Parliamentary State Secretary Oliver Luksic: “Germany is the first country in the world to have created a comprehensive legal framework for autonomous driving. Thanks to their inventiveness, our industry and science are leading the way in this emerging technology. In the future, Germany as a business location will benefit from this, as will all road users. Digitalization and automation are making traffic more efficient, safer and easier. At the same time, it takes resilience against cyberattacks to strengthen the trust in autonomous vehicles. This research project can make an important contribution to this and provide impetus for the next steps.”
The funding approval of 2.059 million euros for CYPHER-AV enables the three CISPA-Faculty Abbasi, Singh and Tippenhauer as well as four research assistants to conduct in-depth research into the cyber resilience of autonomous vehicles. In the project, which runs until the end of 2027, the CISPA researchers will focus on making the processing of automotive sensor data more robust and secure. They intend to protect the data that is collected by vehicles against manipulation and attacks in order to ensure the passengers’ physical safety.
“Modern cars are equipped with a variety of sensors, for example, to measure distances and to detect the vehicle's surroundings. These sensors measure values that cannot be immediately authenticated but that are highly relevant to safety. These data are aggregated and jointly processed in the vehicle, for example to enable autonomous decisions. This dependence on analog sensors makes vehicles potentially vulnerable to cyberattacks and manipulation attempts”, explains project coordinator Dr. Nils Ole Tippenhauer. “In the course of CYPHER-AV, we want to develop resilient sensor systems for autonomous driving that continue to work reliably even in the event of attacks.”
The research project focuses on sensor processing pipelines, which come into play when several vehicle sensors interact with one another. In modern cars, data from LiDAR and video sensors, for example, are aggregated to enable vehicles to make the optimal autonomous decision. In CYPHER-AV, the researchers will evaluate possible manipulation and attack scenarios on these pipelines. On this basis, they intend to develop a software platform on which various sensor data can be processed reliably. This platform will be designed to automatically detect and defend against sensor manipulation.
“Cyberattacks are a growing global threat, including in the area of autonomous driving. With our research project, we are shaping the future of modern mobility. CYPHER-AV illustrates once more that our cutting-edge research has very real benefits for society”, says CISPA CEO and founding director Professor Dr. Dr. h. c. Michael Backes.
Scientific Contact
Dr. Nils Ole Tippenhauer
CISPA Helmholtz Center for Information Security
Stuhlsatzenhaus 5, 66123 Saarbrücken
tippenhauer@cispa.de
