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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.)
funny, as a consumer who actually buys the tires, I don't remember ever asking for this.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
If they can put those things in tires, they can
put them in condoms, too.
"Sir, I just don't understand how you could have recieved puncture damage in the exact same spot on all 4 tires."
or,
"Why does the rubber on this tire appear melted?"
Brings new meaning to the phrase burning rubber....
"You now have a lot more riding on your tires, so don't do anything stupid 'cause we're watchin' your ass, bitch."
Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate. Ex-O'Reilly/MIT employee, now a full-time Google employee.
They'll make you put an identification tag on your bumper
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?
One of the first products I can see coming out of this event is little EMP generators that allow you to detect, then blow the living daylight out of the RF circuitry in these things. Remember... any good transmitter is a good receiver, too... find the resonant frequency of this receiver, and you can pump enough energy into it to melt the traces.
Instant privacy.
So, are we going to start seeing people swap tires with each other? I'd read the article but it's already dead. Is swaping tires going to become illegal without re-registering them with the new vehicle? It'd be pretty cool to have whoever is tracking this see most vehicles in four different places at once.
Apparently, of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
If Firestone does it, they'll be sure to include this code:
...
Tire leftFrontTire = new Tire(props);
if(leftFrontTire.pressure > randomVar) {
leftFrontTire.implode();
}
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
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
The manufacturer already knows which VIN goes to who. The bank knows the VIN of the car since it issues the loan. Your state government knows the VIN of your car when you register it. Your insurance company knows your VIN and everything about your car from it. Everytime you bring your car to the dealer they they note the work done by your VIN so the manufacturer can notice any major problems. So how is this going to take away from your privacy?
The best use I could think of for this would be for those drive-through beer and liquor stores. Every time a car drove through, you could record the ids' of its tires. Then, if the customer bought cigarettes, you could store the tire ids in a database of cigarette buyers. You could sell this database to health insurance companies for a fortune so they could bust people who made fraudulent claims about being a nonsmoker on their health insurance and deny them benefits.
Man, this is a terriffic idea.
Just use an icepick to perforate the chip. :)
This decision was mentioned a few days ago in the Times I think, and the intent to transmit tire pressures was specified. As for privacy problems, I think it's a little premature. Anyone close enough to scan your "tire chips" could just write down or photograph your license plate anyway (thouse red light cameras come pretty close), and soon enough with OCR traffic cameras will be able to record your passing. So anonymity in public is a fleeting thing anyway, and the Fourth Amendment won't stop it.
Also, it is easy enough to buy tires anonymously by using the green stuff.
To protect privacy, campaigning has to focus on the weak leak: The government. That the administration would even propose TIA reflects a serious problem already; privacy is the orphan right.
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
If you car is "suddenly" equipt with five (don't forget the spare) transmitters that each broadcast a unique serial number in response to a promiscuously broadcasted request, well, that is "bad" from a privacy standpoint.
Now associate those numbers with your VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) which uniquely identifies your car.
Your VIN is already connected to things like your name, address, insurance carrier and so on.
So now you are driving down a street and any number of automated systems can know it is you (well, your car at least). So you have essentially been tagged like a spring buck.
Worse, but more interesting, a well equipt "ring" of duck-and-squat or similar con artists can now "interview" your car to see if you've got good rip-off potential.
Authorities can target and track you. Who needs racial profiling? The cop is asleep in his car when an alarm goes off to tell him someone meeting his favorite criteria is driving by. How about "that car is owned by a white person" listing getting your black roomate killed for borrowing your car?
Far worse than that, the piece in question is easily accessable.
If systems (toll booths etc?) start using this data for any purpose then I could "swap out" one of your tires and drive around "as you", possibly for days. When was the last time you *really* looked at your passenger side rear wheel? How about your spare?
In even legitimate cases ("Sure Clem, you can borrow my snow tires for the weekend...") of transfer you could become identity-entangled with who knows what...
Being made "trackable" is always a rights issue.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
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
Some points:
First, I've never heard of police cars being equipped with live OCR equipment. First you'd have to be able to single out the license plate text from that of the neighboring car, or a road sign, or even a piece of litter tumbling across your Line-of-Sight.
Second, the only reason to have such live OCR would be for aid in automating vehicle tracking. While the ACLU (or international counterparts) would be quick to try to plaster attention over this, people already consider it common.
Third, searches through public databases take time. It's not like they'll be able to identify you the moment their computer gets a lock on your identifying characteristic. Local caching would be prohibitively expensive for your average police department, no matter what the size of the city.
Fourth, there's really no range limit on how far away you could detect these things. Your effective range depends on the power being broadcasted at, and the sensitivity of your instruments. It being a digital signal makes the matter a heck of a lot easier.
Fifth, it might be possible to fry the RFID device by feeding it so much RF power that its circuitry melts. (I know I'd certainly try if I had tires or clothing that had these devices. I'd go park next to a high-power radio tower for a few hours.) There'd certainly be a market in devices capable of high-power directional transmissions. The devices are probably already illegal.
Sixth, the government is going to have a hell of a time passing laws prohibiting unlicensed transfer of RFID-enabled devices. And I can tell you that laws regulating the sales and transfers of something so common as tires (and, later, clothing, shoes, etc.).
Seventh, if you need an alibi, intentionally broadcast one of your RFIDs at, say, forty watts. (Talk about getting around a lot!) Or just send someone driving around with your RFID clothing, or driving around in your car.
Eighth, 1984 should have been titled 2005. People don't take it seriously because the things it predicted didn't happen by 1984.
What's this Submit thingy do?
I used to work for a software firm, who were based in a large building and with multiple tennants. To control access to our part of the building we were issued with contactless swipe cards. Which are a sort of crude, low power RFID system.
We thought they were purely for access control, but we were in for a surprise. The management had fitted special sensors at the toilet and cafe doors as well as at the drinks machines and smoking rooms. We had no idea management had done this, we just though new heating control thermometers were being fitted.
Once our bi-monthly productivity appraisals came round we were presented with a detailed breakdown of our movement round the building. I was asked why I made 12 visits to the coffee machine in one day (all drinks were free) and why I once spent more than 10 minutes in the toilet,
What management had done was turn the securty cards in to tracking devices. Basically if we went within 4 feet of these sensors, it was logged. We had always assumed that the cards had to be within 2 inches of a sensor to be recognised, not so aparently. This whole setup was implemented to try and achieve productivity gains, in fact it did the opposite. A lot of people spent more and more time on the toilet for some reason and other people developed a habit of forgetting their cards and having to get security to release the doors remotely.
The moral of the story is what started as a innocent security system, turned in to a tracking system which caused people serious stress. I know my employers are allowed to know what I do on their time, but having to justify my toilet habits is my idea of how such technology as RFID systems can be misused. Incidentally, the system was switched off after the unions got on the case.
If RFID tags where in everything, and the govt. had RFID readers everywhere, then I might be a little concerned. However, even if RFIDs where that pervasive, it would still be easy to become invisible to all those RFID scanners. Just microwave all your clothes. As small as ther are I cannot imagine an RFID tag being able to remain intact when hit with a large EM field. Tracking down and disabling RFIDs in your vehicle shouldn't be that difficult either.
Recalls are not driving this. It would be cheaper to do this another way and unique IDs are not needed for recalls.
Does anyone think it's cheaper to "invest" in all new equipment than it is to use established bar codes? Tell me why the company can't paint a nice little white bar coded serial number on the side of the tire? Everyone's got barcode readers and they would be more practical. How is a tire shop going to check the serial number of a single tire, when every tire in range answers?
RFIDs are only useful for others who have nothing to do with tire recalls. Does anyone really expect to be told that their tires are recalled? Most recalls are silent, you either find out about them on your own from paid advertisements or you don't. While it would be very nice for Michalin to contact me if my particular lot of tires is bum, I don't see what that has to do with someone being able to ID my car from a distance. If tire lot is all you need, why the unique number? Won't unique serial numbers actually impeed lot recognition? When tires are sold at a shop all the information the company needs to meet the stated goal is collected. After that, no one else needs to know who you are.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Though I suspect that given the distances I drive here in Australia, it's unlikely to ever be a problem.
After all, they can't even maintain mobile phone coverage without a fairly hefty power input.
I've seen a picture of one of these tires in some other article. Michelin is so proud of solving the technical challenges, they are putting stickers on the side of the tires. Two years from now, if you want to know if its in your tire, look for the sticker. After all, the "technicians" changing your oil need to be able to tell if they can use the new-fangled tire reader on your tires or not.
So, are we going to start seeing people swap tires with each other?
They already do.
Park your car in a garage in New York City. See if you have the same tires when you get it back.
B-)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
I worked for Michelin for seventeen years, so I might be a resource on this. Michelin management is basically a bunch of Nazi's disguised as french. And that is just the little Napoleon's running around (You know who you are Camille), American management is worse than the french, basically bloodsucking leaches that will steal any idea for their own personal gain (Hi Jim!). These aren't pointy heads, but pointy horned bosses. I use to say buy Michelin for the quality, but if you buy Michelin, you are supporting human rights abuses.
People are saying who cares:
1) You have to be 2 feet from the tire.
2) You already have license plates
3) This just IDs the tire, not you
4) No one cares about you
Now I'm not a paranoid freak, but these are just stupid arguments as I'll demonstrate.
1) When you pull through the drive through at McD's and the Bank, you are less than 2 feet and sit there for quite some time. McD's might like to now that VIN #12345 always orders a BigMac, and by linking your VIN to you, they know what you like.
2) Yes, but license plates can not be read without direct line of site, by a computer, for little or no cost.
3) This ties the tires to the VIN of your car, which IDs you.
4) The government may not be trying to track me down, but companies would love to have a way to track their customers.
Let's all not get too paranoid, but at least think things through.
THIS SPACE FOR RENT
What would be cool is if your driveway could have a sensor in it that reads the RFID on your tire and automatically open the garage door for you. No more worrying who has the remote.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.