Using Manhattan as a case study, NYU Tandon researchers collected a combination of publicly available information and data easily scraped from apps to determine the locations of public electric vehicle charging stations and topology of the power grid as of March 2019. The power grid configuration includes transmission lines (red), substations, and power plants. The size of the blue circles is proportional to the charging station demand. Such information can be used by hackers to disrupt either charging of electric vehicles or - when the fleet grows as large as expected - the power grid itself. The team is calling for preventive steps by government, industry and drivers to prevent such calamities. Credit: NYU Tandon School of Engineering
Using Manhattan as a case study, NYU Tandon researchers collected a combination of publicly available information and data easily scraped from apps to determine the locations of public electric vehicle charging stations and topology of the power grid as of March 2019. The power grid configuration includes transmission lines (red), substations, and power plants. The size of the blue circles is proportional to the charging station demand. Such information can be used by hackers to disrupt either charging of electric vehicles or - when the fleet grows as large as expected - the power grid itself. The team is calling for preventive steps by government, industry and drivers to prevent such calamities. Credit: NYU Tandon School of Engineering