Secure Joint Radar Communications and Risk Assessment for Autonomous Driving

Abstract

Both radar and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) communication systems in autonomous vehicles are vulnerable to security threats. However, combining radar and V2V communication systems has the potential to overcome the threats to both systems. This report performs a risk assessment of frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar and dedicated short range communications (DSRC), analyzing the difficulty of performing attacks and the resulting impacts, and presents RadSec, a joint radar communication protocol with sensor data sharing and authentication. The assessment result shows that RadSec has great potential in overcoming automotive security threats against current automotive radar and V2V communication systems. RadSec is shown to improve automotive security for two simulated and three qualitatively discussed use cases. We conclude that joint radar communications should be considered as a technology for enhancing autonomous driving security.