Autonomous Vehicle Authentication for Emergency Command Integrity

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current communication systems between autonomous vehicles and emergency or law enforcement vehicles lack standardization and security, making them vulnerable to spoofing attacks and unable to effectively instruct autonomous vehicles to pull over or respond to emergency situations.

Innovation Solution

Implementing secure communication protocols using cryptography, such as public key cryptography and Transport Layer Security (TLS), for mutual authentication and non-repudiation, allowing emergency vehicles to authenticate themselves to autonomous vehicles through cloud-based servers or peer-to-peer mesh networks, ensuring the authenticity of messages and preventing unauthorized actions.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If standard communication protocols are implemented for autonomous vehicles, then communication reliability is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecommunication reliabilityVSAvoidsystem complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces cloud-based servers as intermediary components that manage authentication and communication between autonomous vehicles and emergency vehicles. These servers handle the complex cryptographic operations and protocol management, allowing the vehicle systems to maintain reliability while offloading complexity to centralized infrastructure.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The communication system is divided into distinct functional modules: authentication modules that verify identities, encryption modules that protect messages, and message routing modules that direct communications. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall system reliability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If cryptographic authentication is implemented, then security against spoofing is improved, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImprovesecurityVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

Authentication credentials and cryptographic keys are pre-configured in vehicles before deployment. Emergency vehicles and autonomous vehicles exchange authentication tokens in advance during registration with cloud servers, so that when actual communication occurs, the authentication process is rapid rather than computationally intensive.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system uses different cryptographic parameter sets for different communication scenarios. For high-security interactions like emergency stops, full mutual authentication with digital signatures is performed. For routine communications, lighter-weight authentication protocols are used, balancing security requirements with processing time constraints.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

3Reliability

If mutual authentication is required for all communications, then message integrity is improved, but communication overhead increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemessage integrityVSAvoidcommunication overhead
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The authentication system is designed to be universal across different vehicle types and communication scenarios. A single mutual authentication framework handles emergency vehicle-to-autonomous vehicle communications, autonomous vehicle-to-cloud communications, and cloud-to-emergency vehicle communications, reducing the need for multiple specialized authentication protocols.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS11770701B2Secure communications with autonomous vehicles
Publication Date: 2023.09.26 VOLKSWAGEN GROUP OF AMERICA INVESTMENTS LLC
  • US11770701B2 patent drawing
  • US11770701B2 patent drawing
  • US11770701B2 patent drawing

AI summary

Devices, systems, and methods are provided for communications between autonomous and emergency vehicles. A method may include identifying, by an autonomous vehicle (AV), a first message received from a first vehicle, and identifying, by the AV, in the first message, information associated with identifying the AV, a security key associated with identifying the first vehicle, and an instruction associated with causing the AV to perform an action. The method may include authenticating, by the AV, based on the security key, the first vehicle, and controlling operation, based on the instruction and the information associated with identifying the AV, of the AV to perform the action.