Spy My Ride: Somebody may be tracking your vehicle and you don't know about it![Tire Pressure]

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[joe fonebone]

will tell my story later

[DBrow]

I wonder if hummers have this? If so it’s a problem and this article just made it public.

[BenLurkin]

Bookmark

[diverteach]

Time to get a copper paint job for the car.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Make sure you don’t use ‘dirty’ copper... :-)

[pabianice]

I see a boom market for car Faraday cages...

[stompk]

“I see a boom market for car Faraday cages...”

hard to drive with them wrapped around your tires :-)

of course you could use a freq. scanner to get the freq. and then build your own jammer of sorts. . . I guess.

but then, my goodness, you couldn’t see your tire pressure one your dash. gasp!

[DBrow]

Since it's a federal law, the TREAD Act, I wonder how illegal it will be to avoid this inconvenience.

Will your car start if it's not getting TPMS signals?

Will it be illegal for car service people to remove the sensors?

Now I understand why Bloomberg and others were talking about special tolls for downtown traffic. This is easier than cameras and probably more reliable for ID.

[stompk]

” Will your car start if it’s not getting TPMS signals?

Will it be illegal for car service people to remove the sensors?”

if you could get a couple friends with the same size and brand tires, you could trade em around. imagine the confusion if one car registered 4 serial numbers per checkpoint :-)

in fact, go to a junk yard, pull the sensors out of tires there, throw 10 or 12 in your glove box and giggle a little every time you see a reader. :-)

[IYAS9YAS]

Question for anyone who knows. Do the systems that tell you which tire is low automatically adjust when you rotate the tires? I had the dealer do it for me at my last oil change, but would prefer to do it myself. Service reps wouldn’t say, for obvious reasons.

[sopwith]

some do tell you which tire is low some need a scan tool.
they do make tools to reset the sensors also. and at this point I don’t think there is a law saying you can’t toss em.
I hope not cause I’ve tossed a few.

[LucyJo]

.

[rednesss]

"Will your car start if it's not getting TPMS signals?"

I'm sure some intrepid engineer/hacker would be able to spoof it.

[HamiltonJay]

Remove the tire, pull the batteries.. problem solved.

Much ado about nothing.

[Wiseghy]

If the battery lasts 7 years, the transmit power has got to be minscule.

Sounds like a bit too much paranoia, compared to other technologies.

[AmericaUnited]

Or ... take some lead foil and put it around the nasty little transmitting sensor.

[Go_Raiders]

Mrs. GR and I have FasTrak transponders in our vehicles to pay bridge tolls in the Bay Area.

Caltrans also uses our transponders to determine traffic flow on major freeways all over California. When you pull up traffic conditions on Google Maps, that’s where they get the data. Google Maps has saved at least 100 hours of my time in helping me avoid traffic jams. I consider that to be worth about $5,000 dollars.

We don’t have TPMS, but wouldn’t care if we did. We’ve got better things to worry about than who is keeping track of our cars.

[Caramelgal]

Interesting…..

I’ve got TPMS on my 2006 Subaru Tribeca.

Tire Pressure Monitor system, FAQ

Would it be a good idea to wrap my tires in aluminum foil? Just kidding. Besides I’ve used up all my Reynolds Wrap to fashion me some spiffy hats.

While the article seems to imply that it would be “possible” with “modifications” to track my car and its speed, etc. or be used by some 10th grade Jihadsists to blow me up, it doesn’t exactly sound like it’s currently doing anything else right now but transmitting a harmless signal to trigger a warning light on my dashboard which so far, has only come on when the weather gets cold and the tires deflate past the threshold.

Then again who knows? Since I live in Maryland, maybe my car is sending secret signals to Governor O'Malley whenever I go to Delaware – The Home of Tax Free Shopping.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Of course this technology is flawless, 100% accurate at all times.

I had a GM rental last year that was reporting 0 air pressure in all the tires and that the engine was on fire.