Laser attack can blind self-driving cars

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are vulnerable to a laser attack that could potentially “blind” them, putting pedestrians at risk.

That’s the alarming conclusion arrived at by a team of researchers from the United States and Japan.

Researchers from the University of Florida, the University of Michigan and the University of Electro-Communications in Chofu, Japan conducted a series of experiments that illustrated how self-driving vehicles fitted with lidar sensors could be at risk.

Lidar – an acronym for Light Detection and Ranging – is a spinning radar-type device that is becoming increasingly common on cars with automated functionality, although it has famously been eschewed by Tesla.

It constantly emits laser lights and then captures reflections to determine the distance to objects, allowing a car to decide how to safely proceed.

But now new research has discovered that targeted lasers shone precisely at the right moment at an approaching Lidar system can create a blind spot in front of the vehicle that is large enough to “hide” moving pedestrians, as well as other potential obstacles. In essence, the sensor is scrambled by the fake reflections.

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