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Cybersecurity & Standards

Benefits and Privacy and Security Issues Associated with Current and Future Motor Vehicles

CDT submitted the following comments in response to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) call for public input on the the benefits and privacy and security issues associated with current and future motor vehicles.

Our comments recognize that connected vehicles have tremendous potential to reshape the transportation landscape – bringing benefits but also creating new security and privacy risks. Long-standing issues with the software that is already within motor vehicles today will be compounded as even more software is layered on top of this legacy code. There is a need to address these software-related issues, potentially through cybersecurity-aware automotive industry entities such as the Auto-ISAC. Connectivity brings with it systemic risks due to increased dependence on critical information infrastructures. There is a need to better plan for the inevitable disruption or potential failure of these critical information infrastructures. Car owners and drivers also need to be further empowered to control these connectivity features, and regulators should encourage the automotive ecosystem to be more transparent about how it is deploying and securing these technologies and to offer additional control over how vehicle data is collected, used, and ultimately shared.

CDT thanks the FTC and NHTSA for the opportunity to provide input to this ongoing process. We look forward to the joint-workshop on ‘connected vehicles’, which will take place during June 2017, to continue dialogue around this important set of issues.