Police prepare stunning end for high-speed car chases

Police prepare stunning end for high-speed car chases 

                                    BY GILES WHITTELL 
                                    AND NIGEL HAWKES 

         IT COULD be the end of the car chase as we know it. With the automotive equivalent of
         a stun gun, science fiction is coming to the aid of law enforcement. 

         A high-powered electrical device under development at the Pentagon's Army Research
         Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland, is to be tested by police and border patrol agents and
         could be in use by next year. 

         The car stopper works by focusing an intense electromagnetic charge on the electronic
         systems that manage most modern engines, disabling them and paralysing the car. In
         the jargon of its inventors, the 150 kilovolt charge is a nemp, or non-nuclear
         electromagnetic pulse. Contractors are bidding to produce a police version. 

         Very precisely directed beams are required, but even then there will be problems. A
         pulse powerful enough to disable an engine at any reasonable range would also be likely
         to disrupt communications, damage television and radio sets, disable computers and
         even stop heart pacemakers. There is also the danger of loss of control when a car is
         being driven at high speed. 

         Counter-measures would include using old-fashioned engines with no electronics, or
         perhaps surrounding the most delicate components with shielding. The best might be to
         get hold of one of the stun guns and use it to disable pursuing police vehicles. 


Original article at http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/timnwsnws01022.html?1060389

Three questions come to mind:

	Will old fashioned engines be outlawed?
	Will the "stun guns" be outlawed?
	Will susceptible electronic systems become mandatory?
	(and if so, why not just put a remote control switch in all cars?)


Gary

Excerpts from internet.cypherpunks: 10-Aug-96 Police prepare stunning
end.. by Gary Howland@systemics.c 

[stuff about police wanting a new "stun gun" that can disable a car's
electrical systems deleted] 

> Three questions come to mind:
>  
>         Will old fashioned engines be outlawed?
>         Will the "stun guns" be outlawed?
>         Will susceptible electronic systems become mandatory?
>         (and if so, why not just put a remote control switch in all cars?)

That last one may already be true.  I don't know about automotive
electronic systems, but there's a nice sticker on the back of my
computer that states the following:

        This device complies with the FCC, part 15 rules.
        Operation is subject to the following two conditions:
        1)  This device may not cause harmful interference.
        2)  This device must accept any interference received,
            including interference that may cause undesired operation.

And as for remote controls in all cars, that's not as far fetched as one
may think.  Watch for this in the form of car alarm/security systems. 
Imagine the following scenrio:

1) You just noticed that your car is stolen.
2) You call the XXX security company to report your car as stolen.
3) The company beams down a signal by satellite/pager/cell-phone/etc. 
   telling the car's security systems that the car has been stolen.
4) This signal instructs the car to disable itself (shut down the engine, 
   lock the doors, etc.) and, via a GPS module and built-in 
   cell-phone/pager/etc., transmit it's coordinates.
5) The car is recovered and everyone is happy.

Of course, once such systems are widespread, the XXX security company
will be "encouraged" to cooperate with local police and send that
shut-down signal to any car the police tell them to.

_____________________________________________________________________________
 
 Tim Nali            \  "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of
 tn0s@andrew.cmu.edu  \   the dreams" -Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

Why don't they just have government access to car engines?  They could
just require car manufacturers to include remote shutdown devices for
the engines.

On Sat, 10 Aug 1996, Gary Howland wrote:
> Police prepare stunning end for high-speed car chases 
                                                                             |
     Could you please format your posts to 78 columns? It makes it difficult
to read on a standard terminal. 
>                                     BY GILES WHITTELL 
>                                     AND NIGEL HAWKES 
>          A high-powered electrical device under development at the Pentagon's Army Research
>          Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland, is to be tested by police and border patrol agents and
>          even stop heart pacemakers. There is also the danger of loss of control when a car is
>          being driven at high speed. 
>          Counter-measures would include using old-fashioned engines with no electronics, or
>          perhaps surrounding the most delicate components with shielding. The best might be to
>          get hold of one of the stun guns and use it to disable pursuing police vehicles. 
> Original article at http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Times/timnwsnws01022.html?1060389
> 	Will old fashioned engines be outlawed?
> 	Will the "stun guns" be outlawed?
> 	Will susceptible electronic systems become mandatory?
> 	(and if so, why not just put a remote control switch in all cars?)

    One word: Pacemakers.

Petro, Christopher C.
petro@suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff>
snow@smoke.suba.com

> Why don't they just have government access to car engines?  They
> could just require car manufacturers to include remote shutdown
> devices for the engines.

Well, then Carhacker arrives and shutdown any engine he can find :)