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Michelin to Include RFID Transmitter in Every Tire
An anonymous reader writes "According to the RFID Journal, Michelin (the tire manufacturer) has announced that it is planning on embedding RFID transmitters into every tire. The article states that 'the microchip stores the tire's unique ID, which can be associated with the vehicle identification number.' Let the privacy invasion begin!" If they're going to embed electronics in tires, I wish they'd start with tiny pressure gauges. (See also this story from a few days ago about the coming surge in RFID tags.)
If they link the purchaser to the tire via credit card number, they can know who you online and track you anywhere in the real world with RFID readers. In other words, someone from slashdot can steal your car.
The tire makers are just trying to comply with the law! The TREAD (Transportation, Recall, Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation) Act requires tire makers to track all of their tires in case they need to recall them. Blame Congress, not the tire makers.
Oh, and to respond to the editors comment about how they should make tired that track tire pressure instead, they already do! (Is it okay for me to tell the editor to RTFA?
If they're going to embed electronics in tires, I wish they'd start with tiny pressure gauges
Several cars already have tire low pressure warning systems. I know the Chevy Corvette has had such a system for the past decade, at least.
--Mythos
You can already buy pressure monitors for your tires. It's not as cool as an embedded pressure gauge, but it does the job and it's wireless so you can get realtime data.
a rt ire_all.jsp
http://www.tirerack.com/accessories/smartire/sm
They put in in people inside a capsule thats the size of a grain of rice and most of that size is the capsule. The devices consist of a single TINY microchip (grain of sand size) and a very tiny inductor (two grains of sand size).
a ts/rfid/index.htm, which manufactures a whole line of the devices.
The devices are powered by received RF energy, which the "reader" transmits. This isn't crazy, remember crystal AM radios? Did you know that you can listen to AM stations using a reciever that's powered BY the AM signal? Did you know that you can string a long wire parallel to the power lines and steal power from the electric company via electrical induction?
You can read ALL about commercial RFID systems at http://www.microchip.com/1010/pline/frequency/rfc
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
I don't think you know what RFID is. RFID is a very small chip with no power source of its own. When it comes close to a specialized broadcaster, the chip will be powered via. induction and broadcast a small tiny ID signal back. Your Range Rover probably has a commercial satelite service called OnStar, which is a very different thing than RFID.
Since a lot of ppl are asking a lot of the same questions about RFID devices, I thought I'd answer some here.
More information can be had from Microchip, a leading manufacturer of RFID devices. A lot of this information is coming from their RFID Design Guide
1. What is an RFID tag?
An RFID tag is a very small microcontroller and radio transmitter/receiver. They typically consist of a single chip and a single coil which behaves as an antenna.
2. What does an RFID tag transmit?
Most RFID tags transmit a single large integer number, unique to that individual tag. A serial number, if you will. Some RF tags also have a very small amount of ROM/EEPROM, and so could transmit a little more info and can even be reprogrammed by the "reader".
3. How are they powered?
The RFID "reader" device emits RF energy. The RFID tag receives this energy and uses it to power itself. It's a lot like an old AM crystal radio. The device transmits its number over and over at a very high bps for a high level of data redundancy.
There is a whole shitload more technical modulation theory and stuff that goes on here which I'm leaving out. If you aren't a ham or other radio type person it would probably be meaningless. Again if you would like more info, look here.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
My parents live in a rather hoity-toity neighborhood, where access is tightly controlled. Each non-manned entry gate is equipped with inductive loops embedded in the street. These read a device which is magnetically attached underneath a resident's vehicle by the homeowner's association. The device is a hard plastic capsule that is riveted to a metal backing. There are two VERY strong magnets (like the type found in hard disk acutators) that keep this contraption stuck to the bottom of the car. When a resident drives their car up to the gate, it opens automatically.
There is a computer within the security center that logs entries and exits and can also be used to revoke access (say someone steals the device/car/etc.).
Recently, the City of San Diego embarked on a major project to "upgrade" the traffic sensor loops at controlled intersections. There are now additional loops about 50 yards before each intersection, which are typically run into a 4-ft. cabinet at the side of the road.
These have also been mysteriously installed on some roads where there are no traffic signals. Yes, I realize the primary purpose of these devices would most likely be to meter traffic speed and flow, but imagine if the police wanted to keep tabs on a certain individual and thus placed one of these devices on a suspect's car, allowing them to be traced at every intersection, freeway on/off ramp, and even along smaller highways.
Definitely interesting stuff.
Cars already have unique identifiers (license plates), but those have to be visually read and interpreted by a human being... THAT'S the difference.
It's the work of 2 minutes to swap plates with a similar-appearing car in some parking lot... but a bit harder to swap out tires; most people keep the same set for years... 50-60K miles is 3-4+ years of driving for the average american. If implanting microchips in the human body hits a roadblock (privacy concerns, "number-of-the-beast" arguments), then why not track the vehicle? It's practically the same thing.
Vehicles are used mostly by single individuals, or single households with driving-age teenagers. Knowing where a vehicle goes is knowing what the household does. Marketing types have feverish dreams about the kind of demographic data you could gather with this.
This could also be useful for law enforcement, but not in the immediate future. What the law-enforcement-as-big-brother scenario lacks is a network of tranmitter/receiver modules embedded in the roads and curbs. Once those are commonplace, automated tracking of a vehicle becomes a piece of cake.
Most people don't realize just how labor-intensive a good surveillance operation can be. You need multiple teams, several different vehicles, and personnel skilled in the art of being unobtrusive. Visually surveiling someone requires manpower, training, and can be difficult under the best of circumstances (let alone at night, or in bad weather). GPS units are being used for this, but planting them can be a challenge, and a technically saavy target could detect or jam the transmission. Unique IDs in the tires and a network of readers might not give up-to-the-second velocity and position data, but they might be good enough...
Car 1: "I got caught at the traffic light... lost 'im"
Dispatcher: "He just took 131st street west... Car 2, turn right and pick him up at the next cross-street"
Car 2: "got it"
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
True, the government doesn't really care about you (unless you happen to be from certain unpopoular countries these days). Companies, on the other hand, would love to know all about you so that they can target your particular interests for all sorts of products they'd like to sell you. They're the ones you really have to worry about when it comes to privacy issues, because they really *do* care about your personal info.
-- Will quantum computers run imaginary-time operating systems?
The idea that privacy is already gone and we should "get over it" is absolute idiocy.
:)
... how often do average citizens have their plate checked? I bet it's a lot, now that squad cars have computers and constant wireless links. And every time they do, it's a record of where the car was at what time. Next, the cameras will do this work automatically. Screw the tire chips.
:)
Gee, thanks.
My point was different: I think fighting tire chips is silly because the state already has plenty of alternatives. We can't stop it because it's already happened, and making a protest over some token new item is a waste of time; we might as well accept whatever benefits we can get.
The prevalence of video cameras makes me skeptical that law enforcement would bother assembling the database and tearing up all the streets when they already have a great system of tracking -- license plates. It wasn't widely discussed, but the snipers' license plates were run something like 9 times and their plate was photographed by a red light camera in the weeks they were doing their thing. If we had known what we were looking for we would have caught them earlier; meanwhile, law enforcement was apparently running the plates on no specific suspicion (remember, everyone said we were looking for a white truck). So
The Fourth Amendment is no help, because the Supreme Court ruled 20 years ago that the police could place a tracking device on your care without a warrant (!). I doubt exterior surveillance by camera would raise a constitutional problem, though I do hope that the Supreme Court will at some point look at the aggregate of all these little intrusions and conclude that an overall police state is unconstitutional. However, that would inject them into government in a way the Court does not want; and they've been fairly indifferent to privacy (notwithstanding the surprise thermal imaging decision).
So the effort of privacy advocates must be in legislation. The courts won't do it, and avoiding Michelin tires definitely won't do it. I'm hardly advocating acquiescence, just not tilting at windmills.
Oh, the icepick was a joke.
You could make the same argument about the RFID; there's nothing saying what either technology will or won't be used for
It takes maybe 5 seconds to run someone's plate if there's a laptop in the cruiser, otherwise maybe 20 seconds to read the plate over the radio and get the details from dispatch (this is why cops in precincts without laptops will follow you for a block before pulling you over). I don't see why an automated device would take longer than an officer. It would take much longer to search a database of RFIDs, since ther would be 5x as many records
Your other points are very valid, I just wanted to clarify those first three: for close-range, it's much easier to get someone's plate, and if they're parked, their VIN.
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
if you had an emp that could do that, that would probably be the least destructive thing to do with it
I suspect something on the order of 10's of watts (very low power) would easily do it. Even if it was on a harmonic of the original frequency, in which case you might get away with consumer hardware. Or, even something as simple as a strong magnetic field - you can make one of those if you have a coil and current.
..don't panic
(At least a couple of years ago), Nortel's Dallas facility was like this. Everyone essentially carried a "tolltag" like device. You could watch the employees move around the building like little lemmings. The resolution was pretty good. Doors that you were authorized to access opened as you approached - if you weren't authorized, they didn't. Also, if you, for instance, went up to the roof and tossed your card to someone on the ground, they couldn't get in because the computer hadn't seen you leave the building. Since you were supposed to wear the tag at all times, it would only open doors near your location.
First, I've never heard of police cars being equipped with live OCR equipment.
IDK about police cars, but over here (.nl), the police have been experimenting with a stationary OCR system. The experiment involved checking everyone's average speed over a 3-km stretch of highway (read licence plates at beginning and end, calculate time between passages).