Those attacks don't scale. They're also tied to a person or people who need to be physically present, making it possible to arrest them.
The consequences of potential attacks on centrally-orchestrated traffic are a lot more severe. Hack the control node, and you can stop traffic nation-wide. Or cause mass accidents that overwhelm first responders. And they can be executed by anyone, anywhere in the world, for a cost within range of many medium-size corporations (let alone nation states).
I won't comment on the challenges of the approach Tesla et al. are currently taking, but I don't think central control is the panacea commenters in this thread are making it out to be (and I'm personally glad this isn't the route we're pursuing).
An attacker can already do this, at scale. Whether it be overriding traffic lights to show green in all directions, or taking down critical air traffic control systems.
It’s like arguing that we can’t possibly build autonomous cars because then someone might turn it into an autonomous bomb.
Keep in mind that solving this is “worth” about 40,000 lives a year in the US - nearly $1 trillion in economic damages a year in life and property.
Bad things can always be done with good tools. As always, you provide layers of protection that make sense and in the end must rely on the underlying fabric of civilization to persevere.
The consequences of potential attacks on centrally-orchestrated traffic are a lot more severe. Hack the control node, and you can stop traffic nation-wide. Or cause mass accidents that overwhelm first responders. And they can be executed by anyone, anywhere in the world, for a cost within range of many medium-size corporations (let alone nation states).
I won't comment on the challenges of the approach Tesla et al. are currently taking, but I don't think central control is the panacea commenters in this thread are making it out to be (and I'm personally glad this isn't the route we're pursuing).