American engineers from Duke University in North Carolina have developed a technique that targets the radar system of vehicles. The method allows you to fully control the radio signals received by the vehicle. The study was published on: platform arXive for hosting scientific materials.
The name of the technology is MadRadar. According to the creators, with its help you can make the car’s radar see ghost cars in seconds or, on the contrary, hide the approach of a real vehicle from the sensors of the on-board system. Experts described their invention as the most serious threat to the radar security of vehicles today.
In modern vehicles equipped with assistive and autonomous driving systems, radar is often used to detect vehicles moving in front of and around the vehicle. It also helps complementary visual and laser systems to detect vehicles moving in front or behind the vehicle.
In the MadRadar study, the team demonstrated the capabilities of the radar spoofing system, which can accurately determine vehicle radar parameters in less than a quarter of a second. Once these are detected, the system will send out its own radar signals to mislead the target’s radar.
In one example, MadRadar sent signals to a target car that made it detect another car that didn’t actually exist. This involves changing the characteristics of the signal over time and speed to simulate what real contact would look like.
In a second, much more complex example, the device tricks the target’s radar into thinking otherwise; So a car passing by doesn’t exist even though it doesn’t actually exist. This is achieved by precisely adding masking signals around the vehicle’s actual location to create a type of bright spot that confuses the radar system.
In the third type of attack, researchers mix the two approaches to make it appear that an existing vehicle suddenly changes direction.
The researchers suggest that automakers try randomizing (randomly changing) the operating parameters of the radar system over time and adding security measures to their processing algorithms to detect such attacks.
Previously Tesla recalled Millions of cars due to autopilot problems.