Driverless vehicles with AI can become formidable weapons

Driverless or highly automated vehicles controlled by AI can indeed be turned into powerful weapons, both through deliberate design (military systems) and through hacking or misuse of civilian platforms.hms.harvard+2​

How they become weapons

• Civilian connected cars increasingly expose critical driving functions (steering, acceleration, braking) to software control, and researchers and analysts warn that remote hijacking and “commandeering” of vehicles is becoming more plausible as automation and connectivity expand.thestar+2​

• Security specialists have already demonstrated that connected cars—even before full autonomy—can be hacked to seize control over key systems, which extrapolates directly to self-driving fleets and robo‑taxis if cybersecurity is not robust.helpnetsecurity+1​

• In a conflict or terrorist context, AI‑guided vehicles could be used as remotely controlled or fully autonomous delivery systems for explosives or targeted ramming attacks, similar in concept to current drone and loitering‑munition use on the battlefield.pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih+1​

Military and terrorist use

• Militaries are actively developing unmanned ground vehicles and other AI‑powered autonomous weapons systems, including “killer robots,” sentry guns, and drone swarms capable of autonomously targeting humans and vehicles.news.un+2​

• Analysts and security experts warn that lethal autonomous technologies are likely to proliferate to rogue states, insurgent groups, and terrorists, who could use cheaper or improvised versions against civilian targets, including in urban traffic networks.bernardmarr+1​

• This dynamic reduces the immediate personnel cost of offensive action for state and non‑state actors, which can lower the political threshold for using force and increase the frequency of low‑level but destabilizing attacks.arxiv+1​

Key risks specific to driverless cars

• As vehicles evolve into “software‑defined” platforms with always‑on connectivity, over‑the‑air updates, and vehicle‑to‑everything (V2X) communication, the attack surface expands to include remote exploitation of navigation, traffic routing, and braking systems.thestar+1​

• Analysts highlight severe scenarios where hacked cars could be redirected en masse, used to block evacuation routes, or turned into coordinated ramming tools, all controlled from afar without a human driver.helpnetsecurity+1​

• Privacy breaches (location tracking, contact data) can also support targeting and coercion, such as hostage‑taking via car lock‑in or selective attacks against specific individuals or convoys.identitymanagementinstitute+1​

Governance and mitigation

• International discussions around lethal autonomous weapon systems emphasize maintaining “meaningful human control” over life‑and‑death decisions and developing new norms or treaties for AI‑enabled weapons, but existing frameworks are widely seen as lagging behind the technology.disarmament.unoda+2​

• Scholars and policy analysts call for strong regulation of military AI, mandatory cybersecurity standards for connected vehicles, transparency requirements for defense AI systems, and restrictions on fully autonomous targeting in civilian environments.taylorwessing+2​

• Without such controls, the combination of ubiquitous AI, networked vehicles, and weak cybersecurity makes driverless platforms a credible future vector for both state and non‑state violence, not just an abstract technological concern.hms.harvard+2​

1. https://hms.harvard.edu/news/risks-artificial-intelligence-weapons-design
2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10030838/
3. https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2025/11/30/connected-cars-at-growing-risk-of-remote-hijacking-researchers-warn
4. https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/04/04/cybersecurity-risks-cars/
5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexvakulov/2025/01/25/cybersecurity-threats-to-modern-cars-how-hackers-are-taking-control/
6. https://identitymanagementinstitute.org/self-driving-car-security/
7. https://bernardmarr.com/weaponizing-artificial-intelligence-the-scary-prospect-of-ai-enabled-terrorism/
8. https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1163891
9. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.01859
10. https://www.cigionline.org/articles/are-lethal-autonomous-weapons-inevitable-it-appears-so/
11. http://disarmament.unoda.org/en/our-work/emerging-challenges/lethal-autonomous-weapon-systems
12. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10316387/
13. https://www.taylorwessing.com/en/interface/2025/defence-tech/ethics-and-regulation-of-ai-in-defence-technology
14. https://www.stopkillerrobots.org/stop-killer-robots/facts-about-autonomous-weapons/
15. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/16544951.2025.2540131
16. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/NCO-Journal/Archives/2024/February/The-Ethics-of-Robots-in-War/
17. https://trendsresearch.org/insight/governing-lethal-autonomous-weapons-the-future-of-warfare-and-military-ai/
18. https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2024/07/12/war-artificial-intelligence-and-the-future-of-conflict/
19. https://theaccidentlawyers.ca/can-driverless-cars-be-hacked-what-you-need-to-know/
20. https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Journals/Military-Review/English-Edition-Archives/May-June-2017/Pros-and-Cons-of-Autonomous-Weapons-Systems/