"Vehicular Steganography"?: Opportunities and Challenges

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.