Software upgrades could help resolve the issue.
A collaboration of researchers from the U.S. and Japan has demonstrated that a laser attack could be used to blind autonomous cars and delete pedestrians from their view, endangering those in its path, according to a press release.
Autonomous or self-driving cars rely on a spinning type of radar system called LIDAR that helps the vehicle sense its surroundings. Short for Light Detection and Ranging, the system emits laser lights and then captures its reflections to determine the distances between itself and the obstacles in its path.
Most advanced autonomous cars today rely on this system to steer through obstacles in their path. However, the collaboration of researchers from the University of Florida, the University of Michigan, and the University of Electro-Communications in Japan showed the system can be tricked with a fairly basic laser setup.
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