Hackers Modify Speed Limit Sign To Trick Tesla First-Gen Autopilot

With any emerging technology, there will always be room for improvement. It seems Tesla has already fixed this issue with newer cars.

Hackers at McAfee produced a recent video (above) revealing an experiment. Essentially, they used some tape and “edited” a speed limit sign to see how a Tesla on Autopilot would react. However, it’s important to note that the test car was a first-gen Tesla Model S using MobileEye’s early Autopilot system.

The most interesting part of the experiment is that while the hackers made a simple change to the speed limit sign – just adding a longer line on the number “3” on a 35 mph sign – the car seemingly saw it as an “8.” The hackers could have simply changed the sign to read 85 mpg, but it wanted to see if the car would recognize the minor change differently than a human may see it. More specifically, a human would likely still see “35,” but the car assumed “85.”

MIT Technology Review shares:

Hackers have manipulated multiple Tesla cars into speeding up by 50 miles per hour. The researchers fooled the car’s Mobileye EyeQ3 camera system by subtly altering a speed limit sign on the side of a road in a way that a person driving by would almost never notice.

Tesla encourages such hacking to help assure that its systems perform as advertised and to help it work to correct any potential vulnerabilities. McAfee shared the results of its tests with both Tesla and MobileEye.

Tesla and MobileEye severed ties a few years back. Now, the Silicon Valley automaker handles all aspects of its current Autopilot and Full Self-Driving technology in house. McAfee admits that its early tests of Tesla’s new proprietary Autopilot system haven’t proven the same issue. However, there are still many Tesla cars on the road with this first-gen MobileEye iteration of Autopilot and its proven vulnerabilities.

To read the entire report, follow the source link below.

Video Description via McAfee on YouTube:

McAfee Demonstrates Model Hacking in the Real World

McAfee ATR successfully creates a black-box targeted attack on the MobilEye EyeQ3 camera system in a Tesla Model S utilizing Hardware pack 1, causing the camera to misclassify a 35 mile-per-hour (mph) speed limit sign as 85 mph, autonomously increase speed.

About McAfee:

McAfee is the device-to-cloud cybersecurity company. Inspired by the power of working together, McAfee creates business and consumer solutions that make our world a safer place.

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