Image by gibblesmash asdf, from Unsplash
Law Gap Leaves Police Unable To Fine Autonomous Cars
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Police in Northern California were left baffled after pulling over a self-driving Waymo taxi that made an illegal U-turn since no driver was behind the wheel hence no one could be fined.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Police pulled over a Waymo taxi for an illegal U-turn.
- No driver was present, so officers could not issue a ticket.
- California law currently allows tickets only to human drivers.
The San Bruno Police Department said officers were conducting a DUI operation early Saturday morning when the Waymo robotaxi turned in front of them. “That’s right … no driver, no hands, no clue,” read a social media post showing an officer peering into the empty vehicle, as reported by the AP .
Officers contacted Waymo to report the “glitch” and said, “Hopefully the reprogramming will keep it from making any more illegal moves,” as reported by LA Times .
San Bruno Sgt. Scott Smithmatungol explained that current law only allows police to ticket a human driver for moving violations. “Citation books don’t have a box for ‘robot,’” he said as reported by the AP.
A new California law taking effect next year will allow authorities to report autonomous vehicle violations to the Department of Motor Vehicles, though details on penalties are still being worked out, says LA Times.
Waymo spokesperson Julia Ilina said the company’s autonomous system is closely monitored by regulators. “We are looking into this situation and are committed to improving road safety through our ongoing learnings and experience,” Ilina told the AP.
Waymo currently operates in Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and nearby suburbs, including San Bruno. “It blew up a lot bigger than we thought,” Smithmatungol added about the viral post, as reported by the AP.
The incident demonstrates that California needs to update its laws because autonomous vehicles are starting to appear on public roads.
LA Times notes that the law faces criticism for being inadequate yet Waymo proves its vehicles enhance urban safety through data which shows 79% fewer airbag deployments and 80% fewer injury-related crashes than human-driven vehicles.
This is not the first incident. Last year, a Waymo robotaxi collided with a Serve delivery robot in West Hollywood. The taxi hit the bot after misjudging timing; no damage occurred, but the event raised questions about autonomous vehicle safety and liability.
Image by UnitreeRobotics, from Unsplash
Bluetooth Flaw Lets Hackers Take Over Unitree Humanoid Robots
- Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
- Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager
Security researchers disclosed on 20 September a critical vulnerability in the Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) Wi-Fi setup used by several Unitree robots.
In a rush? Here are the quick facts:
- Critical BLE flaw affects Unitree Go2, B2, G1, and H1 robots.
- Exploit allows root-level takeover and can spread between robots wirelessly.
- Hardcoded encryption keys let attackers inject malicious code via Wi-Fi setup.
The flaw affects Go2 and B2 quadrupeds, as well as G1 and H1 humanoids, and could allow attackers to take full control of the devices. The wireless nature of the exploit makes it “wormable,” because a single compromised robot can automatically spread the infection to nearby robots which would create a robot botnet, as explained by Spectrum who first reported the news.
The exploit, named UniPwn, was discovered by Andreas Makris and Kevin Finisterre. “A simple attack might be just to reboot the robot, which we published as a proof of concept,” Makris explains, as reported by Spectrum.
“But an attacker could do much more sophisticated things: It would be possible to have a trojan implanted into your robot’s startup routine to exfiltrate data while disabling the ability to install new firmware without the user knowing. And as the vulnerability uses BLE, the robots can easily infect each other, and from there the attacker might have access to an army of robots,” Makris added.
UniPwn takes advantage of hardcoded encryption keys in BLE packets. The encryption of “unitree” with these keys allows attackers to run any code they want. Makris and Finisterre first reported the issue to Unitree in May, but after limited response, they went public. “We have had some bad experiences communicating with them,” Makris said, as reported by Spectrum.
Unitree responded on LinkedIn, stating: “We immediately began addressing these concerns and have now completed the majority of the fixes. These updates will be rolled out to you in the near future.”
Spectrum reports that cybersecurity expert Víctor Mayoral-Vilches added: “Unitree, as other manufacturers do, has simply ignored prior security disclosures and repeated outreach attempts […] Robots are only safe if secure.”
The researchers advise users to connect to protected Wi-Fi networks while disabling Bluetooth until permanent security solutions become available from developers..The vulnerability highlights broader risks in commercial robotics, where high-profile hacks could have serious physical and reputational consequences.
