Cyber, Intelligence, and Security | Volume 1 | No. 1 | January 2017 121 Pedal to the Metal? The Race to Develop Secure Autonomous Cars Andrew Tabas The advent of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will have profound effects on car ownership, transportation, and security. It is already possible to hack into individual cars through their entertainment and navigation systems. The connecting of AVs to networks will make it possible to hack them on a large scale. Policymakers should act now to implement both technical and legal security mechanisms. Potential solutions include the establishment of a system of certificates, an effort to establish an air gap between different computer networks in the vehicles, and the creation of laws that penalize hackers. Still, manufacturers should not be deterred by the risks of AVs. Instead, they should race ahead in the development of this potentially lifesaving technology. Keywords: autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars, V2V, V2I, intelligent transportation systems, Internet of Things, public key encryption, cybersecurity, hacking, air gap Introduction ｳ*HW WKHPｴ ,Q KLV VKRUW VWRU\ ｳ6DOO\ｴ ,VDDF $VLPRY WHOOV WKH VWRU\ RI ｳSRVLWURQLFｴ FDUV WKDW GULYH WKHPVHOYHV 7KH FDUV DOVR FRPPXQLFDWH LQ DQ DXWRQRPRXV YHKLFOH QHWZRUN GHIHQG WKHPVHOYHV D UHVSRQVH WR VHFXULW\ FRQFHUQV DQG NLOO GHPRQVWUDWLQJ WKH HWKLFDO SUREOHPV DW SOD\ ZLWK DXWRQRPRXV Andrew Tabas (Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service, Georgetown University, 2016) is a research analyst at the Cadmus Group.