Over the last decade-plus, autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been a major story in the automotive industry, capturing headlines and imaginations around the world. That narrative continues to take shape and move from story to reality, with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) predicting 3.5 million self-driving cars on U.S. roads by 2025. 

However, in addition to billions of dollars of investment and countless hours of engineering and research, self-driving cars have also brought new questions about safety and security to the industry. As more AVs start to hit the road for private and public use, these questions about personal and even national security become increasingly relevant ? and increasingly urgent. 

The FBI Says Self-Driving Cars Are a Security Risk
In January of 2023, FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke to the World Economic Forum Discussion on Technology and National Security in Davos, Switzerland about the potential threats posed by self-driving cars. He mentioned that AVs could be used as tools to harm people and a source of valuable and vulnerable personal data.

?When you talk about autonomous vehicles, it?s obviously something that we?re excited about, just like everybody,? said Wray. ?But there are harms that we have to guard against that are more than just the obvious.?

Wray described self-driving cars as a potential new ?attack? surface for terrorists to use to harm civilians. Referencing Russia?s current invasion of Ukra...