EU wants to give police the power to remotely disable any car

[dcnc123]

Kill the engine of any can?

 

[Guest]

Disabled to you all means dead? why not a kill switch on the transmission? why do some people not think of the obvious?

 

[Guest]

@captain cranky, read above...

 

[cliffordcooley]

Disabled to you all means dead? why not a kill switch on the transmission? why do some people not think of the obvious?

I'm going to assume you are not a mechanic. The obvious and most logical location, would be the Engine Control Module. By implementing remote control of the ECM, the speed of the vehicle can be governed (pun not intended, that is the term used for controlling the max speed of a vehicle) until it is safe to shut the vehicle down completely.

 

[captaincranky]

Disabled to you all means dead? why not a kill switch on the transmission? why do some people not think of the obvious?

@captain cranky, readabove...

Do you know anything about automotive technology, or do you just want people to pay attention to you?
With auto ECM modules in their present state, you'd probably need an EM pulse weapon to shut one down.

Now, to implement any of this nonsense, you would have to pre, and retro fit vehicles to allow external control.. Which means getting manufacturers on board with this BS. I also see a criminal cottage industry springing up, in excising all this crap to get around the issue of external control.

As far as "killing the transmission" goes, to the best of my knowledge most transmissions are still controlled by mechanical linkage. With mechanical linkage, you'd have to physically knock a transmission out of gear.

As far as "governing" the speed goes, I think the police would just bring you to a stop. This to avoid some stupid s*** happening, like the famous, "OJ Simpson low speed chase".

Off hand I'd say, today's crop of whiny, lazy, X-Box dependent, cyber fools, would most likely buy into, "satellite assisted diagnostics", since it's likely they don't know know how to open the hood of the car they have now. And there you have it, enter, "the backdoor trojan", for police control.

There's more, but that's all I'm willing to type to humor you.

 

[misor]

When governments become authoritarians, Anonymous will rise. maybe the movie V for Vendetta is a glimpse of what may become.

 

[Guest]

That's far too powerful power if you give police such privilege..

 

[captaincranky]

When governments become authoritarians, Anonymous will rise. maybe the movie V for Vendetta is a glimpse of what may become.

Was that Natalie Portman or Keira Knightley? They both look alike to me.

Well, save for the fact that Ms.Knightley has a slight overbite.

 

[treetops]

Relative to the cost of production of cars, it wouldn't cost much at all. We've already seen this scale of IT infrastructure is childs play for a government, let alone the EU.

I think it is inevitable that it or something similar will happen anyway despite public fallout. Minority Report style - automated vehicle navigation and police controlled killswitches.

Yeah but it probably costs more then 10% of the cars out there.

It costs around 500$ to put a breathalyzer in a car, in case you do not know a breathalyzer will turn off your car while you drive it if you do not blow into and pass the breath test. I would guess based off nothing but pure speculation, it would be around 1,000$ to put something like this in a car.

 

[Guest]

Murdered Journalist Michael Hastings

you can see his car speeding across an intersection
who knows maybe he had no control of the vehicle

 

[Emexrulsier]

Remember if it can easily be installed it can easily be disabled unless it was built into the engine design from day one.

 

[Darth Shiv]

Yeah but it probably costs more then 10% of the cars out there.

It costs around 500$ to put a breathalyzer in a car, in case you do not know a breathalyzer will turn off your car while you drive it if you do not blow into and pass the breath test. I would guess based off nothing but pure speculation, it would be around 1,000$ to put something like this in a car.

I'd contend your example actually points out that it would cost less than $500 due to economies of scale. The hardware would be far less obtrusive than a breathalyser unit as well and radio hardware chips are extremely cheap.

 

[Guest]

@captaincranky quote: "to the best of my knowledge"... this.

@cliffordcooley, ever had a transmission go on you? lol its is indeed very simple

 

[davislane1]

As far as "killing the transmission" goes, to the best of my knowledge most transmissions are still controlled by mechanical linkage. With mechanical linkage, you'd have to physically knock a transmission out of gear.

This is only true of manual transmissions. Automatic boxes are "controlled" by onboard computers to varying degrees (it decides when to shift up/down and, in the case of modern luxury cars, often controls the whole package). Theoretically, this means that they could develop a "kill" switch that simply puts the car into neutral.

 

[captaincranky]

....[ ]....Theoretically, this means that they could develop a "kill" switch that simply puts the car into neutral.

I'm well aware that they could, "develop", external shifting. In fact, I've seen a few luxury auto commercials displaying "paddle shifters". (Tabs on the wheel, a la open wheel racers, which must need power assist). However, it's not here now, and you can't get into to the ECM, as they stand today).

If you want to discuss the whole, "how stupid do you have to be, to willingly go out and buy a new car that the state can control"? Or maybe, "what would equipping cars that could be externally controlled by law enforcement, do to the auto industry in general", I'm here for you....

And remember, even if a person lives the live of Jesus, they're all speeders, every last one of them..

 

[treetops]

It just doesn't seem that hard to kill switch a car considering they do it every day on any model with whatever system the interlock breathalyzers use. Maybe they simply have switch on the wires going to the distributor?

 

[cliffordcooley]

@cliffordcooley, ever had a transmission go on you? lol its is indeed very simple

Yes I have, I've even rebuilt two or three. And as long as the valve body continues to port fluid to the various clutch assemblies, and the mechanics hold integrity, the vehicle will continue to move. As far as I'm aware there are no electronic governing factors implemented in the valve body of a Transmission, but there are in the Engine Control Module. Why not use what is already implemented? Lets not even mention all the manual transmissions that are strictly mechanical and can not be controlled electronically.

 

[LookinAround]

There's already a Local Area type Network in the car (the CAN bus) that allows the vehicle micro-controllers and electronic devices to communicate with each other. I don't think it would be hard to add a kill switch.

But, keeping it from being hacked by others is a entirely different and daunting task!

 

[Guest]

@cliffordcooley
this is an easy mod: "as long as the valve body continues to port fluid to the various clutch"

@captiancranky: I do not follow the life of Jesus and yet I have not sped for 10 years, and aside from that fact, what does speeding have to do with this? Let me guess, you are also against the "black boxes", photo traffic monitors, the IRS, your cell phone company and your social insurgence number? You sir are not in control of anything even if you believe you are.

 

[mailpup]

Most modern OBD II vehicles have a limp mode which allows the engine to run but barely. The driver can "limp" to a repair shop or at least out of harm's way to the side of the road. Brakes and steering systems still work but the vehicle can't get away from law enforcement. Activating this mode would seem a reasonably "good" solution to some of the problems already brought up.

That said, I am against the idea of more and more government control "for our own good."