CPS: an efficiency-motivated attack against autonomous vehicular transportation

Abstract

This work describes a new type of efficiency attack that can be used to degrade the performance of automated vehicular transportation systems. Next-generation transportation technologies will leverage increasing use of vehicle automation. Proposed vehicular automation systems include cooperative adaptive cruise control and vehicle platooning strategies which require cooperation and coordination among vehicles. These strategies are intended to optimize through-put and energy usage in future highway systems, but, as we demonstrate, they also introduce new vulnerabilities. In this work we show that a typical platooning system would allow a maliciously controlled vehicle to exert subtle influence on the motion of surrounding vehicles. This effect can be used to increase the energy expenditure of surrounding vehicles by 20% to 300%.