jams and frequent accidents.

Many suggest public transportation as a solution. Indeed, well-operated subway and buses may be convenient for inner-city travel, but for a megacity with a dozen satellite cities surrounding the core, building public transportation becomes expensive, and usually takes decades of construction. Moreover, let us be honest, a 20-station subway ride might not necessarily be a better alternative to being stuck in traffic.

Hence, we should not blindly blame the municipal governments for not building more subway lines, expecting public transportation to solve all problems. Even though public transportation is great for short to medium distance travel, but for long-distance trips, we must address the problem at its roots: to improve roads and infrastructure.

Smart City and the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS)

Improving roads does not simply mean adding additional lanes, because wide roads and highways can lead to excessive lane hopping and cause even more delays. Thus, instead of making wider roads, a better alternative would be to make smarter roads. 

Building smarter roads has become a crucial project for smart cities. That is, to build roads and transportation infrastructure that collect data generated from daily traffic, then analyze and learn these data to improve the usability, effectiveness, and accessibility of the roads and infrastructure. These smart roads and infrastructure are collectively called the intelligent transportation system (ITS).

In this article, we will look at a list of smart cities in the world and their special contributions and achievements in advancing the ITS.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong has long been a global financial center and transportation hub that sits at the center of the Asia-Pacific region. Despite having more than 7 million residents, the city had very limited land for suburban expansion due to its administrative and physical geography. This forced the city to build a sophisticated network of roads and highways, with roughly 800,000 registered vehicles sharing over 2,000 km of road – nearly 400 vehicles for every kilometer. Due to such pressure, Hong Kong became one of the first cities in the world to adopt an Area Traffic Control (ATC) system. The system uses CCTVs installed at signalized intersections to provide real-time information on traffic flow. The traffic controllers then analyze such information to gain insights on where accidents frequently occur and adjust traffic signal lengths optimized for both motorists and pedestrians.

Sydney

Like Hong Kong’s ATC system, the capital of the Australian state of New South Wales has gone a step further by developing an Adaptive Traffic Signal Control (ATSC) system that is capable of adapting to the real-time situation. Patented and owned by New South Wales, the system is hence named the Sydney Coordinate Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS). SCATS adjusts the timings of green and red signals based on the real-time traffic flow of each direction. Hence instead of having fixed time durations for each signal, an optimized duration is calculated in real-time using the data collected by CCTVs as well as sensors built into the ground. Apart from New South Wales, SCATS is currently installed in almost all signalized traffic intersections in Australia, as well as over 55,000 intersections across 187 cities and 28 countries worldwide.

Singapore

As a city-state, Singapore’s issue is very similar to that of Hong Kong. With over 5.7 million residents living in a land area of only two-thirds of that of Hong Kong, the city’s government had no choice but to discourage personal vehicle ownership by enforcing a 100% import tariff and additional registration fees that bring the cost up to three to four times the market value. Nevertheless, Singapore has also adopted a sophisticated ITS in more recent years. To manage the ITS, the city introduced i-Transport, an integrated platform that stores and manages raw data collected from the traffic sensors. Its major role is to analyze these data into useful information to help road development and planning. The i-Transport platform has enabled a variety of useful services, including the Parking Guidance System (PGS). The PGS collects real-time information on leftover parking spots in nearby parking lots and displays this information on large digital information panels on the roadside so that drivers can easily find the nearest parking lot without having to circle around downtown streets looking for available parking space. As Singapore’s ITS continues to make its roads smarter, hopefully, the government will be able to slowly relieve the astronomical costs of purchasing cars.

Las Vegas

Cities in North America face a very different problem than that of Hong Kong and Singapore. Since most cities have plenty of space surrounding them for urban expansion, a North American “city” is usually a large metropolitan area that interconnects dozens of cities and towns. To put it in perspective, despite San Francisco proper being home to only 900,000 residents, nearly 5 million people live in its metropolitan area. Since these cities are bigger, their local streets tend to be less crowded. However, the highways that go through them face constant congestion, especially when a highway acts as both the inner-city highway and the interstate highway, like the Ontario 401 – the busiest highway on the continent. The biggest problem for American highways is that they have too many lanes. Las Vegas has an interesting solution to organize traffic on these highways. Its Active Traffic Management (ATM) system consists of large, high-resolution digital panels on top of the highways. The system uses cameras and sensors to collect big data and analyze them so that they can accurately estimate traffic conditions and travel times for each individual lane. It then displays the average speed ahead for each individual lane, as well as putting an “X” above lanes that are closed ahead due to traffic accidents or constructions. The ATM system helps drivers make informed decisions on which lanes to use and when to switch lanes without having to blindly change lanes back and forth.

New York

With over 20 million residents in its metropolitan area, New York City is by far the most populous urban center of the United States. This has pushed the Big Apple to develop an ITS that focuses on smoothing traffic. Recently, New York City signed a contract with Transition Networks, an IoT manufacturer, to add internet connections to the cameras and sensors of over 10,000 signalized traffic intersections across the city. These connected devices allow for centralized management and remote maintenance, reducing the need for any physical workers to be present on site.

Barcelona

Barcelona has been a leader of smart city transformation in Europe. Over the past decade, all the streetlights in Barcelona have been replaced by an LED-based lighting system. The system can automatically adjust its brightness and angle based on environmental information like temperature, humidity, pollution, and visibility. It is also capable of detecting noise so that the lamps can switch on and off depending on the existence of pedestrians. Not only does this new lighting system save energy, but it also reduces the heat generated by conventional lamps.

Jeju

This island city of South Korea is one of the world’s pioneers in developing a Cooperative Intelligent Transport System (C-ITS). Different from ITS, which uses collected data to provide useful information, a C-ITS involves real-time exchange of information between roads, infrastructure, and the vehicles themselves, making it a crucial part of the autonomous driving experience. The city has also introduced a number of C-ITS devices that can be installed into cars, providing drivers with real-time information on the roads ahead, warning drivers on emergency vehicles passing by, road closure, and even slippery road conditions (based on data collected from other vehicles). To learn more about C-ITS, read: 7 Major Functions of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems.

AutoCrypt V2X, Securing Data for C-ITS

As advancements in automotive technology bring us connected cars and autonomous driving.  smart cities are taking a step further to develop C-ITS with the goal of establishing a safe and seamless experience of connectivity on the road. Yet, autonomous driving has also brought us a new challenge; since data involved in C-ITS directly impact vehicle behaviour, they must be safely guarded against manipulation and theft.

This is one of the main reasons AUTOCRYPT was founded. As a built-in software development kit, AutoCrypt V2X uses sophisticated encryption and authentication technologies to ensure that all V2X-enabled units are verified and all data in transmission are safely protected. 

To keep informed with the latest news on mobility tech and automotive cybersecurity, subscribe to AUTOCRYPT’s monthly newsletter.

2 March, 2021 . 8 mins read

Reusing and Recycling Electric Vehicle Batteries: A Bright Future

Are Electric Vehicles Environmentally Sustainable?

Have you ever heard of anyone talking about how smartphones are environmentally friendly because they do not generate emissions? Probably not. Instead, you would more likely hear criticisms on the build-up of electronic wastes. Then why do we think electric vehicles (EVs) are green?

EVs are only green because they are relatively greener when compared to conventional gasoline-powered vehicles. Yet, when speaking absolute terms, there is still plenty of room for improvement because environmental friendliness does not equal to environmental sustainability. Even though EVs do not generate emissions during usage, pollution could still potentially occur during two other stages: the power generation stage and the battery disposal stage. Whether EVs are truly environmentally sustainable heavily depends on these two factors.

Pollution at the power generation stage has long been a widely discussed topic for decades. Yet, this is not something to criticize the EV for because it is not a problem within the EV itself. Moreover, there is a clear solution for it; we all know countries around the world are working hard towards increasing their share of renewable energy consumption. Thereby, pollution at the power generation stage will gradually decrease in the long run, eventually reaching environmental sustainability.

On the other hand, most skepticism and resistance of the EV stem from the potential pollution at the battery disposal stage. This is because it is a new problem created by the EV itself. Even though in fact we are eliminating a larger problem by creating a smaller problem, our minds are wired in a way in which losses loom larger than gains, as Kahneman and Tversky’s Prospect Theory suggests. Therefore, to completely persuade all people to adopt EVs, we must eliminate this potential electric vehicle batteries’ disposal problem first.

What Does an EV Battery Look Like?

Two types of batteries are commonly found in EVs. First, there is the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, which is by far the most used battery in EVs today thanks to their low manufacturing cost and ability to retain power. The second type is the nickel-metal hydride battery, which has the advantage of a longer lifecycle. However, they are almost solely used in hybrid vehicles because of their high self-discharge rate – a problem critical to battery electric vehicles (BEV) but not so much for hybrids. (In a previous infographic, we broke down four types of EVs and discussed their pros and cons. For a recap on that, refer to: The Different Types of Electric Vehicles.)

Lithium-ion batteries are the same type of battery used in consumer electronics like smartphones. While a smartphone battery contains a single cell, a EV battery pack consists of thousands of such cells. Due to such scale, EV batteries last at least eight to ten years, or 160,000 kilometers before their performance start to drop. This is a significantly longer lifecycle than smartphone batteries, which only last two to three years. However, the scale of the battery packs also creates a challenge in disposal.

How Can Electric Vehicle Batteries be Treated at Their End of Life?

The global production capacity for lithium-ion batteries today is ten times that of ten years ago, partially due to the increased demand for smartphones, but largely due to the demand forecast for EVs. At the same time, the first generation of BEVs and hybrids are now reaching their end of life, meaning that we are now facing the beginning of a massive wave of retired batteries waiting to be treated. As the ticking time bomb starts to run out of time, a lot of controversies started arising on whether EVs are truly an environmentally sustainable means of transportation.

This is indeed a problem, but not an unsolvable problem. Environmental engineers have been working on a wide range of possible solutions to treat retired batteries. It is only a matter of time before the industry adopts these solutions.

Most energy experts suggest a two-step solution, that is to reuse the batteries to their fullest, and recycle as many of the components as possible. Let us take a deeper look at how these can be done.

First, Reuse

A battery is only completely dead when it can no longer be reused to power anything. For instance, after a set of alkaline batteries get retired from powering an RC car, they can still be used to power TV remote controls for another six months. The same idea goes for electric vehicle batteries. Engineers suggest using retired EV batteries for less demanding purposes, such as storing energy to power houses and buildings. This is especially considering that EVs have very high requirements for batteries, such that a 20% drop in battery capacity would end up needing replacement. Hence, after a battery pack becomes no longer fit to power a car, it would most likely be still perfectly fine for less demanding tasks. It is estimated that a retired EV battery pack has enough collect-discharge capacity to power a solar-powered house for another seven to ten years.

Many automotive manufacturers are quickly stepping into the game to capture this blue-ocean market. Toyota has signed a contract with 7-Eleven in Japan to install retired electric vehicle batteries from their cars in 7-Eleven convenience stores. These batteries would be used to store energy collected from solar panels and use them to power the appliances in the stores. GM, BMW, and BYD are also looking for ways to reuse their batteries to power homes, stores, and car charging stations.

Then, Recycle

Of course, after reusage, batteries will eventually reach a point where they are no longer functional for any task. This is when they finally need to be recycled.

The recycling process for lithium-ion batteries is called hydrometallurgy. The most common method of hydrometallurgy used today is called leaching, which requires the use of strong acid to dissolve the battery into a liquid metallic solution, then separate the solution to recover the raw materials. This process is not easy because it requires the recycler to first remove the plastic coating on the batteries and completely drain the power out of them first. Since lithium-ion batteries do not have standardized sizes, it is very expensive for third-party recyclers to perform all these tasks. As a result, only 10% of lithium-ion batteries today – mostly coming from electronic devices – are recycled. Even among those 10% recycled, only about half of the components are recovered as raw materials, with the other half being dumped.

Do not be discouraged by such a low figure, because it is not a result of technical challenges, but instead due to a lack of readiness. Hence, as the industry starts to take appropriate measures to adapt to these changes, the future is very promising. With standardized battery sizes, standardized packaging, and dedicated recycling facilities, the recycling cost can be remarkably reduced. Moreover, if automakers start to recycle their own batteries, it is totally possible to reach a recycling rate above 90%.

To put it in perspective, the recycling rate of lead-acid batteries found in gasoline-powered vehicles is 99.2%, in which 99% of the lead is recycled. Alkaline batteries also have a recycling rate above 90% thanks to their standardized sizes and components. Therefore, it is only a matter of time until EV batteries match these figures.

Many news startups have been created to compete in this aftermarket. Automotive manufacturers around the world are also starting to take the responsibility of battery recycling. For example, Volkswagen Group Components, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, has been created to fully dedicate its work into battery recycling, with its goal of returning 97% of the components inside a battery back into the manufacturing process. The Chinese government even went a step further by making a law that requires car manufacturers to take full responsibility in recycling their batteries.

In the end, as the demand for batteries continues to rise, the recycling industry is expected to catch on quickly within the next few years. Energy researchers are expecting that by 2025, about 75% of all electric vehicle batteries will be reused for different purposes, then broken down and recycled to use as raw materials again in the manufacturing process.

A Bright Future for the EV Industry

Even though EVs might not be completely environmentally sustainable yet, the long-term prospect is promising. As the battery reuse and recycling industry catches up, EVs will soon become a critical part of the renewable energy supply chain. To learn more about the EV’s role in the power grid, read: How Plug&Charge Might Make EV Charging a Lifesaver.

To keep informed with the latest news on mobility tech and automotive cybersecurity, subscribe to AUTOCRYPT’s monthly newsletter.

22 February, 2021 . 5 mins read

Top 6 Benefits of a Fleet Management System

What is Fleet Management?

Purchasing a car is easy, but owning one requires a lot of effort. What are some of the basic responsibilities that comes with owning a car? First there are the legal obligations, the owner must pay for license plate registration and renewal, purchase and renew car insurance on an annual basis, and pay for respective taxes. When it comes to usage, the owner needs to first have a place to store the car, bring the car to the service center for periodic inspections and maintenance, change tires and install winter tires as needed, wash the car occasionally, and lastly, fill up the car with fuel or electricity on a weekly, if not daily basis. Now imagine being the owner of a fleet of commercial vehicles. The work required to maintain these vehicles become extremely complex because the responsibilities are likely split between multiple individuals, adding to the complication that the primary driver of each vehicle tend to change over time. This makes a fleet management system necessary for all commercial fleet operators.

As the name suggests, fleet management is the practice of managing a fleet of commercial vehicles, such as cars, trucks, ships, and even delivery robots. It is commonly used by mobility providers such as public transportation companies, carsharing service providers, and delivery firms to ensure that their vehicles are used safely, efficiently, and well-maintained.

In this article, we will introduce six major benefits of using a fleet management system.

What Are the Benefits of a Fleet Management System?

1. Managing Administrative Work

A fleet management system keeps a record of all data regarding the vehicles. This includes every vehicle’s purchasing, financing, and leasing information, registration information, and insurance information. Since oftentimes the vehicles are purchased under different terms and conditions, it can be extremely difficult to keep track of these data and follow these conditions. This often leads to fines, penalties, and expenses that could have been totally avoidable. Using a fleet management system helps the owner manage these administrative works easily without missing any deadlines.

2. Managing Vehicle Maintenance

The biggest challenge of owning and operating a fleet is keeping all the vehicles properly maintained. Since vehicles are one of the most valuable assets for mobility providers, periodic inspections and maintenance help prolong their service life and significantly reduce costs in the long run. A fleet management system allows the fleet manager to track the current condition and maintenance history of every vehicle. Oftentimes, customized notifications can be selected so that the fleet manager can receive warnings on any vehicle issues in real-time. Without a fleet management system, it becomes very challenging and costly to detect and fix problems immediately and keeping vehicles maintained on schedule.

3. Managing Fuel Consumption

Apart from labour and maintenance costs, fuel expense is a major operating expense for mobility providers. Saving a few dollars per day on a vehicle does not seem like a lot, but the aggregate savings of a fleet of vehicles on an annual basis can make a remarkable difference on the financial standings of a company. A fleet management system can help maximize fuel economy by enabling the fleet manager to not only track each vehicle’s real-time mileage and fuel expenses, but also to analyze each driver’s behaviour to identify any wasteful usage patterns, such as excessive acceleration and prolonged idling.

4. Managing EV Range and Charging

For mobility providers that use autonomous and electric vehicles as part of their fleet, tracking their range and having them charged on time becomes a crucial task, because the last thing you want is to have the car run out of power before reaching the passenger’s destination. A fleet management system can make this process seamless and automated, so that vehicles can be dispatched and allocated appropriately.

5. Managing Driver Performance and Safety

It is very hard for mobility providers to establish consistent service quality because it almost entirely depends on the individual driver. A fleet management system can keep track of every vehicle’s activity in real-time, which is a clear reflection of the driver’s driving habit and behaviour. A fleet manager can use the system to set up customized reporting on all kinds of inappropriate behaviours – for instance – driving over 20km/h above the speed limit, sudden acceleration and braking, and prolonged idling during operation hours. This is especially useful for taxi companies, as the drivers could exhibit reckless driving behaviours to beat the clock and compete for business. Hence, using a fleet management system not only helps improve service quality, but also greatly reduces the possibility of road accidents.

6. Service Optimization

The road is a dynamic place. Many external factors can affect the service of a mobility provider, including traffic jams, weather conditions, accidents, constructions, and road closure. A fleet management system can help the mobility provider gain real-time insights on where their vehicles and potential customers are. The fleet manager can then dispatch and direct vehicles to areas where demands are high. The system also improves route planning to minimize travel time. To make this process more automated, an end-user interface is oftentimes accompanied by a fleet management system so that the customers can reserve for services directly on their smartphones.

AutoCrypt FMS, Fleet Management Utilizing Smart Mobility Infrastructure

AutoCrypt FMS is a fleet management system that offers customized services for mobility providers to monitor and manage all their resources in a secured and reliable way. By establishing secured communication with encryption and authentication technologies, AutoCrypt FMS ensures the accuracy and privacy of all data collected and stored in the process. By utilizing big data from other V2X-enabled entities, it offers some of the most advanced benefits of a fleet management system, along with highly comprehensive and secure insights. Click here to learn more about AutoCrypt FMS.

To keep informed with the latest news on mobility tech and automotive cybersecurity, subscribe to AUTOCRYPT’s monthly newsletter.

5 February, 2021 . 6 mins read

7 Major Functions of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems

Autonomous Driving: The Bigger Picture

What comes to mind first when you think of autonomous driving? Most likely we would think about self-driving cars with adaptive cruising technology like Tesla Autopilot. Indeed, adaptive cruising supported by sensors and cameras is a core component of autonomous driving. Yet this is only a small part of the bigger picture. In fact, no matter how advanced and sophisticated adaptive cruising technology becomes, there will always be room for error to occur in situations like extreme weather events and unexpected road conditions.

Therefore, the vehicle alone is not sufficient to ensure a perfectly safe and seamless autonomous driving experience. To complete the full picture, cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS) is needed to ensure that every vehicle on the road knows exactly what they need to know at the right time and the right place.

Intelligent Transportation Systems

Before looking at C-ITS, let us first look at what intelligent transport systems (ITS) are. These are the systems that collect and analyze data to improve the driving experience as well as to regulate traffic. Examples of ITS include the modern GPS navigation system which provides drivers with real-time information on traffic levels, estimated travel times, traffic accidents, road constructions, and even locations of traffic enforcement cameras. Another interesting ITS is the left-turn lane sensor, which are sensors embedded on the grounds of the left-turn lane at intersections, so that the left-turn signal would only turn on when needed.

C-ITS are simply more advanced ITS where vehicles and other road entities share their data to “cooperate” with each other on the road. Such cooperation is made possible by V2X (vehicle-to-everything) technology, which allows vehicles to communicate directly with infrastructures (V2I), pedestrians (V2P), and the greater network (V2N).

In a previous blog article, we have discussed in detail on what V2X technology is and how it is applied. To read that article, see: DSRC vs. C-V2X: A Detailed Comparison of the 2 Types of V2X Technologies. Today, we are here to look at seven of the major functionalities and benefits of C-ITS and how they paint the full picture of autonomous driving.

1. Collecting driving data

All kinds of driving data – including location, speed, time, and vehicle condition – are collected from the vehicles’ on-board units. These data (when given consent by the owners) will be stored a data center accessible by transportation regulators and infrastructure developers to help enhance transportation infrastructure and road safety. Sometimes, automakers (OEMs) also collect data of their cars to further improve their models with software updates and hardware improvements.

2. Exchanging real-time information on traffic

As vehicles share their location and speed with each other, a massive transportation network consisting of real-time data is formed. Every vehicle can then utilize the collective information on the current traffic flows and even analyze them to predict future traffic conditions in the next few hours. This allows all vehicles to choose an optimized route for their destination, significantly reducing traffic jams while saving time and money spent in traffic.

3. Exchanging real-time information on road hazards

Traffic data are not enough to guarantee road safety. With C-ITS, vehicles receive data on a wide range of information on road conditions, including road surface temperature, humidity, and buildup of snow and rain from precipitations. Vehicles are also warned of curvy and slopy roads, road breakage, as well as areas where traffic accidents frequently occur. Lastly, information on emergency road maintenance and road construction gets shared with vehicles to make sure that they are well-informed of road hazards and respond safely by reducing speed or detouring.

4. Exchanging real-time information on vehicle hazards

The smart traffic network also collects live information on dangerous vehicles such as trucks and buses, as well as those traveling at abnormally fast or slow speeds. Surrounding vehicles then get notified to stay aware of such hazards. In case accidents occur, vehicles behind will be directed to reduce their speed to prevent secondary accidents, because most traffic-related deaths involve secondary accidents. The locations of emergency vehicles are also shared so that other vehicles on the road can clear out a line ahead of time, allowing them to pass by quickly.

5. Directing traffic at intersections

Even though traffic lights are designed to protect the safety of cars and pedestrians at intersections, there are still conflicting situations where safety fully depends on the driver’s judgment. Take the left turn for example, drivers need to simultaneously pay attention to three different things: 1) the signal ahead, 2) cars traveling down from the opposite direction, and 3) pedestrians on the left-side crosswalk. One misjudgment can lead to danger. With C-ITS, this conflict resolution process gets sorted out automatically, significantly improving safety at intersections.

6. Toll collection

Roadside infrastructure tracks the identities of vehicles entering toll roads. The respective toll fees then get deducted automatically from the financial accounts pre-registered to each vehicle, making the payment process seamless. Since there is no longer the need to slow down at toll stations, highway traffic jams can be partially relieved.

7. Pedestrian protection

The ultimate goal of autonomous driving is to guarantee the safety of both drivers and pedestrians. With C-ITS, vehicles are directed to slow down in both school zones and silver zones. With V2P technology, cars receive data from the pedestrians’ mobile devices so that even when the pedestrian is hidden in sight, the car can still prepare to stop ahead of time. This is especially useful at intersections where pedestrian-related accidents are most common.

The Importance of Data Security for C-ITS

Cooperative intelligent transport systems are supported by all kinds of data from drivers, vehicles, and infrastructures. Even though these data might not necessarily contain personally identifiable information (PII), information on a city’s transportation infrastructure can still be exploited by malicious actors to commit various crimes. Furthermore, the messages in transmission also needs to be protected to prevent manipulations, which could lead to severe physical damages.

AutoCrypt V2X is a software-based security solution that is built into the chipsets embedded in both on-board units and roadside units, helping protect data privacy while ensuring the accuracy of the shared messages. As a major mobility security supplier for OEMs, chipmakers, and infrastructure developers, AUTOCRYPT has been collaborating with the government in a number of C-ITS projects.

To keep informed with the latest news on mobility tech, automotive cybersecurity and cooperative intelligent transport systems, subscribe to AUTOCRYPT’s monthly newsletter.

28 January, 2021 . 6 mins read

Data Privacy on the Road: How to Keep Car Data Safe

Since 2007, policymakers, regulators, NGOs, and businesses from all over the world have gathered on January 28 – Data Privacy Day – to raise awareness on data privacy and to promote the latest practices and technologies used to safeguard privacy in this digital world.

As the world enters the IoT (Internet of Things) age, concerns on data privacy are no longer limited to traditional IT environments. Connected devices like CCTV cameras, AI speakers, and now even cars, all collect and stores data from our daily activities.

As cars become increasingly digitalized and connected, ensuring data privacy becomes a new challenge for the automotive industry. Cars today are computers on wheels. Just as a computer stores data inputted by its user, a car collects data generated from the drivers’ behaviours. A typical car today generates exceedingly large amounts of data from cameras and sensors, electronic control units (ECU), and in-vehicle infotainment systems.

Data from Electronic Control Units

There is no need to explain how cameras, sensors, or infotainment systems generate data, as they work just like any other digital devices. Instead, we will discuss how electronic control units (ECU) generate and store data.

ECUs are embedded minicomputers in a vehicle that control its electrical systems, which then determine the vehicle’s movement. A modern car today contains around 80 of these units. Some of the ECUs include the engine control module (ECM), powertrain control module (PCM), and transmission control module (TCM). These units serve as the car’s computer. In most vehicles, each ECU operates separately on its own. However, some manufacturers such as Tesla are looking for a new approach to combine all ECUs into a central computer.

How do ECUs generate data? Let us look at the engine control module (ECM) as an example. A mixture of air and fuel is needed for an engine to operate. Too much air and fuel will overpower the engine, while too little of this mixture will not be enough to power the car. The ratio of air and fuel is also important. Too much air would make the car slow, while too much fuel would be pollutive.

Traditionally, an analog metering device was used to measure and determine the injection mechanically. However, tighter environmental regulations and rising oil prices meant that relying on analog means was no longer sufficient to reach to high fuel efficiency needed today. This had led to the digitalization of cars. Today, instead of using analog measures, the ECM uses optimization equations stored in its chips to calculate the optimized amount and ratio needed and injects the perfect mixture into the engine.

Since the ECUs are computers that send signals to control the car, these signals can be tracked and stored in the form of data and later used for a variety of purposes, from vehicle maintenance, driving experience optimization, as well as fleet management.

Then, what are some of the types of data generated by cars?

Types of Car Data and Their Uses

1) Driving behaviour
The cameras, radars, and lidar sensors equipped around the vehicles contain information on the vehicle’s speed, acceleration, braking, and steering. Such big data can be collected and used to enhance the driving assistance systems and improve responsiveness in emergency situations. These can also be used by taxi and rental companies to manage their fleet, making sure that drivers operate the vehicles safely. Lastly, insurance companies can use them to calculate highly accurate insurance premiums to better serve its customers.

2) Vehicle condition
The ECUs can provide critical data on a vehicle’s health condition. Information on tire pressure, wheel alignment, engine status, as well as other measures can be used to indicate the vehicle’s health, so that maintenance and repairs can be done immediately, eliminating any underlying safety hazards. Such information can also be collected by OEMs to improve their vehicles’ quality and performance.

3) In-vehicle services
Other data generated from in-vehicle infotainment systems may not be directly related to driving, but do contain sensitive personal information such as contacts, calls, and messages. Data on the usage pattern of mobility services, such as frequently visited locations, parking lots, gas stations, are also collected so that third-party service providers can use them to offer more personalized services and seek for new business models, such as smart parking and pay-as-you-go services.

How Are Car Data Shared with Outside Entities?

Many OEMs would ask consent for the car owner to share the data generated by the cameras, sensors, and ECUs to enable better driving experiences for the future. For example, the BMW Group collects telematics data generated from BMW and Mini vehicles (only under consent), and stores them in its data center to further expands its services.

Cars can also connect to the Internet directly. Many cars today are equipped with a SIM card slot, allowing the owner to subscribe to cellular internet service for in-vehicle infotainment. This allows the vehicle to receive live updates for its navigation system, allows the passengers to stream music with the car, as well as using it as a Wi-Fi hotspot to power other mobile devices on board.

Lastly, car data are a crucial asset for autonomous driving. V2X (vehicle-to-everything) systems not only shares the vehicle’s location, speed, and direction with other vehicles on the road, C-V2X technology will soon allow the onboard units (OBU) to communicate directly with the cellular network. This would lead to an explosion of transportation and mobility data.

How to Keep Car Data Safe?

Due to the sensitivity of car data, safeguarding data privacy comes as a prerequisite for connected cars. This means that drivers can rest assured knowing that their cars are much better at protecting their data than their computers at home. To protect car data from unauthorized access, authentication and encryption technologies are used to ensure that the sender and receiver of car data are properly authenticated, and that the data stored in the servers are safely encrypted. These security technologies are usually embedded in the ECUs and other onboard units such as the infotainment system to not only ensure data privacy, but also to make sure that these data are not altered or manipulated to cause physical harm.

AutoCrypt V2X and AutoCrypt PnC are software-based security solutions that are built into the chipsets during the manufacturing stage, protecting data privacy in the age of connected mobility. Working with chipmakers around the world, AUTOCRYPT is a major mobility security supplier for some of the world’s largest OEMs.

To keep informed with the latest news on mobility tech and automotive cybersecurity, subscribe to AUTOCRYPT’s monthly newsletter.

27 January, 2021 . 6 mins read

The Role of Machine Learning in Strengthening Autonomous Vehicle Security

With Tesla considered one of the best bubble stocks for 2021 (shares soared 743% in 2020 and made Elon Musk the richest person in the world for a few days), the company is at the center of people’s attention as it’s been evolving on a very public stage. While the market indicates an increasing interest in autonomous driving, AAA’s 2019 annual vehicle survey found that 71 percent of Americans are afraid to ride in self-driving vehicles, especially after several high-profile incidents came to light the past few years.

The statistics above suggest that we may still be a few years away from driving fully autonomous cars. For self-driving cars to be fully autonomous, they need to deploy technologies such as RADAR (Radio Detection And Ranging), and LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) as well as algorithms to detect and respond to surroundings.

Can Autonomous Vehicles Be More Dangerous Compared to Traditional Vehicles?

Autonomous vehicles can be much more vulnerable than other devices we use in our daily lives as they utilize a combined deployment of various sensors and vehicle-related technologies. It’s known that even a single vulnerability can allow hackers to exploit the entire vehicle – meaning hackers may not only gain access to the operating system but possibly the entire network as well.

What’s more, autopilot has helped set the standard for numerous autonomous vehicles and gave a taste of what self-driving cars will be like in the near future. However, experts at the Tencent Keen Security Lab demonstrated that they could remotely compromise the Autopilot system on a Tesla vehicle. Even though the bug was promptly fixed after the presentation, this situation sheds some light on the potential for exploitation. As autonomous vehicles rely highly on “connectivity” itself, there’s no doubt that hackers see autonomous vehicles as tempting targets that contain countless amounts of data that can be used to exploit the system, which in theory could end up destroying every single aspect of the vehicle.

That is why in-vehicle security and the complexities involved have been the major focus of any discussion about autonomous vehicles. In-vehicle security isn’t just about protecting and securing the autonomous vehicle itself, but rather about mitigating as many risks as possible through the delivery of a comprehensive and holistic approach to automotive driving security.

How Can Autonomous Vehicles be Secured?

In order to secure the whole autonomous driving process, an important fact needs to be emphasized; these vehicles aren’t like the traditional ones out there. The complexity of autonomous vehicles makes it far more difficult to fully secure the vehicle – though it’s not impossible – and the only way to do that is by prioritizing security.

One possible solution is in-Vehicle Security (IVS) which is the car’s first line of defense that helps protect vehicles from external threats, monitors all relevant communications, and responds to any abnormal activity. As a result, deploying IVS is what’s most important in securing the vehicle. IVS needs a reliable Intrusion Detection System (IDS) that provides the security modules needed to guarantee safe communications between Electrical Control Units (ECUs).

Additionally, with the adoption of new regulations, it’s important to make sure that your provider is prepared to meet the requirements of WP.29 along with other industry standards of deploying a system that secures communication between vehicles, devices, and infrastructures.

This is where machine learning comes in.

How Can Machine Learning Enhance the Security of Autonomous Vehicles?

Machine learning is the process of using, storing, and finding patterns within massive amounts of data, which can eventually be fed into algorithms. It’s basically a process of using the data accumulated by the machine or device that allows computers to develop their own algorithm so that humans won’t have to create challenging algorithms manually.

With all the features and applications of machine learning, it’s easy to understand how our collected data are stored and used via a proper platform which in turn analyzes logs and patterns. In this way, this platform can warn and even mitigate risks occurring within the vehicle.

In other words, once the logs are collected and stored, machine learning technology can start analyzing and detecting these logs to see if there are any abnormalities. As machine learning enhances the detection model, it develops algorithms that can be used to detect malware activities and unusual behaviors of the vehicle. This process enhances the driver assistance technology by classifying the right data and patterns through various sensors attached to the vehicle.

Moreover, thanks to the advances in wireless technologies, a vehicular (ad-hoc) network is being formed among moving vehicles or RSUs (Roadside Units) and other communication devices. This network is considered a proprietary system that is seen differently from average computer networks, making it easier to predict the movements of vehicles. Machine learning can be employed in training algorithms from the very beginning to detect malicious exploits by differentiating normal from acute driving behavior which alerts the driver and prevents an attack.

In order to realize this, NXP is taking the lead in manufacturing microcontrollers with AI and machine learning capabilities that can be plugged into the OBD-II port. This not only observes but also allows the device to capture the vehicles’ data patterns to detect and monitor any abnormalities. Once it’s monitored, the microcontroller basically tries to prevent and alert the driver and becomes the replacement for traditional algorithms employed in vehicles.

Autonomous Driving is Not the Distant Future

It’s important to realize that autonomous vehicles that aren’t prioritizing security will cause far more serious consequences that involve physical harm or could even be abused by rogue nations and terrorists that are looking to cause chaos. Therefore, different security technologies must be considered when designing the security architecture from the very beginning.

Also, machine learning can become an essential tool for OEMs, Tier-1 suppliers, or manufacturers that are looking to secure their autonomous vehicle and driving-related resources. After all, the new transportation system will need a total security solution that covers from intelligent transport system to in-vehicle, charging and connections security.

AUTOCRYPT’s Automotive Cybersecurity Solutions

AUTOCRYPT provides a total vehicle security solution that secures all parts of a vehicle by providing various security modules such as firewalls, authentication systems, to secure the vehicle from end to end.

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