United Airlines CEO resigns, Personal space on planes, self-driving cars subject to hacking

United CEO Jeff Smisek resigns amid federal probe
Smisek has resigned in disgrace and in the midst of a federal grand jury corruption probe. But, he won’t suffer unless he goes to jail. His severance package is worth millions, together with free air travel for life. In the airline industry, even the worst, law-breaking, resigning-under-pressure-of-investigation CEO gets handsomely rewarded. With the abrupt resignation, the case looks solid against the former airline executive. Then again, even in jail, he won’t be forced to sit in seats with only 17 inches of width and virtually no legroom. There, such conditions are considered cruel and unusual punishment and may even be categorized as torture after six hours or so.

Smisek was CEO of Continental Airlines before it merged with United in 2010. He has been under pressure for several years, as United was slower than Delta Air Lines to return to profitability and also suffered several embarrassing computer outages, the latest in June and July, that led to large numbers of delays and canceled flights.
A filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission described the terms of Smisek’s separation agreement. He’ll receive a separation payment in the amount of $4,875,000, and remain eligible for a pro-rated bonus. Smisek will have health insurance until he is eligible for Medicare, and maintain flight benefits and parking privileges for the remainder of his lifetime. He also gets to keep his company car.

Petition calls for airline seat standards to end the cabin crush
FlyersRights.com petition to the FAA to start a rulemaking regarding personal space on aircraft has been joined by Travelers United after efforts within the Advisory Committee For Aviation Consumer Protections. With airlines packing more passengers into planes, from a passenger’s point of view, there is no question about the need for regulation. But, airlines claim that competition should prevail. However, when all airlines are flying similar seats, there is not much choice other than paying far more for business- or first-class.

“The shrinkage of seats and passenger space by airlines to generate higher profits while the size of passengers has substantially increased has created an intolerable crisis situation,” according to the petition. “It is threatening the health, safety and comfort of all passengers.”
The FAA said it would review the petition on seat standards in an “appropriate time frame.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation does not impose any standards for seat legroom, width or comfort. Instead, the federal government allows airlines to put as many seats in a cabin as the companies want, as long as the passengers have enough room to escape in an emergency within 90 seconds.

Researcher hacks self-driving car sensors
As self-driving cars are beginning to find acceptance in visions of the future and in some advanced cities to a limited extent, the question of their safety is being debated. Though there have not been any accidents caused by a driverless car, in the future hacking may cause incidents.

“I can take echoes of a fake car and put them at any location I want,” says Jonathan Petit, principal scientist at Security Innovation, a software security company. “And I can do the same with a pedestrian or a wall.”
Using such a system, attackers could trick a self-driving car into thinking something is directly ahead of it, thus forcing it to slow down. Or they could overwhelm it with so many spurious signals that the car would not move at all for fear of hitting phantom obstacles.
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Petit set out to explore the vulnerabilities of autonomous vehicles, and quickly settled on sensors as the most susceptible technologies. “This is a key point, where the input starts,” he says. “If a self-driving car has poor inputs, it will make poor driving decisions.”