Evaluating impact of remote-access cyber-attack on lane changes for connected automated vehicles

Connected automated vehicles (CAVs) rely heavily on intelligent algorithms and remote sensors. If the control center or on-board sensors are under cyber-attack due to the security vulnerability of wireless communication, it can cause significant damage to CAVs or passengers. The primary objective of this study is to model cyber-attacked traffic flow and evaluate the impacts of cyber-attack on the traffic system filled with CAVs in a connected environment. Based on the analysis on environmental perception system and possible cyber-attacks on sensors, a novel lane-changing model for CAVs is proposed and multiple traffic scenarios for cyber-attacks are designed. The impact of the proportion of cyber-attacked vehicles and the severity of the cyber-attack on the lane-changing process is then quantitatively analyzed. The evaluation indexes include spatio-temporal evolution of average speed, spatial distribution of selected lane-changing gaps, lane-changing rate distribution, lane-changing preparation search time, efficiency and safety. Finally, the numerical simulation results show that the freeway traffic near an off-ramp is more sensitive to the proportion of cyber-attacked vehicles than to the severity of the cyber-attack. Also, when the traffic system is under cyber-attack, more unsafe back gaps are chosen for lane-changing, especially in the center lane. Therefore, more lane-changing maneuvers are concentrated on approaching the off-ramp, causing severe congestions and potential rear-end collisions. In addition, as the number of cyber-attacked vehicles and the severity of cyber-attacks increase, the road capacity and safety level will rapidly decrease. The results of this study can provide a theoretical basis for accident avoidance and efficiency improvement for the design of CAVs and management of automated highway systems.