Can Hackers Remotely Steal Your Cars?

Cars have evolved from being just a mode of transportation. Today, car makers are fast adopting a modern approach to automotive design and functionality where software plays the primary role in managing operations, adding features, and enabling new functionalities.

The approach, called ‘ software-defined vehicle (SDV)’, uses a centralised computer architecture instead of numerous distributed electronic control units (ECU), which means much of the computation happens on the cloud.

The marketing term is literally 'cellphone on wheels’. However, this brings a new challenge – cybersecurity. “In many markets, we have seen car thefts happening by virtue of people being able to get access to the car by hacking into the network and taking over the car. You don’t need the key,” Shaju S, VP & head of transportation, Tata Elxsi, told AIM

According to a report by Frost and Sullivan, connected vehicles will comprise nearly 86% of the global automotive market by 2025. As a result, the global automotive cybersecurity market is also growing significantly.

Another report states that the market will grow at 16.5% CAGR to reach $4 billion by 2025.

What’s the Worst-Case Scenario?

As companies make more electric vehicles (EVs) and integrate electric components into them, the chances of a cyberattack also rise.

“You need to have security systems built in, especially at the software level. Cybersecurity systems will prevent unauthorised access to any system within the car,” Shaju said.

When AIM asked what the worst case scenario here could be, Shaju said everything that you see in a Hollywood movie about cars being hijacked is possible and could come true.

Earlier this year, a group of researchers from Duke University in North Carolina developed a hack called ‘MadRadar’ that can trick self-driving cars into “hallucinating” phantom vehicles or hiding real ones, potentially causing dangerous situations on the road.

While the hack was carried out on a self-driving vehicle in 2022, a group of security researchers found numerous vulnerabilities in vehicles from 16 car makers, including Acura, BMW, Ferrari, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and Toyota.

These flaws allowed them to control car functions, start/stop engines, and access sensitive customer information.

In February, a group of five men stole over a dozen high-end cars in Delhi-NCR by hacking into the software. Similar instances have been reported in other parts of the world over the years.

To counter this, Tata Elxsi provides cybersecurity solutions to OEMs which safeguard vehicles against threats like these, ensuring robust protection of critical systems and data integrity.

Tata Elxsi’s Partnership with National Instruments

Car makers today are also constantly overhauling their approaches across testing, solution development, and service provision. Tata Elxsi and Emerson inaugurated the Tata Elxsi + NI Mobility Innovation Centre (TENMIC) in Bengaluru.

With the new innovation centre, Elxsi and National Instruments (acquired by Emerson in 2023) aims to accelerate the advancements in SDVs, autonomous driving technologies, EV systems and batteries.

TENMIC will help OEMs make the ‘shift left’ by validating performance and functionality through a combination of virtual and physical testing well before production.

Central to this approach are automation, agility, and the transformative impact of data and AI-led methodologies on the product development lifecycle.

For example, TENMIC allows OEMs to test their advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) technologies completely on simulations. This is powered by NI’s hardware and software and Elxsi’s analytics capabilities.

TENMIC combines advanced technologies and systems from NI’s test and measurement business with Tata Elxsi’s deep automotive engineering, data analytics, and digitalisation expertise and solutions.

Generative AI is Helping Build Better Test Systems

Tata Elxsi is utilising generative AI internally to enhance the quality of its deliverables, ranging from resources to testing systems. Generative AI plays a pivotal role in testing by creating and innovating predictive models.

“As we explore ADAS technologies and their implications for customers reaching higher autonomy levels like two, three, or four, generative AI is increasingly getting integrated into the testing phase.

“We’re already leveraging it to develop predictive models that enable faster testing across numerous scenarios,” Drita Roggenbuck, VP & GM, transportation business unit at NI, told AIM.

Besides ADAS, TENMIC also provides a lot of testing solutions to car makers, like comprehensive validation for automotive software and hardware.

“We are also using generative AI to improve the analytics we do, for example. I would say it is still in a proof of concept (PoC) phase, commercial implementation would start probably two-three quarters from now,” Shaju concluded.