Automatic Driver Identification from In-Vehicle Network Logs

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that driver identification is feasible using in-vehicle network logs and machine learning, achieving 75-85% accuracy without needing to reverse-engineer CAN signals.

Contribution

It introduces a method for driver re-identification from CAN logs without requiring knowledge of signal semantics, expanding privacy concerns and potential applications.

Findings

Achieved 75-85% driver re-identification accuracy

Method works without reverse-engineering CAN signals

Validated on a dataset of 33 drivers

Abstract

Data generated by cars is growing at an unprecedented scale. As cars gradually become part of the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem, several stakeholders discover the value of in-vehicle network logs containing the measurements of the multitude of sensors deployed within the car. This wealth of data is also expected to be exploitable by third parties for the purpose of profiling drivers in order to provide personalized, valueadded services. Although several prior works have successfully demonstrated the feasibility of driver re-identification using the in-vehicle network data captured on the vehicle's CAN (Controller Area Network) bus, they inferred the identity of the driver only from known sensor signals (such as the vehicle's speed, brake pedal position, steering wheel angle, etc.) extracted from the CAN messages. However, car manufacturers intentionally do not reveal exact signal location and semantics within CAN logs. We show that the inference of driver identity is possible even with off-the-shelf machine learning techniques without reverse-engineering the CAN protocol. We demonstrate our approach on a dataset of 33 drivers and show that a driver can be re-identified and distinguished from other drivers with an accuracy of 75-85%.