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0 pointspfdietz10mo ago0 comments

Simply jamming the GPS would cause the vehicle to stop. What would be needed would be spoofing the GPS to make the vehicle think it was still operating normally, in the field it was supposed to be in, without any detectable quirks, a much harder task.

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nradov10mo ago· 1 in thread

Jamming or not isn't a binary condition, nor is there a clear line between jamming versus spoofing. Certain types of signal interference will still allow for a position fix but with greatly degraded accuracy. There are algorithms to detect signal quality, but again that alone isn't considered adequate for anything safety critical.

Commercial aircraft aren't legally allowed to fly with only GPS for navigation, and for good reason.

immibis10mo ago

Right - commercial aircraft are required to use navigation methods that are orders of magnitude easier to spoof than GPS is - such as radio beacons that transmit certain three-letter Morse code IDs on certain frequencies, and the plane just flies directly towards the strongest signal source.

That particular one is considered outdated but still used in some areas.

Automatic landing is done by tuning into a certain frequency, and two angled transmitters are used so that a plane too far to the left receives a certain pattern and a plane too far to the right receives a different one. A similar system is used for vertical guidance. How easy is it to transmit a short repeating pattern at an aircraft to make it think it's too far to the left?

And these are allowed to fly, and refrigerators are legal too even though filling one with propane and a spark source may cause it to explode.

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