“Vehicular Steganography”?: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

What if an autonomous vehicle (AV) could secretly warn of potential
threats? “Steganography”, the hiding of messages, is a vital way for vulnerable populations
to communicate securely and get help. Here, we shine light on the concept
of vehicular steganography (VS) using a speculative approach: We identify some
key scenarios, highlighting unique challenges that arise from indirect perception,
message generation, and effects of perspective–as well as potential carrier signals
and message generation considerations. One observation is that, despite challenges
to transmission rates and robustness, physical signals such as locomotion or sound
could offer a complementary, currently-unused alternative to traditional methods.
The immediate implication is that VS could help to mitigate some costly safety
problems–suggesting the benefit of further discussion and ideation.