Buried deep within the massive infrastructure legislation recently signed by President Joe Biden is a little-noticed “safety” measure that will take effect in five years. Marketed to Congress as a benign tool to help prevent drunk driving, the measure will mandate that automobile manufacturers build into every car what amounts to a “vehicle kill switch.”
As has become standard for legislative mandates passed by Congress, this measure is disturbingly short on details. What we do know is that the “safety” device must “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.”
Everything about this mandatory measure should set off red flares.
First, use of the word “passively” suggests the system will always be on and constantly monitoring the vehicle. Secondly, the system must connect to the vehicle’s operational controls, so as to disable the vehicle either before driving or during, when impairment is detected. Thirdly, it will be an “open” system, or at least one with a backdoor, meaning authorized (or unauthorized) third-parties can remotely access the system’s data at any time.
Hence … the government can constantly monitor my speed. This isn’t going to go well.
Vintage vehicles prior to OBD-II are going to skyrocket in value.
Hmm, maybe my old motorhome made of sticks and alu siding will be worth something.
Beats being used as a chicken coup.
‘Let’s go Brandon’, although myself I prefer the original, ‘F**k Joe Biden.’
At this juncture, government-mandated bullshit is likely responsible for 40% of the cost of a new vehicle.
Sounds a lot like the “smart thermostats”….that people are now only waking up to the fact that they can be controlled by utilities regardless of your desires. Time to get away as much as possible from stuff like that.
Yes … I have a NEST thermostat … mainly because it looks and works kewl. But the gawwdammned thing keeps defaulting to “Eco mode” which sets my home temp. at 62 deg.F. I keep turning the “Eco-mode” OFF … but it keeps coming back ON. Effing Google overlords!!!
Yes … I expect a knock at my door for “excessive” interference with “Eco-mode” …
*
time to eat the 200 bucks and take
back your freedom methinks.
i spent months trying to find a
‘dumb tv’ for this very reason.
*
Look at the commercial retail channels. The kinds of TVs that are used for interior signage, etc. don’t have smart features.
Andriod box and a VPN FTW…
Right on
How better to deter us from driving than turning the very machines against us? Soon your TV will decide which channels you can watch and what ideas you will be allowed. Fiendishly clever!
What do you mean “soon” Mr. Blair? Television has been doing that since it started. That’s why they hate the internet so much.
Sorry I haven’t kept up. I’ve been dead for 70 years. My doubleplusungood.
What is -really- creepy is that they can do this now, and can’t be bothered because they don’t control it from end to end.
This is the thing I’ve been warning of for a very long time, where the local cop can take control of your car. This is the explicit and official end to private ownership of personal vehicles in the United States. You will pay for it, but you will not own it or control it. It will belong to the government, and -they- will decide where and when you get to drive.
That’s the whole point of the push behind electrics and self-driving cars. Remote control.
If that seems too tinfoil-hat to be real, consider that electrics all have digital controls and remote command access by the manufacturer, to a much greater extent than diesel and gasoline fueled cars. (On-Star can control more than your door locks, Normies.) The self-driving Tesla doesn’t need a driver to move around. As long as safety is not a concern, a Tesla can drive around by itself just fine.
Socialists love trains because they follow tracks. A train runs on a schedule, and never goes anywhere that wasn’t planned for. Throw a switch and all the trains stop. That’s what they love. Control. What they’re trying to do here is turn your car into a train that only follows a prescribed route and only works at certain times. And most of all, they can shut it off if they want to. That’s the goal.
It’s for the children, okay?
And we will LIKE it … right?
But soon … self-driving cars will settle everything … Right? Then, your car will seize your autonomy. The good news about that? No black-racists “car” will mow down white people at Christmas Parades. And all the incompetent drivers on i-5 will be made to drive in the right lane.
The Holidays bring out all the incompetent drivers who shouldn’t have a drivers license for not knowing that “Slower Traffic Keep Right” is not a “suggestion” for the “other guy” … it’s THE LAW!!! … it’s called “The Basic Speed Law”. It organizes speeds … and hence SAFETY … the slower the speed, the further to the right … regardless of the speed limit.
Learn it … or get OFF CA highways
Based on the BS I heard at panel discussions in the auto biz over the past 18 months or so…the push will be strong for self driving cars for people who purchase a subscription. Once that’s all in play…good luck even finding an insurer to underwrite your 20 year-old privately owned drive-it-yourself automobile.
So how do you go 4 wheelin’ in a Jeep??? My assumption is BEING AIRBORNE will be considered “impaired”……
In an act of good faith, all members of Congress, the senate, POTUS (including senior staff), administration staff (meaning secretary, under secretary right down to the minor operatives), and particularly all senior staff at the CIA, Homeland Security, and the FBI get this first.
You guys should probably read the Wikileaks data relative to the CIA and hacking access to all cars made in the last decade. If there is a computer on board, you can be hacked, tracked and smacked. I’m not just talking about the engine computer (which is commonplace now). Even an entertainment system will provide the necessary access.
All this new “proposal” does is dumb it down so any mouth breathing troglodyte political hack at the CIA can handle it without the necessity of a hacking expert.
On a side not, think about this. Most every piece of mobile equipment that the Biden Administration left as gifts to the Taliban can be totally made inert and disabled remotely such that it is not usable. Have they done that? Of course not. That wasn’t the plan. They can track every single armored vehicle rather simply. Have they done that? Of course not. They can pin point the locations of depots turned over to Iran, China, Russia etc. They can even use the current equipment affixed to most of the mobile units to listen in on conversations within the radius of these units. Have they done this? Of course not. That wasn’t the plan.
Do they even read bills before they vote on them anymore? They used to haggle endlessly before passing one, but now it’s just pass it now and read it later or you’re an obstructionist.
No, they do not.
IN fact, this feature of the infrastructure bill could rightfully be called the “Anti-Ted Kennedy” enhancement.
Yawn….Just keep up the maintenance on your Current ride and to hell with the Automakers and the Govts.
Why pay 40K + for something whose operation can be over written by hackers and the Govt.?? You Gonna actually PAY for that..??
There be no monitoring of my ride EVER.
The replacement parts will be removed/banned from the public.
Suddenly my spare 1999 beater is now my back up for the better 2006 beater I am driving.
That should add at least $10,000 to the already beyond dreaming prohibitively expensive price of a new car and by then you won’t be able to drive it unless you’re vax paperz are in order.
Buy a couple old dirt bikes now and a full face mask helmet.
Chilly in February. Ask me how I know. ~:D
Nothing could possibly go wrong. For example, you’ve been drinking heavily. You pour yourself into your truck. You’re driving home. Suddenly your radio comes on and a voice tells you to pull over. You ignore it. Then, your truck shuts off. So you carefully pull over to the side of the road with no power steering or power brakes and you wait patiently for the police to arrive.
Exactly, it’s bad enough when your new $100k diesel truck goes into limp mode, while towing your $200k fifth-wheel thru the mountains.. At least its running enough to have power brakes and power steering.. If the engine shuts completely off, you’re in a world of hurt, no power steering and only a few shots of brake power left in the accumulator (assuming hydroboost Or air braking system), no engine braking (electronically controlled automatic trans)..
There is something to be said for old mechanical diesels, with a manual transmission, they just won’t stop!
The tech will prob allow the police (or anyone who gains control of it) to take over control of the vehicle and drive it, slow it down and pull it over, unlock the doors, roll down the windows, jam outgoing cellular phone signals, etc.
(I’m sure no enterprising road bandits would ever do this.)
I imagine liability issues would be immense in a fair and just world.
The government will just exempt themselves.
Our mining trucks were set up so that unless the transmission was in park or in neutral with the park brake on then none of the engine shutdowns would activate.
You’d get alarms and lights but the engine would run until it stopped.
The logic was that a running engine gave the operator the maximum amount of time to get safely stopped before the emergency steering and brake systems had to be activated. Liability and safety are more important than the components.
Interesting factoid: According to logged data a 2350 HP CAT 3516 with zero oil pressure will run for 33 seconds at full power after the oil pump outlet pipe breaks off. Then it never runs again.
That’s quite awhile in an emergency.
I’ve had Ford diesels go into limp mode on me at some very awkward times.
L- Date sooner than you think…Bully bureaucrats give Stumblin’ Joe, solution #4. Allowing citizens to leave their home/workplaces is just too fraught with risk. Only, 5G 3D-halographic image shopping/entertainment will keep the population safe and pacified in a concentrated camp…, I mean circus area. This is without any risk the “elite” (bully bureaucrats) might ever be in the same space/time location, as the pee-ons, they rule over.
Note- Stumblin’ Joe (or Prancing Trudeau) can be programmed/scripted and provided with cheerleader media coverage and computer tallied majorities, ad infinitum. This until the Hidden City’s Emperor decides auditions for a replacement for their outer shell is due.
Your orders will be issued by Public Health Authourities, via your new Social Credit Score/Vaccine Passport. Any perceived hesitancy will be noted and an amounted deducted from your monthly government allowance.
Let’s call it “The Epstein”
‘You’re going to drive to the anti-car lockout protest today?
No you’re not.”
Click.
My 2002 Toyota SUV will live forever.
AFAIK, OBDII is not a problem. The State cannot control that with which it cannot communicate. OBDII requires a wired interface to any external controller/reader. OnStar on the other hand, is an entirely different kettle of fish.
I have several vehicles with OBDII, but none with OnStar. And several with no computer a t all.
Further:
Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Bill Contains Backdoor ‘Kill Switch’ For Cars
https://dailycaller.com/2021/11/29/barr-bidens-infrastructure-bill-contains-backdoor-kill-switch-for-cars/
On Sunday I headed out to the mountains to harvest a Christmas tree (got a nice 8 footer!). Winds gusting 100kph+. Truck weaving all over the lane. Would that look like drunk driving to a computer?
No but you’ll pay a service fee when the cops show up and get you back on the road with their code.
Faraday screen.
Hire a smart hacker.
If man can build it, it can certainly be defeated.
Who needs trains, when your car will drive you right to the concentration camp.