will tell my story later
I wonder if hummers have this? If so it’s a problem and this article just made it public.
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Time to get a copper paint job for the car.
I see a boom market for car Faraday cages...
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.
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Remove the tire, pull the batteries.. problem solved.
Much ado about nothing.
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.
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.
I had a GM rental last year that was reporting 0 air pressure in all the tires and that the engine was on fire.
With minor limitations, TPMS can be used for the very purpose of tracking your vehicle in real time with no substantial investments!
From the Subaru information page:
When the vehicle goes 7-20 mph, a roll switch inside the sensor turns on and the sensor starts to take measurements every 30 seconds, and sends the results about once a minute to a receiver module under the carpet by the drver's door. Presumably all four transmitters start squawking at about the same time, which means that your car sends out a recognizable signal once every minute.
If I'm driving 65 mph on the freeway, I cover 5720 feet every minute. If the low power signal can be detected 50 feet away, that's 105.6 sensors every mile, on both sides of the freeway, just to make sure it can detect my car. I would call that a substantial investment.
Also:
TPMS can also be used to measure the speed of your vehicle. Similarly to highway/freeway speed sensors that measure traffic speed, TPMS readers can be installed in pairs to measure how quick your vehicle goes over a predefined distance.
If they were transmitting continuously this would make sense. Since they aren't, it doesn't.
Only the most sophisticated TPMS systems use sensors on the tires- those that report a pressure number. Most cars use data from the anti-lock braking system that activates a idiot light in the dash if the tire is rotating at a different rate than other tires or outside an accepted range.