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> It is only a matter of time until they add encryption.

I hope I won't be in one of those cars when the in-memory encryption key gets bit-flipped by the unfortunate cosmic ray.

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Proving that autopilot killed that poor old granny because of cosmic rays would be an interesting case study.

It actually happened with Toyota around 2010: they went into a settlement regarding an unintended acceleration issue because it was proven the code was terrible and a single bit-flip could cause the behaviour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009%E2%80%932011_Toyota_vehic...

Bit of context to this, it was demonstrated that it was a hypothetical possibility, but the issue couldn't be demonstrated in lab conditions. Stuck floormats, pedals, and confused drivers remain the only actual explanations for the real events behind the lawsuits.

Very interesting read. Thank you for the link.

Another interesting case: a proven case of bit-flip that affected a voting machine in Belgium: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/subatomic-particl...

“ A mobile phone with 500 kilobytes of memory might only have one error every 28 years, but a router farm, such as those used by Internet providers, with 25 gigabytes of memory could have one every 17 hours.”

I wonder if current AI devices have protection against this…

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