Rims

[xoxoxoBruce]

Do not go gentle into that good night...

[xoxoxoBruce]

Observations and opinions from a NYC cab company mechanic. Your mileage may vary. One advantage to cabs is very few cold starts where typically 90% of engine wear comes from. And their hybrids are easy on brakes because of relatively slow speeds and regenerative braking.

[glatt]

Wow. Every 3 weeks! What a beautiful engine.


This is what never changing your oil looks like:

[xoxoxoBruce]

Actually this is no rims. A semi truck, on railroad wheels, with both a fifth wheel and a coupler, and a sleeper cab. It tows a flat car with a small crane that picks up the old ties to get hauled away.

[fargon]

I saw that once, it was in far eastern UT along I-80.

[glatt]

I've seen pickup trucks like that, but never a semi.

[BigV]

doesn't look like a lot of weight over the drive wheels, does it?

[xoxoxoBruce]

No, it doesn't. Strictly flatland operation, no hills.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Before accidents became a social cause.

[Gravdigr]

Looks like the cure for insomnia.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Hey, is it fast? Nah, it's a dog, man.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Great idea who's time has pasted.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Scary prospect if you piss off nerds.

Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek demoed their exploit for Wired's Andy Greenberg, putting him on the highway in a Jeep which they then seized control over, putting their faces on the in-dash screen. They were able to control the car's electrics -- windshield wipers, AC, radio, etc -- as well as the acceleration and steering. Miller and Valasek will present their work at Black Hat in Vegas next month.

It's yet more evidence that a car is a computer that hurtles down the road high speed with you trapped inside it -- and that the computer's security, auditability and transparency are the most salient facts about your car.
~~~~~~~~~
Miller and Valasek say the attack on the entertainment system seems to work on any Chrysler vehicle with Uconnect from late 2013, all of 2014, and early 2015. They’ve only tested their full set of physical hacks, including ones targeting transmission and braking systems, on a Jeep Cherokee, though they believe that most of their attacks could be tweaked to work on any Chrysler vehicle with the vulnerable Uconnect head unit. They have yet to try remotely hacking into other makes and models of cars.

[Nothing But Net]

"The Gray Ghost" has a pretty nice set.

[glatt]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Scary prospect if you piss off nerds.

After I saw that article, I immediately searched for and downloaded the factory manual for our "new" 09 Accord. It's still got a mechanical connection between the steering wheel and tires, so that's good. And there's also a physical connection between the brake pedal and those same tires. Whew. But the throttle connection is an electronic one, and so is the transmission. And it's connected to the XM satellite. I think there is no way to hack the car through the XM radio, so I think I'm OK.

Car companies need to seriously harden their technology, especially if they are going to be pushing self driving cars on us. I don't have too much faith in Detroit getting this right any time soon, but I wonder how Elon Musk has approached this? I have a little more faith in Tesla.

Interesting choice in words though. Faith. Sad that I feel like it requires faith.