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doug

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Was listening to this show during a run the other day and I thought this segment was worth sharing: Living on Earth: Vehicle Visionary
From hybrids to electric vehicles, there has been a lot of innovation in the car industry lately. But according to Robin Chase, the founder of the car-sharing business, Zipcar, we need to alter our entire driving experience. Chase sat down with host Jeff Young and explained how sustainable transportation has more to do with the ways that we use the car than the type of car that we drive.
Download mp3 audio (about 7 minutes)


This topic has come up around here several times before, especially with respect to the Model S (recent design presentation, conversation with Steve Jurvetson at launch), but also regarding the Roadster.

Of course this technology would useful in vehicles other than EVs and I like the idea putting it in existing cars, perhaps communicating with the OBD-II port. As usual there are some legitimate privacy concerns. Anyhow, I think the segment is worth a read or listen.

YOUNG: So, we're talking about having the car talk to us more. Is that part of this?

CHASE: Yeah, it is. So you can think about, I mean, normal circumstances would be you're sitting at home and you had to go pick up your daughter, and I'm thinking, darn is the tank at empty? Or, do I have to go plan to stop at the gas station, or is there enough fuel in that tank? I could go online and tell how much fuel there was in the tank. Or the car could obviously be learning my routine commute, and at quarter of eight in the morning, it could send me a text message saying, Robin, don't take route two, there's been an accident – choose another route. But right now, we have no interaction with our car.

YOUNG: Well, we have some. I mean many of us have GPS directional devices, or....

CHASE: Once you're in the car. And that's a really striking point. And so if we think about those GPS devices, that is a single purpose, wireless device. Contrast that with an iPhone, which costs around that same ballpark and you can put 78,000 different applications on top of it. I joke that GM's Onstar, which has the potential to do this capability, is like saying, hey, Robin, here's a cell phone, it's great, you can only call your mom.

YOUNG: I see, so instead of being locked into one use for this communication device on the car, you're talking about a communication device that allows all sorts of different things to be happening there.

CHASE: Exactly, and further, that it's not just what was in the mind of GM, or what was in the mind of Ford. You know, they're clever guys, they have a certain number of engineers, and they can come up with a fixed number of clever thoughts. But we have the world of clever guys who can be thinking up even more clever, screwy things.
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Reading this after TEG's post on new Smart Meter installations makes me wonder about security here. I can just see the movie where our bad guy's cyber expert shuts down every car with cell phone control -even if it's only every-other-car is effective enough to bring traffic to a stop to allow the bad guy's escape vehicle to get away.

I guess he would shut down the smart meter sites as well.

I see Gene Hackman as the head baddie.
 
I can just see the movie where our bad guy's cyber expert shuts down every car with cell phone control...
Did you see Live Free or Die Hard?
...He takes control over all of the things that help run the country, like traffic lights and transportation systems...
A reused movie theme where someone takes the infrastructure control computers. Watching you on all the traffic cams too.
 
I see Gene Hackman as the head baddie.
I would have said Jon Voight.

At any rate it is something to consider. Some clear privacy agreements need to be in place and there should be a system that puts ultimate control in the hands of the car owner. The technology has many great advantages, but the potential for abuse by a malicious hacker or an oppressive government is a serious concern.

Have You Really Thought This Through Edition: Onstar To Invade China | The Truth About Cars
 
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All of this got me thinking about the "bait cars" police use to catch car thieves.

Perhaps a Tesla Roadster would make a good "bait car"... The equipment to allow a cellphone call to cut power once someone has tried to drive off with one may already be built in.

Bait car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
...A remote controlled immobilizer (known as a "kill" device or killswitch in law enforcement jargon) may be installed in the vehicle allowing police to remotely disable the engine...
Bait Car - a front row seat to the actions of car thieves playing real-life games of Grand Theft Auto.

The following story is rather interesting:
Police bait car program lands couple who reported suspicious car in court
 
I thought this was funny/scary:

What’s Wrong With This Picture: Onstar Puts Us At Ease Edition | The Truth About Cars

Picture-43.png
 
I'm kinda surprised there isn't a video profile for BlueTooth, so I could use the vastly superior nav on my Android yet have the display on the head unit. Entering addresses into the Android is also far superior to the non-touch-screen JVC. Cloud-based VR entry is and will continue to be better than local VR - the audio data size is small relative to the to advantages of getting the data to somewhere where compute power and data set size isn't nearly as restricted.