Scientists are warning that intense solar storms could pose a significant threat to self-driving vehicles, potentially causing thousands of crashes. Researchers have confirmed for the first time that GPS radio signals, crucial for autonomous navigation, can be disrupted by energy released from powerful solar flares hitting Earth.
A study examining GPS signal disruption during a significant solar storm in November 2025 found that guidance computers in self-driving cars were thrown off by more than 30 feet. Such positioning errors could lead to dangerous situations, including driving in the wrong lane or running red lights.
While self-driving vehicles rely on multiple sensors like cameras and radar, they still depend on GPS for precise location data. A major solar storm can disrupt the ionosphere, a layer of the Earth's atmosphere, causing GPS signals to wobble or weaken. This interference leads vehicle computers to calculate incorrect positions.
These positioning errors can be wider than most driving lanes in the U.S., creating a severe hazard for passengers and potentially requiring drivers to take manual control. The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters and led by space physicist Endawoke Yizengaw, highlighted these findings as significant enough to disrupt the autonomous transportation industry across the continental United States.
Approximately 10,000 fully driverless cars are currently in commercial use globally, including robotaxi fleets from companies like Waymo, Zoox, and Tesla operating in various U.S. cities.
The study also noted that automated farming equipment, which relies on GPS for precision planting and harvesting, experienced disruptions during recent solar storms, resulting in an estimated $500 million in damages. Similar disruptions were observed in May 2024, affecting American farmers.
Scientists typically have one to three days of warning when observing the sun ejecting significant energy, but predicting the storm's intensity and whether it will directly impact Earth remains challenging. The errors observed during the November 2025 storm lasted for hours, coinciding with auroras seen across the U.S.
Beyond navigation systems, solar radiation can also interfere with other critical electronics. The same solar activity that affected GPS systems also impacted passenger jets. Airbus issued an urgent software update for its approximately 6,000 A320 passenger jets worldwide after one flight experienced a sudden, uncontrolled drop of thousands of feet.
Safety experts believe this incident, which occurred on a JetBlue flight from Cancun to Newark on October 30, 2025, injuring at least 15 people, was caused by intense solar radiation corrupting flight control computer data and momentarily scrambling positioning information. The Federal Aviation Administration was involved in the subsequent investigation.
Past solar storms have also disrupted satellite communications globally, including causing outages for services like Elon Musk's Starlink internet. Mild solar storms are common during the peak of the sun's 11-year cycle, but storms powerful enough to disrupt GPS signals across the U.S. are less frequent, though their potential for damage is significant.
Powerful solar flares or coronal mass ejections can cause blackouts by overloading electrical transformers and power lines.
While the study focused on a November 2025 event, similar geomagnetic storm activity in May 2024 also led to severe disruptions for farmers. The cumulative impact of these events highlights the vulnerability of modern electronic systems to space weather.
