Driverless transport - automation and computerisation removes the human element

Automated passenger train cabin

Driverless trains, driverless cars and pilotless planes - a future which already has arrived in the present and will expand in the coming decades. No longer the preserve of science fiction or James Bond films, transport modes without direct human involvement are in various stages of deployment across many sectors of the economy.

As noted by McKinsey & Company, various forms of semi autonomous technology already exist in cars such as adaptive cruise control, automatic parallel parking and collision warnings to name a few. Systems which cars use externally  include radar, cameras and lasers scanners which take the driver's role of watching the road and responding. Internal car systems collect information about passengers and the environment. Autonomous or self-driving cars have the potential to revolutionise transportation and commensurately reduce the amount of traffic on the road. A self-driving car could, for example, drop the main user at work and then continue on to provide a trip for other members of the family rather than sit idly in a parking space for 20 hours a day. Research and modelling by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has estimated that every passenger could be conveyed to their destination on time but with up to 80 per cent less cars. The reduction of cars on the roads in such numbers would have a corresponding positive impact on environment, roads, traffic, energy usage and land use for parking.

 Crewless Little Bird H-6U Helicopter (Boeing)

An obvious question which arises is the issue of digital security as this technology can be vulnerable to hacking or to computer viruses. Improvements to digital security are under development with one of the most successful tests having been completed by the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Using an uncrewed Boeing Little Bird helicopter as test subject, hackers were given access to the aircraft's computer but were unable to disable the critical systems. The critical software at the central core of the computer's operating system known as the 'kernel' had been rendered  unhackable with the result that hackers could not perform actions that are meant to be forbidden. 

The kernel can have a few highly secure properties such as its code, memory and data transfers which cannot be read or changed without permission. The kernel can also enable systems to be kept seperate thus removing the ability of a hacker to gain remote control by springboarding from a car's Wi-Fi entertainment system to the steering system. This is critical technology which will also protect similar systems found in power grid and medical devices. Is society ready for driverless cars on the road ?