"Laser Hack of Self-Driving Cars Can 'Delete' Pedestrians"

In order to avoid obstacles and drive safely, self-driving cars, like human drivers before them, need to see what is around them. The most advanced autonomous vehicles typically employ LIDAR, a spinning radar-type device that serves as the vehicle's eyes by sending out a laser light and then recording the reflection from objects in the area. LIDAR constantly provides information about the distance to objects, allowing the car to determine what actions are safe. However, a team of researchers from the University of Florida, the University of Michigan, and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, found that carefully timed lasers directed at an approaching LIDAR system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle large enough to completely conceal moving pedestrians and other obstacles. The deleted data leads the cars to perceive that the road is safe, thus endangering anything in the attack's blind spot. According to University of Florida cybersecurity researcher and professor Sara Rampazzi, the team mimicked the LIDAR reflections with their laser to make the sensor discount other reflections coming in from genuine obstacles. The LIDAR still receives genuine data from the obstacle, but the data is automatically discarded because the sensor only sees the researchers' fake reflections. While the technology is simple, the attack is not, as the team demonstrated the attack from up to 10 meters away. The device must be perfectly timed and move with the car to keep the laser pointing in the right direction. This article continues to discuss the demonstrated laser attack capable of blinding autonomous vehicles.  

Cosmos Magazine reports "Laser Hack of Self-Driving Cars Can 'Delete' Pedestrians"