For vehicular metaverses, one of the ultimate user-centric goals is to optimize the immersive experience and Quality of Service (QoS) for users on board. Semantic Communication (SemCom) has been introduced as a revolutionary paradigm that significantly eases communication resource pressure for vehicular metaverse applications to achieve this goal. SemCom enables high-quality and ultra-efficient vehicular communication, even with explosively increasing data traffic among vehicles. In this article, we propose a hierarchical SemCom-enabled vehicular metaverses framework consisting of the global metaverse, local metaverses, SemCom module, and resource pool. The global and local metaverses are brand-new concepts from the metaverse's distribution standpoint. Considering the QoS of users, this article explores the potential security vulnerabilities of the proposed framework. To that purpose, this study highlights a specific security risk to the framework's SemCom module and offers a viable defense solution, so encouraging community researchers to focus more on vehicular metaverse security. Finally, we provide an overview of the open issues of secure SemCom in the vehicular metaverses, notably pointing out potential future research directions.

翻译：针对车辆元宇宙，其最终以用户为中心的目标之一是优化车载用户的沉浸式体验与服务质量（QoS）。语义通信（SemCom）作为一种革命性范式被引入，显著缓解了车辆元宇宙应用中的通信资源压力，从而助力实现该目标。即便车辆间数据流量呈爆炸式增长，语义通信仍能实现高质量且超高效的车辆通信。本文提出了一种分层语义通信赋能的车辆元宇宙框架，该框架由全局元宇宙、局部元宇宙、语义通信模块及资源池构成。其中全局与局部元宇宙是从元宇宙分布角度提出的全新概念。基于用户服务质量考量，本文探讨了所提框架的潜在安全漏洞。为此，本研究着重揭示了该框架中语义通信模块的特定安全风险，并提出了可行的防御方案，以此推动学界更多关注车辆元宇宙安全议题。最后，本文概述了车辆元宇宙中安全语义通信面临的开放性问题，并重点指出了潜在的未来研究方向。