Oh, I freely concede there’s some killing needs to be done right enough. Plenty and to spare of it, in fact. But not the kind that’s done with any silly switch, by God.
The Kill Switch
Soon the government might shut down your car.President Joe Biden’s new infrastructure gives bureaucrats that power.
You probably didn’t hear about that because when media covered it, few mentioned the requirement that by 2026, every American car must “monitor” the driver, determine if he is impaired and, if so, “limit vehicle operation.”
Rep. Thomas Massie objected, complaining that the law makes government “judge, jury and executioner on such a fundamental right!”
Congress approved the law anyway.
A USA Today “fact check” told readers, don’t worry, “There’s no kill switch in Biden’s bill.”
“They didn’t read it, because it’s there!” says automotive engineer and former vintage race car driver Lauren Fix in my new video. The clause is buried under Section 24220 of the law.
USA Today’s “fact” check didn’t lie, exactly. It acknowledged that the law requires “new cars to have technology that identifies if a driver is impaired and prevents operation.” Apparently, they just didn’t like the term “kill switch.”
No, they wouldn’t, would they? But a kill switch by any other name is still a kill switch, and I say it’s the bunk.
The kill switch is just one of several ways the government proposes to control how we drive.
California lawmakers want new cars to have a speed governor that prevents you from going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
That would reduce speeding. But not being able to speed is dangerous, too, says Fix. If “something’s coming at you, you have to make an adjustment.”
New cars will have a special button on the dash. If you suddenly need to speed and manage to find the button when trying to drive out of some bad situation, and it lets you speed for 15 seconds.
For all these new safety devices to work, cars need to spy on drivers. Before I researched this, I didn’t realize that they already do.
The Mozilla Foundation reports that car makers “Collect things like your age, gender, ethnicity, driver’s license number, your purchase history and tendencies.” Nissan and Kia “collect information about your sex life.”
How? Cars aim video cameras at passengers. Other devices listen to conversations and intercept text messages.
Then, says Mozilla, 76% of the car companies “sell your data.”
Finally, Biden’s infrastructure bill also includes a pilot program to tax you based on how far we drive.
“A mileage charge seems fair,” I say to Fix. “You pay for your damage to the road.”
Oh sure, “fair”—as long as you leave the road-use taxes FederalGovCo (and states as well) rakes in on every gallon of gasoline you buy out of your calculations. Jackass.
One thing you can be sure of: if our Masters are letting the word get around about these supposedly “new” spy-snitch-and-control devices get around, then they’re already in place and functioning, likely have been for a good-ish while now.
Speaking strictly for myself, I’d never even dream of buying, owning, or operating a new(er) car. Not that I could afford to anyhow, natch. But still. At present, the Hendrix automotive stable consists of
1) An extremely rare 2012 Focus SE hatchback skinned in Blaze Yellow Metallic* with some minor performance mods to the peppy little 2.0L i4 under the hood, which mill I’ve personally clocked at an honest 39 mpg. Low-slung, stable, almost shockingly responsive and nimble, the Focus corners like it was on rails, betraying its race-car design heritage at every least twitch of the leather-wrapped steering wheel. The schweet little Focus has never failed to leave a huge grin on my face every time I’ve driven her, she’s hands-down the most just plain fun automobile I’ve ever owned; and
2) A battered, raggedy but dead-reliable old 1994 Burick Century and a Half** Grampamobile for backup
Both of which cars, to the best of my knowledge, predate all that goobermint jiggery-pokery. I’ll stick with my two strugglebuggies until I find out otherwise, thanks, at which juncture I’ma have to either get cracking on some serious uninstalling, or unload ‘em for something older and less personally intrusive.
From my cold, dead hands, you perfidious bastards.
* Factory paint color, 2012 model year only, obtainable exclusively via custom-order through a duly-licensed Ford dealership. I have it from an impeccable authority that there were just over 400 Focus hatchbacks in that color with the also custom-order-only 17 inch alloy wheels delivered across the entire Southeastern US that year. Who knows how many are still on the road or in driveable condition today; a great many Focii get converted into race cars and run on the flourishing, popular Compact-class circuit. So yeah, rare as hen’s teeth. Unfortunately, it’s still only a Ford Focus, of which type there’s a blue million out there, so not all that valuable or collectible, then
** Equipped with the rock-solid Burick L82 3.1L v6 renowned among mechanics as “the Indestructible Six,” and for very good reason; a smidge over 155k on the odometer, which is damned low for a car that age. The two previous owners are close, close friends and/or family, so the Burick’s entire history is known to me, which is always nice. That said, though, the piss-poor 17-18 mpg the big battlewagon clocks in at is a bona fide lifestyle-changer, sadly enough, especially at these vampiric Bidenflated petrol prices…which, cushy, plush, and mechanically solid though the car is, fortunate as I’ve been to have the use of it while the Focus has been down for extensive repair/refurbishment, nonetheless explains why I’ll always think of it as the backup ride
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My gut is tellin me not enough time left for them to accomplish that. Me thinks the kyllen will start with the other onnoff switch first
I guess ill be keepin my deleted super duty
The way this works is that your car is part of the IoT – Internet of Things. Which means it’s hooked up to the Internet, and its functions can be controlled from someplace else. That means steering, ignition, door locks, speed, lights, everything. And cars like that can be hacked, and have been: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlCdPQjhlG4
More really interesting stuff – recent, too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBj546UptEA
still yet more: “We brainstormed for a while, and then realized that nearly every automobile manufactured in the last 5 years had nearly identical functionality. If an attacker were able to find vulnerabilities in the API endpoints that vehicle telematics systems used, they could honk the horn, flash the lights, remotely track, lock/unlock, and start/stop vehicles, completely remotely.
At this point, we started a group chat and all began to work with the goal of finding vulnerabilities affecting the automotive industry. Over the next few months, we found as many car-related vulnerabilities as we could. The following writeup details our work exploring the security of telematic systems, automotive APIs, and the infrastructure that supports it.
Findings Summary
During our engagement, we found the following vulnerabilities in the companies listed below: …” https://samcurry.net/web-hackers-vs-the-auto-industry/
^^^
LOOK AT THIS!!!
^^^ No joke, this is worth a substack post…
Heh, I’ll just note what manufacturer isn’t on that list…