Science & Technology

Solar storm disruption may cause self-driving vehicles to crash

By T.K. Randall
September 6, 2026

Image: Aurora Borealis
Credit: Senior Airman Joshua Strang / (PD) U.S. Air Force Back in November 2025, a series of solar flares hit the Earth, causing a geomagnetic storm that, according to a new study, severely disrupted global navigation systems for several hours.

In particular, the phenomenon threw off GPS positioning by several meters.

This might not sound like a lot, but in an increasingly autonomous world, many systems - such as those used by agricultural vehicles and self-driving cars - rely on this data to understand their position.When the GPS system is disrupted, therefore, farm vehicles can mess up and self-driving vehicles can lose track of where they are, potentially causing them to crash into the side of the road or into other vehicles.

In 2024, another geomagnetic storm caused $500 million in damage due to farm equipment errors.

Imagine cruising along the highway in your self-driving car when suddenly the car thinks that you should be 3 meters to the left, sending it hurtling across several lanes and off the side of the road.

These are the challenges that now face technology firms as they struggle to better predict and to compensate for solar events that could badly impact their autonomous systems.

Source: Gizmodo

Tags: Solar, Sun