Freezing Out Smartkey Hijackers

Smart keys are included as standard features in the majority of new models these days.  Keyless entry all seems so simple.  You walk up to the car with the smart key fob in your pocket or your handbag and hey presto! The car door unlocks itself just like that.  With the newer models, you don’t even have to press the button.  All you have to do is to walk within a metre of the car and a wee sensor inside the car will detect the presence of the fob and its unique electronic signal.

It’s convenient, especially if you’re struggling with lots of bags or a wriggly toddler.  However, there’s a downside: they can be hacked with a fairly inexpensive device (if you think I’m going to give you the full details of exactly how to get hold of the device, you’ve got to be joking!).

These smart key hacking devices sound like something out of James Bond or possibly MacGyver and operate using a very simple procedure. Instead of messing around trying to read your radio signal and nicking the code that’s transmitted from the fob to the keyless entry sensor (something the very sophisticated high-tech car thieves do), this hacking gizmo simply amplifies the signal coming from the fob.  This means that instead of triggering the unlocking mechanism when you’re close to the car, the fob will trigger it from a lot further away. A lot further away as in over 200 metres away.

This means that when you’re sitting indoors and your keys are hanging up on the hook where they usually live, they’ll be able to unlock the car when the car is sitting on the street.  Once the car’s unlocked, it doesn’t take a crim very long to hotwire your lovely new car and whizz off with it.  You have been warned.

Is there anything you can do to foil these smart key hijackers?  The first thing you can do is to use ordinary precautions such as keeping your car in a locked garage or at least behind a locked gate if all you’ve got is a lean-to.  This means that your car isn’t about to go walkies in the middle of the night when you’re asleep with the keys sitting safely on top of the fridge.  After all, if your car is parked somewhere insecure with bad lighting, it’s still vulnerable to low-tech attacks with the help of a crowbar or a lock-pick, either of the main door or the fuel cap.

The other thing you can do, at least according to a technical writer for the New York Times, is to keep your smart keys in the freezer.  I double-checked to make sure that this advice wasn’t in a piece put out on April Fools’ Day, so it seems to be fair dinkum.  Apparently, a freezer acts as a “Faraday cage”. These block the entry of electric or electronic signals from getting to what’s in the cage.  If you’ve seen those TV shows where someone sits inside a vehicle or a metal cage with lightning zapping around them, you’ve seen a Faraday cage.  Apparently, this is how shark cages for “diving with sharks” operations work as well – it’s thought that the metal interferes with the sharks’ ability to sense your electrical signals (and solid steel protects you from bites, of course).  But I digress…

The other Faraday cage that you are likely to have in your home is a microwave.  Ordinarily, a microwave’s Faraday cage stops the radiation that cooks your food leaking out and cooking you or whatever’s in the fruit bowl beside the microwave.

Therefore, here’s a couple of handy hints for these safer storage spots:

• If you opt for the freezer, make sure your keys are dry (no raindrops) before putting them in.  Use gloves when you get them out.
• If you opt for the microwave, be careful not to switch it on by mistake or you will fry (a) the keys and (b) the microwave.  Put the microwave where fiddly little fingers or kitty paws can’t switch it on by mistake.

Safe and happy driving,

Megan

PS: I’ve heard that surfers and the like hate smart key systems, thanks to the habit of hiding the keys somewhere near the car while heading off into the waves.  Now you know why surfers like to drive classic old Holdens and VW Kombis – it’s not just an image thing! http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/mgnovennye-zaimy-na-kartu-bez-otkazov-kredito24.html

Pee Power: It’s No Joke (No, Honestly; We Really Mean It This Time)

Quite a few years ago, when this blog site was just starting out, we published an April Fool’s day article that claimed that scientists had worked out how to run a car engine on pee.  We intended this as a joke but it looks as though the last laugh’s on us.  There really is a way to run a vehicle on urine.

This is not to say that the white-coated ones have come up with a system by which you refuel your vehicle by taking a very, very large drink of water then… well, use your imagination! Instead, it’s a system where hydrogen is extracted from urine and is then used in hydrogen fuel cells to power a vehicle.

In fact, according to Gerardine Botte of Ohio University, who developed the process of getting hydrogen out of urine in 2009, it’s easier to get the hydrogen out of wee than out of water. In urea (one of the compounds of urine), there’s four hydrogen atoms per molecule rather than two, and they’re not holding chemical hands as tightly, so they’re easy to split off with a cheap little nickel-based electrode that uses 0.37 V to grab the hydrogen rather than the 1.23 V needed to split water up into H₂ and O.

This is very good news for the sustainable fuel world. Hydrogen fuel cells are the next big thing. In fact, Toyota , the people who really popularised the hybrid electric vehicle with the ground-breaking Prius are set to launch the world’s first mass-produced fuel cell vehicle, known as the Mirai (which has already been released in Japan and California).

So how does hydrogen fuel cell technology work?

A fuel cell is kind of like a battery in that it produces an electrical current that can then be used to power a motor. However, unlike a battery, it needs to be supplied non-stop with fuel, which is usually hydrogen and water. There are several different types of fuel cell out there but in general, what happens is this:

• Hydrogen molecules flow in at one side and the anode catalyst nicks their electrons (a hydrogen atom contains one proton and one electron). This leaves the hydrogen molecules with a positive electrical charge, while the electrons start the circuit buzzing.
• The positively charged hydrogen molecules are pulled through the electrolyte towards the cathode.
• At the cathode, the positively charged molecules meet up with the electrons again. They also meet up with oxygen molecules that have been coming in the other way.
• The oxygen, hydrogen and free electrons react and produce H₂O, which leaves as exhaust.

If you want this in more visual form (and don’t mind a little promo material), watch Toyota’s explanation here:

Each individual fuel cell only produces a wee bit of electrical current, so to be really efficient, you need a whole bank of them.

The main snag with hydrogen fuel cell vehicles so far is the usual problem with any new technology: the infrastructure problem. Hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles are already facing this problem, namely the issue of “topping up”. One of the problems that will have to be overcome is that it’s not a wise idea to have large amounts of pure hydrogen hanging around for any length of time as it’s really, really explosive (heard of the Hindenberg disaster, anyone?). However, seeing as we can cope with other highly flammable materials like LPG, acetylene and even petrol, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

The other issue is getting the hydrogen. Yes, it’s an abundant molecule but it tends to be tied up to other molecules so it has to be stripped off. Methane is a commonly used potential source of hydrogen, but you have to get the methane from somewhere, usually as a waste product of industries such as our sugar cane industry. Extracting the hydrogen for use as fuel is fiddly compared to just producing and pumping ethanol from the same source, so it’s usually the ethanol that wins out.

This is kind of why the discovery that you can get the hydrogen out of urea pretty easily is rather exciting, especially as the leftover molecules after you’ve removed the hydrogen are nitrogen molecules, which have potential to be used as fertiliser (in fact, urea is currently used as fertiliser, as any old-fashioned home gardener will tell you). Let’s face it: if there’s one thing we’re not going to run out of in a huge hurry is pee. If we’ve got an increasing human population and we all have to keep drinking, then we’re all going to widdle. In fact, as an extra bonus, if we’re all saving our pee to use in a fuel cell vehicle, this will reduce pressure on the waste water system which means that there will be more water for use in agriculture and for drinking, which will help reduce world hunger, etc. etc. Human pee isn’t the only source, either, as the process works with just about any sort of urine, including cow, sheep and horse pee.

Hydrogen fuel cell technology has been tried in Australia when Perth was trialling a set of buses running on hydrogen. Here, we’re lagging behind the US, Germany, Japan and the UK somewhat. Perth had the only hydrogen fuelling station for the now-discontinued bus trial.

It’s all rather exciting, really, as there’s plenty of potential. Here’s to Pee Power!

Safe and happy driving,

Megan http://credit-n.ru/offers-zaim/turbozaim-zaimy-online-bez-otkazov.html

Where In the World?

When I look out over the busy city streets, I often am left asking the question: where on earth do all these new cars keep coming from?  Did you know that around the world there are over 70 million new passenger cars produced every year?  If you break that down further, you could say that around the world 191,000 new cars are made every day.  Literally, where on earth are the cars being made up?  And, which country produces the most cars?

You may already be in the know, but China is the greatest producer of cars.  Over a quarter of the world’s new cars, that are produced in a year, are made in China.  This number over doubles that of the second biggest new car manufacturer: Japan.

Why such the big numbers from China?  China continues to grow its economy; and where there is more money for spending, the Chinese people want to own their own cars.  Most of the Chinese made cars are being sold locally in China; however, around 1 million cars are exported from China around the globe.  You may be familiar with Chery and Great Wall vehicles that are sold here in Australia.  Export sales for China are still much lower compared with other countries, but China’s exported car numbers are continuing to grow rapidly.  In Australia, new car sales would suggest that we all love our Japanese made cars, but let’s just get to grips with the fact that China is making cars at a rate that outstrips all other countries around our globe.  So, it would be reasonable to suggest that in another decade or so Chinese made cars may be the top sellers in our country.

As far as the quality of product goes, Chinese made cars are rapidly becoming as well-made as cars made elsewhere around the world.  Some predict that by 2018, Chinese made cars will be as good as any other equivalent model made elsewhere in the world.  Chinese indigenous automobile brands include: Beijing Automotive Group, Brilliance Automotive, BYD, Dongfeng Motor, FAW Group, SAIC Motor, Chang’an (Chana), Geely, Chery, Jianghuai (JAC), Great Wall, and the Guangzhou Automobile Group.

So what about the rest of the world?  New cars are made in Japan, Germany and South Korea at a high rate compared with other global manufacturers, but they still, individually, trail well behind China in production rates.  The next tier of high automotive production includes India, USA, Brazil, France, Spain, Russia and Mexico.  Iran, UK, Czech Republic and Canada produce around 1 million cars each year.  Poland, Slovakia, Turkey, Argentina, Indonesia, Belgium and Thailand produce over half a million cars each year.  Malaysia, Italy, South Africa, Romania and Taiwan produce between 250–to–500 thousand cars each year.  Hungary, Australia, Sweden, Slovenia, Uzbekistan, Portugal and Austria produce between 125–to–150 thousand cars, while the Ukraine and Egypt produce between 50–to–100 thousand cars each year.  The Netherlands and Serbia produce between 25–to–50 thousand cars each year.  Finland produces around 2,500 cars, while numerous other countries put together all add up to around 350,000 cars each year.

Toyota Motor Corp. has retained its position as the world’s best-selling automobile maker, saying that it had sold over 10 million vehicles worldwide in 2015.  Toyota, Volkswagen and GM account for roughly a third of the vehicles sold world-wide.  The top five car manufacturers who sold the most cars worldwide in 2015 were: Toyota 10.8 million, Volkswagen 9.5 million, General Motors 8.9 million, Ford 8.6 million and Hyundai 7.3 million.

http://credit-n.ru/zaymi-na-kartu-blog-single.html

Car Safety Trivia

The Hybrid III crash test dummy family portrait.

I don’t know why trivia books are so popular, but they are. We could spend a bit of time pondering what it is about humanity that makes collecting obscure and quirky facts interesting or amusing. However, that wouldn’t be half as much fun as actually sharing a bit of trivia, taking the topic of car safety this time.

Not that car safety is a trivial issue, by any means. These days, a new car review is just as likely to emphasise all the safety features, active and passive, as it is to list the power and torque stats. And no wonder: in the state of Victoria last year, there were 248 fatal road accidents; NSW had 302. Some of these were drivers, some were passengers, some were cyclists and some were pedestrians. This is why safety features exist, everybody. There are a lot of lives that could be saved. When you think about the number of people who do idiot things like not wearing seatbelts, drinking too much and driving at speeds that are just plain too fast for the conditions, “facepalm” and “head-desk” just don’t quite cover it.

Right, enough depressing stuff and on with the trivia…

• Top-level crash testing facilities such as MIRA in the UK don’t just crash-test cars. They also test other vehicles like heavy trucks, and “roadside furniture” such as lamp posts and traffic lights. Yes, they now crash-test lamp-posts to make them safer so wrapping your car around a pole is less likely. Don’t hold your breath for them to make it over to Australia for a while yet, though, so drive safely!
• The first crash test dummy was called “Sierra Sam”.  Sam was invented in the late 1940s and was used for testing ejector seats in aircraft. It wasn’t until later that someone realised that using crash test dummies would be a good idea for new car models.
• The average crash test dummy is 1.78 metres tall.
• Airbags were first invented in 1952 by US inventor John W Hetrick. However, it wasn’t until 1971 that Ford  first actually put them in.
• The three-point seatbelt that we all know today was invented in 1959 by a guy working for Volvo named Nils Ivar Bohlin. According to Volvo , during the inventor’s lifetime, about 1 million lives were saved by the three-point seatbelt. Let’s all make his name known more widely, because he certainly deserves it.
• The state of Victoria was the first place in the world to enact seat belt legislation in 1970 when they made it compulsory for drivers and front seat passengers to wear some sort of seat belt. That’s over 40 years ago and some people still haven’t managed to get it.
• Crash test dummies aren’t the only things strapped into the seats of cars and propelled at speed into an obstacle. Over the years, testers have used human cadavers and, rather nastily, live pigs under anaesthesia. Testing with live anaesthetised animals wasn’t banned until 1993. Cadaver testing sounds pretty macabre and probably is, but is considered to be the absolute best way to test new passive safety features. When you think about it, it’s no worse than donating organs for transplants or donating your body to medical colleges for research purposes and it does help save lives. It certainly beats using the poor old piggies.
• Airbags inflate at 320 km/h, which is faster than the top speed of most cars they’re installed in.
• The most common type of crash test dummy is the Hybrid III. To be more accurate, the Hybrid III family is used. This crash test dummy family consists of Mr Hybrid III (five foot nine inches), his big brother Uncle Hybrid III (six foot two), Mrs Hybrid III (five foot no inches) and two kids aged six and three. Mr Hybrid represents the 50^th percentile for adults, Uncle is the 95^th percentile and Mrs Hybrid is the 5^th percentile.
• Those percentiles mentioned in the snippet above are now out of date. Thanks to galloping obesity (or, more appropriately, not galloping), there’s a chance that crash testing facilities are going to need big fat dummies.

Safe (very safe) and happy driving,

Megan http://credit-n.ru/potreb-kredit.html