University of Washington researchers have found a very simple way to trick self-driving cars into misidentifying road signs.
The researchers found that strategically-placed stickers are enough to fool the image-processing software in autonomous cars, according to Car and Driver. Spookily, in one experiment, stickers attached to a stop sign caused sensors to misidentify it as a speed-limit sign.
Security researchers exploited this flaw by essentially creating an analog hack. Instead of breaking into a car's computers and sending illicit commands, the researchers simply examined the programs cars use to identify different objects. Along with a photo of the target sign, they were able to create printable stickers based on known faults in how the system processes images.
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