Re: forget photographing license plates!

On 15 Aug 96 01:31:08 -0800, null@void.com wrote:
"In the 22 Jul 1996 issue of Fortune was an interesting look into the future of automobile electronics, "Soon Your Dashboard Will Do Everything (Except Steer)". " From the control center, they can "electronically reach into the car" to unlock the doors, or honk the horn and flash its lights." ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ How long do you think it would be before thieves subverted this feature?
It is extremely comforting to me -- I don't know about you -- to think >that GM will maintain a control center able to communicate with my auto >electronics. Shit, why not TRW?
I'm just waiting for them to integrate with TRW. Then, with people they've determined can afford a new one, they can trigger the car to have mysterious engine failures... | Chris Adams <adamsc@io-online.com> - Webpages for sale! Se habla JavaScript! | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp | Autoresponder: send email w/subject of "send resume" or "send PGPKEY"

I'm just waiting for them to integrate with TRW. Then, with people they've determined can afford a new one, they can trigger the car to have mysterious engine failures...
Or the minute one falls behind on their bill, the engine doesn't start. This is legal, IIRC (I am not sure of the exact court case, but one company had a software vendor disable their sales software by remote for not paying their bill, and the court upheld the software vendor. I don't remember the specifics on this.)

On 15 Aug 96 01:31:08 -0800, null@void.com wrote:
"In the 22 Jul 1996 issue of Fortune was an interesting look into the future of automobile electronics, "Soon Your Dashboard Will Do Everything (Except Steer)". " From the control center, they can "electronically reach into the car" to unlock the doors, or honk the horn and flash its lights."
It is extremely comforting to me -- I don't know about you -- to think that GM will maintain a control center able to communicate with my auto
electronics. Shit, why not TRW?
Why, when I read this, do I keep getting flashes of Kirk&Co hacking into Kahn's Shipboard Computers to get it to drop the Ship's shields <g>?

At 3:19 -0500 8/18/96, Douglas R. Floyd wrote:
I'm just waiting for them to integrate with TRW. Then, with people they've determined can afford a new one, they can trigger the car to have mysterious engine failures...
Or the minute one falls behind on their bill, the engine doesn't start.
This is legal, IIRC (I am not sure of the exact court case, but one company had a software vendor disable their sales software by remote for not paying their bill, and the court upheld the software vendor. I don't remember the specifics on this.)
Neither do I (exactly) but it was one of those cases where the program was leased for a period of time and was not to be used after this unless the new lease was paid. Normally, these types of programs start printing Count-Down warnings as the expiration date nears and the customer is supposed to enter a code (supplied by the vendor after paying for the extension of the lease) into the program to keep it running. I do not remember if the program was issuing this type of warning or not. I think that the court case was due to the way that the vendor crippled it for non-payment not the fact that it was done (since the Time Bomb code was standard industry practice and they just logged into the program to cripple it instead of just having it refuse to run after the trigger date).
participants (3)
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Adamsc@io-online.com
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Douglas R. Floyd
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Robert A. Rosenberg