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Remote-controlled Bolts and Screws
Winter writes "SMT Magazine has an article on intelligent fasteners (screws, bolts...) that can fasten themselves or by remote control.
Usage for this seems mainly to make sure normal people cannot change parts in their car themselves, and only allow for authorized parts and service.
Of course, a hacker might also have fun and disassemble the neighbours car."
So... This is just another scheme so that they can sell you a part to actually work on your car. Or even worse, make you go to the dealer *shudder*.. I can see it now...
"Well sir, the bolts to your air filter are remote controlled... You need this $300 remote to take the cover off and replace the filter"
What's next, the same tool to be able to take the gas cap off, because that too is locked down? Only this time they sell it as a dealer add-on rather than a part?
Hmmm.
Just when Congress appears ready to force auto makers to stop locking nondealer mechanics out of the car's diagnostic computer, they come up with a way to lock them out of changing parts. If they prove to be resistant to the average screwdriver or wrench, we'll know for sure what's up.
Only on
What happens a few years around the road when a little corosion sets in, and the little motor attached to the screw can no longer back it out. If you took advantage of the fact that it does not need access how do you remove it when the mechanism fails? I work on my vehicles, and often have to use a cheater bar to gain leverage on stubborn bolt. You would have to throw away the whole car, Starting to sound like "Brave New World"
This has got to be worth a second or two off pit stop times. All the pit crew has to do is tell the bolts to undo themselves as the car comes to a halt and they can proceed directly to changing the tyres. Of course, there are probably going to be a few amusing incidents when they trigger the release too soon as well... :)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
They'd see when people had voided their warranties or even prevent unauthorized (by Microsoft of course) people opening PCs so as to switch to a non DRM-enabling BIOS.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Now if you guys could just invent a muffler that didn't make it sound like a jet engine on takeoff, you just might find that other people like motorcycles, too.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
I've had Harley riders insist that this is the reason why they have to have the "Look at me! I'm an attention whore!" straight pipes while cruising in residential neighborhoods; yet even while watching them come and listening for them, I never hear them from very far away. You can always hear them as they roar by, and as they rumble off, though. I think the whole "hear them coming" excuse is a crock.
One of these same Harley riders insisted, during the very same conversation when I asked him about the mental rider fatigue all that extra noise must put him through, that he never hears his own pipes while cruising. "Hmm..." I asked him, "How can you hear them coming if you can't even hear them from 3 feet away?" "The wind carries the sound away before it gets to my ears" was the answer.
They felt that being silent would make them invisible and thus even more ignored on the freeways.
I've found that quiet bikes are much easier to stay alert on, especially in routine rides such as to work and back, and also as the miles add up on long road trips, and that's a far bigger safety factor in this world of sound-insulated luxury cars and SUVs. Most anyone with their windows up won't hear you anyway, unless you're riding with a half dozen others with straight pipes.
I don't bitch about straight pipe riders much, but I don't have a positive opinion of them, either.
They can't dodge you like those who ride sport bikes can.
They can if they're alert, competent riders.
... remember that feeling you got when the legs sprouted out of that guy's head in John Carpenter's "The Thing" ?
That's the feeling I get when I hear about something as stupid as this... I mean, I guess it's the illogical evolution of the entire "tamper-resistant" fastener craze of the modern automotive industry, but as a professional mechanic for almost 20 years, I know from experience that fasteners with funny heads on them do not deter the fools and thieves out there from trying to take things apart - they only serve to provoke them into doing much more damage than they would have done had you simply used a normal bolt.
It's just bulls#it, plain & simple.
Mnem
It's impossible to make anything foolproof - the fools are too damned inventive."
This "You can hear 'em coming" argument is the most arrogant, self-centered, thoughtless, and logically inconsistent argument I've ever heard. As if it's my responsibility as a pedestrian to dodge motorized vehicles, and not theirs to make sure they conduct themselves in a way that leaves me unharmed and with comfortably non-ringing ears.
but have you considered the following argument: shut up.