Buckle-up: autonomous vehicles could face privacy bumps in the road ahead

Autonomous vehicles, as part of the emerging Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), are positioned to transform the future of mobility — a change enabled by new onboard sensors, as well as the exchange of information between vehicles and between vehicles and transport infrastructure. This raises new and unique privacy considerations around what happens with the data. As the automotive industry becomes more datadriven, getting consumer privacy rights will become increasingly important for establishing trust and customer acceptance of this technology. In this paper we analyze what are the new privacy and data protection challenges that emerge in this domain and we put forth directions of research initiatives for overcoming these challenges. We build the discussion around legal compliance, identity management, invehicle data recording, and anonymization of vehicle data. We then debate on the advantages brought forth by emerging technologies (ranging from the intersection of distributed edge and fog computing to new 5Genabled smart connectivity networks) and how such innovations can fulfill advanced privacy requirements in automotive industry