The Resilient Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (ResiCAV) Project, which is being delivered by a consortium that includes a number of organisations in the UK, has highlighted the urgent need for a national road transport cyber-security programme if the UK is to safely support ‘the adoption of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) across the transport network’.

The UK organisations are Horiba MIRA, Thales, BT, WMG at the University of Warwick, Oxfordshire County Council, AESIN Techworks, the Centre for Modelling & Simulation, Coventry University, the University of South Wales, the University of Bristol and the National Digital Exploitation Centre.

The three-month ResiCAV project, which was supported by funding from the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, studied the feasibility of building a UK cyber-security ‘centre of excellence’ for ‘detecting, understanding, and responding in real time to emerging cyber-security threats across the mobility ecosystem’.

It is claimed to be the first project in the world to combine industrial, academic and government expertise in this manner, while determining how a UK centre of excellence would work.

Anthony Martin, head of vehicle resilience technologies at Horiba MIRA, said: “As the UK moves from CAV demonstrations to mass deployment, the need to protect these vehicles and the associated infrastructure from potentially catastrophic cyber-security failures cannot be overstated.

“Given the sheer size and complexity of the issue, we are incredibly proud of the world-leading research the consortium has delivered over a very short time span.”