Seven projects have been awarded funding to support the development of cyber security testing capabilities for connected and automated mobility (CAM).
Connected and self-driving industry hub Zenzic has partnered with the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) and Innovate UK on the £1.2m investment.
Self-driving vehicles will need to communicate with other vehicles, infrastructure and third-party services, with data being shared across an increasingly complex infrastructure. The competition winners will focus on three key areas:
- Finding ways to measure and maintain cyber-physical resilience and identify vulnerabilities, which will support the creation and testing of cyber-physical and software architectures, best practice in design and lifetime management.
- Providing specifications to support the creation of new cyber test facilities for connected and self-driving vehicles.
- Exploring commercial opportunities to develop new cyber-related services that can be deployed in the UK and across the global CAM marketplace.
Honda Europe, Oxfordshire County Council, the University of Bristol, Cisco, IBM and the Millbrook and HORIBA MIRA testing grounds are among the organisations involved in the projects.
“With the advent of self-driving vehicles, the complexity of cyber defences will increase as thousands of vehicles, pieces of roadside infrastructure and connecting systems need to share data securely,” said Richard Porter, technology and innovation director at Zenzic.
“The connected and self-driving vehicle sector is set to be worth £62bn by 2030, with safer roads and smoother, more accessible journeys for all,” added Future of Transport Minister George Freeman. “Whether we’re turning cars into Wi-Fi connected hotspots or equipping them with millions of lines of code, we must consider the new challenges of putting this technology into practice. Today’s £1.2m funding boost will help to guarantee the future safety and security of self-driving vehicles, both in the UK and globally.”