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Using Tire Pressure Sensors To Spy On Cars
AngryDad writes "Beginning last September, all vehicles sold in the US have been required to have Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS) installed. An article up at HexView enumerates privacy issues introduced by TPMS, and some of them look pretty scary. Did you know that traffic sensors on highways can be adopted to read TPMS data and track individual vehicles? How about an explosive device that sets itself off when the right vehicle passes nearby? TPMS has been discussed in the past, but I haven't seen its privacy implications analyzed before. Fortunately the problem is easy to fix: encrypt TPMS data the way keyless entry systems do."
This is a joke, I hope. *crosses fingers*
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Sorry, Couldn't resist.
This isn't an 4/1 joke, is it?
I knew buying cars with OnStar was going to be bad.
Is the pain worth it, just to see defeat in the eyes of your enemy?
This article is slashdotted for now. Probably some sort of 4/1 thing.
"The New Age. The New Beginning."
Especially this part:
How about an explosive device that sets itself off when the right vehicle passes nearby?
Great, first I have to worry about the tolls on I-44 through Oklahoma, now I got to worry about exploding vehicles?
Maybe in the future we can all roll to work in giant hamster balls. Getting groceries home will be a bitch tho...
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
Tires already come with RFID tags, which can also be read and tracked remotely. Cars probably also emit all sorts of other unique signals that can be recognized and tracked.
Of course, cars also come with this thing called a "license plate", which can also be tracked remotely and wirelessly.
Basically, if you drive, you can be tracked.
Extensively, on /. a couple of years back - with relevant links. Naturally, I was "troll modded" to -1, while also growing a flaming trail of replies, some dozen long.
I'd like to see MedicatedDad's post to the front page as vindication, but it IS April 1st...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Time to break out the tin foil hats so they can't read my tire pressures.
Seriously, where's my tinfoil hat?
... or hoax? Only time will tell.
and threatens to nuke Canada.
News At 11.
Outside of Lebanon, I don't see this as being a huge concern. (And calling it a "privacy" issue seems a bit of an understatement.) The local governments aren't sufficiently motivated to fill potholes, let alone install IEDs specifically targeted at me.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Remove the sensors and ignore the warning light. It's how I do things when I've got the winter wheels on, because I didn't feel like spending $400 for another set of sensors.
Unfortunately, there is a major difference here: failure to encrypt keyless entry resulted in stolen cars (something which caught people's attention and pissed them off), whereas you'll never even notice that your TPMS isn't encrypted. People are incredibly lazy and only take action when they perceive a threat to their person or property. Liberty? As Dick Cheney would say, "So?"
I'll bet adding encryption would cost the manufacturers $0.01 per tire (or some equally trivial amount), which they will claim will ruin them. Nobody else (except for a bunch of whiny, personal liberty freaks) will care about this and it will quietly become ubiquitous.
Besides, if you aren't doing anything illegal, why should you care who takes note of your comings and goings. We're here to help you and we certainly can't do that unless we know where you are ... at all times ...
The government won't use this information to track you down to that seedy little motel on the side of route 9, where you cavort with no less than 3 women other than your wife. We only care about catching bad guys. Your wife however...
If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear but fear itself.
KeeLoq has been cracked recently. The wireless access control system is used in vehicles built by Chrysler, Daewoo, Fiat, General Motors, Honda, Toyota (Lexus), Volvo, Volkswagen and Jaguar. All it takes to get access is to record two messages, which can be done from up to 300 feet away. http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/105772
Of course this is an April fools joke. The VIN isn't included in the radio signals of the TPMS sensors!
Or get rid of the nanny state law requiring TPMS. They give drivers a false sense of security regarding their tires, help them to justify paying even less attention to the state of their cars and required maintenance, cost everyone money (even if they don't want one), add unsprung weight to the vehicle, and apparently cause security issues.
Good 'ole "Know what's best for its citizens - especially when reacting to a few tragic incidents that catch the media's eye" federal government.
Sorry, officer, I didn't realize that my tires were underinflated.
I'm having trouble grasping the concepts, can someone put it into a nice analogy using cars? What... wait... damnit.
How about an explosive device that sets itself off when the right vehicle passes nearby?
Okay, so there are probably some actual privacy issues arising from being able to track passing vehicles remotely, but come on, that comment above is so over the top it's not even funny.
The bearded men with the funny accent are not out to get you. The black helicopters are not after you, or your car, or your gun(s). And officials / VIPs actually at risk of being blown up by an IED - not that I know any off the top of my head - would have the radio signal jammed anyways.
Grow. The. Fuck. Up. Seriously.
(okay, or maybe it's april fools, and I'm drunk and didn't note the sarcasm / joke in the ferkin' summary)
Hello! I'm a disaster waiting to happen!
Free Hans!
I am not sure about the new mandate ( assuming its not an April fools joke), but the TPS sensor on my work car (2001 Alero) is the same sensor used for the anti-lock brakes. The ABS computer reads the ABS sensors, and any sensor that is spinning faster than the other three tires is assumed to be a flat tire ( lower diameter causes higher RPMs for a given surface speed).
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
All you need is to be able to track the tyre ids.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
You go home after work (or class, whatever your current activity in life) and find the FBI (at least three letters, right?) digging through your things, with no warrant. You confront them, only to be told that they're just checking for terrorist affiliation. You have none. After a while, they leave. But they've seen every intimate corner of your physical belongings -- without your consent or a judge's authorization, and especially not without cause.
The point of these growing searches is not because the government wants to be able to track the bad guys in this 'age' of increasing terrorism. It's because they want the public to be so afraid, and using terrorism as an excuse works well, that they can simply look through everyone's life at any time. Oh, and in case you haven't realized, everyone is now suspect of terrorism.
Sure they won't use the information to track you down to that little motel off route nine. Well, they might, but they might look the other way past that point. But they may use the information to see where you enter and exit the Interstate (or other monitored road) and correlate the data with nearby 'terrorist' suspects and 'hideouts.' You know, the bar where a government employee happens to stop off for a beer with a couple friends, who work at different places, after work, to have a beer and complain about their day. Jut your luck, that one guy was reported as expressing violent intent. He was quite vocal. Not the one who reported him no longer goes to that bar, and said that several other patrons agreed with him. Now they are all on a watch list. And the bar just so happens to be across from that motel with the women you mentioned. And Rte. 9 is not a monitored road.
It is an extreme example. But if we're in a society that can have an Air Force Captain charged with terroristic acts for buying her ten-year-old son a flight simulator program because the cashier at the local Circuit City is paranoid of terrorism thanks to media fear mongering, then anything is possible to some extent.
Having every movement of every person on the street automatically recorded, indexed and cataloged into nationwide databases without the any human intervention is a completely different matter - that's a recipe for totalitarianism.
Right now, we are rapidly barreling down the road from how its been for thousands of years to the ultimate totalitarian state with very little good to show for it beyond political rhetoric.
"If they add functionality to encrypt the communication channel, the problem will go away."
no it will not. someone will always have a key. if a bomb is REALLY meant to go off - it will.
Nice idea to go for encryption, but it turns out that the most popular keyless lock system was hacked just a couple of days ago...
http://www.tireindustry.org/pdf/TREAD_Act_Summary.pdf
Looks to me that no one is requiring continual monitoring (and reporting) of tires' conditions; only when the tire pressure falls below 25% of recommended cold pressure is a signal required to be sent (and I see nothing about being able to tell which car in a fleet has the problem from outside the car itself).
Finally, article summary should say "all NEW vehicles sold in the US" require the system, not "all vehicles sold in the US". The final rule was published June 5, 2002. Unfortunately NHTSA
proposed that if a vehicle is using a direct system (with sensors in each
tire sending a signal to the dashboard) the TPMS does not have to trigger
until the tire is 25 percent below the recommended cold psi. An indirect
TPMS (that runs off the anti-lock braking system) does not have to
trigger until the tire is 30 percent below the recommended cold psi for
that tire. TIA is strongly opposed to NHTSA's supposed "safety"
regulation which in effect allows the motoring public to drive on severely
underinflated tires. TIA has supported a petition that NHTSA mandate
reserve inflation pressure in tires to offset the TPMS rule. [See letter to
NHTSA supporting petition.]
Didn't you get the memo...?
my mountain bike more and more. At least until they mandate TPMS in bicycles, too...sigh.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
i see three levels of issue here - the first one is, assuming no one reads the data who isn't "supposed to," and no one who is supposed to ever abuses that information access, what are the privacy implications?
Secondly, what if the authorized yet fallible humans with access to this data abuse it?
Thirdly, and the one that IMHO needs to be addressed first, is when those who are unauthorized are able to access the information. Not just for the obvious reasons: hacking this info may or may not be easy/feasible/desirable/whatever. But because now those mere-mortal humans who would be authorized and accountable, and already know the system, would be able to not just abuse that information, but leave no trail. Or blame ebil terrists and h4x0rs for it, even better.
Consider: yes, there could be a physical threat, but i'm more worried about yet another vector of information harvesting and tracking. Hello, Mr. Political Dissident, where do you drive? With whom do you associate? How long were you parked there? With sufficient coverage, can i track you in real time like an involuntary GPS?
If employees with access would poke through candidates' passport files, what would they try to get away with THIS in place? (That sound you hear is the Secret Service twitching. I imagine any and all official gummint vehicles have this system neutered - or at least i would HOPE so!)
Bad enough i have to deal with people tracking me online. There is no benefit and no excuse to having this information broadcast in the clear. Bottom line, any system that's approved and authorized to get this info could still get it (and whether we'd want that is another debate) - but don't force me to make it easy and unaccountable.
That which does not kill us makes us... st
There are 2 main reasons you want properly inflated tires:
1) Safety (mentioned in the article)
2) Fuel economy. Proper tire pressure can result in a 5-10% increase in MPG.
There are 10 different types of people in this world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.
Oh, and in case you haven't realized, everyone is now suspect of terrorism.
That's OK, all adult men have been suspected pedophiles for years. Adding potential terrorist to the list doesn't really phase me.
Encryption will allow you to keep them from knowing what your tire pressure is, but you'd need to have the signal anonymized as well to keep someone from fingerprinting it.
You aren't smart enough to ever end up in a position to abuse the system.
I see a very simple solution to this:
1. Remove tires
2. Smash TPMS
3. Mail smashed TPMS pieces to automaker, lawmaker, and those asshats at the NHTSA
4. ???
5. Profit!?
My view is if drivers are too retarded to perform basic maintenance like checking their tire pressure and oil dips, they shouldn't be allowed to operate a vehicle. We didn't use to have so many road problems back when there were fewer people on the road. Someone lowered the barriers to entry and now we've got millions of idiots driving 3-ton battering rams.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
Getting groceries home will be a bitch tho...
Didn't hamsters solve that by carrying food in their cheeks?
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Basically, the new mandated TPMS sensors are all direct sensors. These sensors have been mandated as of the 2007 model year on all cars sold in the US. (There are a large number of cars sold in Canada that use this system too, but it is not mandated in Canada). Indirect systems (the ones that use the ABS sensors) are not allowed under the mandate as they were deemed too inaccurate. The TPM system is mandated to notify the driver once there is a 25% loss of pressure from nominal from the tire. Many systems also indicate a high pressure warning also.
Most car companies have been developing the technology for over a decade. GM started in the mid 90's on the corvette.
Most systems use a pressure sensor internally mounted to the rim on the valve stem. The valve stem acts as the antenna for the transmitter. (Look for cars with aluminum coloured valve stems, these are TPMS equiped vehicles.) The transmitter will transmit at the same frequency as your key FOB. This allows the car companies to minimize the amount of extra equipment required for the system. Most systems probably only require the sensors and a reprogramming of the requisit computers in the car.
Pay close attention to the shop that changes your tires. Many shops are poorly trained in dealing with TPMS sensors and tell many lies about the systems as they don't understand how they work.
The sensors typically operate under a pretty simple algorithm. Basically, when the car is stationary the sensors will transmit every hour. If the car starts moving above a certain speed they sensors will start to transmit every minute. If the pressure in the tire suddenly changes more then a certain amount, the sensor will transmit the new pressure immeditatly. Each sensor has a unique ID to permit the computer to identify which corresponds to which pressure. The car's computer will be programmed to listen for these transimssions. Should the car fail to receive a transmission from a specifc tire over a certain period of time, then the computer will indicate there is a malfunction of the system.
Because the sensors have unique IDs it is typically required to relearn the sensor locations after a tire rotation. There are many different releasern procedures. You can set the car into learn mode and triger each sensor by letting air you of the tires or you can use a specific TPMS tool to triger the sensors using a LF magnetic field.
These systems are all pretty straight forward once you know how they work. Most people are afraid of new technology, but in most respects this is pretty simple stuff that any modern mechanic should have no problem working with.
As has been noted some of these systems work without wireless transmission - by measuring minute differences in tyre rotation speed.
Some work by sending a warning only when the tyre pressure falls below a certain level (28psi generally).
Even the high-end devices that transmit the exact tyre pressure to a central console will not be transmitting continually - smart ones will only transmit either when the pressure changes, or at a fixed polling interval.
So triggering an IED when a particular car drives past ? Not likely - only if you are unlucky enough for one of the sensors to be transmitting at the exact time the car drives past.
Same goes for monitoring movement of an individual car - the chances of the pressure sensor transmitting at the exact time it drives over/past a sensor is pretty remote.
The cheapest way to do tire pressure monitoring is not to add RF hardware and sensors to the wheels, but to use passive pressure monitoring with the existing breaking/traction control system. I used to work with some guys that did braking systems, and this is fairly do-able. I'm not sure if it meets all the federal requirements though. If you want to know if one tire is low they can probably tell without any extra hardware (flash for code does cost a few cents).
Laugh-a while you can, monkey boy!
Doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, religion destroys spirituality
who don't have TPMS and instead have the following: 1) an older car 2) removed the sensors 3) installed different wheels and balked at paying a few hundred dollars when checking tire pressure once a month is infinitely cheaper.
So if the TPMS is using RFID to transmit the unique id + tyre info, what is to stop somebody with a really high powered radio transmitter from transmitting unique id + false tyre info at the car, so that it drowns out the real signal and tricks the car into thinking the tyre pressure is too low or too high? I can just imagine some poor sap cruising down the highway when all of a sudden the car tells him that all four of his tyres have simultaneously blown out!
I like my coffee the way I like my women - roasted and ground up into little tiny pieces.
Tyre ids will be tracked by tyre vendors for insurance/warrantee purposes. Just add a license plate reader and the connection between the tyres and the license is made. Once there is a tie up between the tyre ids and the vehicle you have identification.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
My main concern is that some hacker kid is going to break into the traffic management network and use their monitoring systems to analyze the tire pressure on my trucks to figure out which ones are decoys and which one actually has the gold in it, at which point by manipulating the traffic signals he'll coerce it over to the right spot and blow up the street out from underneath it so it drops underground, where thieves are waiting to steal the gold.
In general, it is safe and legal to kill your children. -- POSIX Programmer's Guide
"Asses are for crapping, not screwing."
My wife would disagree, she quite likes it once in a while.
And you seem obsessed with "asses", are you homophobic?
Well, if you are, then you don't need to worry because all the gay men that I know only fuck rectums, not assholes.
I have heard the same grips and concerns since the cold war where they actually did maintain the appearance of being about to do anything at any time and apparently knew everything about anyone. Just look at the movies of that era, that is how the FBI is portrayed. Now they are portrayed like bumbling idiots who get lucky every once in a while and you have the impression that it is new for them to act like they (or even want to have) have all the answers.
And another thing, No one was ever charged with terrorist acts for simply inquiring about a flight simulator program. A report was made and someone followed up on it. That's it, not charges, not detention, nothing. That is no different them me telling the police that I though you killed the latest missing teen. They would investigate, possibly showing up, realize you had nothing to do with it and then leave. But no one would be or was charged. If that one tidbit is an indicator of that accuracy of anything else your spouting, then your conpletely wrong just like they where 25 years ago.
So, you don't handle anything secure. Sure, you don't have any flags. But by signing an HSPD-12 waiver, you give the government carte blanche to perform the same type of surveillance on you that they can perform on civil servants. The same kind of surveillance, cross checking and monitoring that they perform on terrorism suspects...just because you let them, and despite any legislation that may be passed regarding warrant-less spying on "civilians".
The article asks why would NHTSA choose TPMS and not run-flat technology. Run-flat tires cannot be used indefinitely while uninflated or underinflated. Generally, in such situations the sidewall supports the load, and the resulting stress on the sidewall damages it, eventually leading to failure. Furthermore, you might not be able to see that the tire isn't properly inflated. In order to prevent people from driving on underinflated run-flat tires until a catastrophic failure and possible accident, TPMS is required. Oh, and run-flat tires have other disadvantages too.
There is a big difference between tracking tires, license plates, etc. and tracking people.
In what way is tracking a person's possessions NOT a damned effective way of tracking the person?!?!
Do complete strangers drive your car often? So you see no need for concern until a tracking device is implanted directly into your skull?
The way to get this changed would be to put a roadside detector near some Washington freeway, near a programmable billboard. Make a deal with the billboard operator to buy time on demand, and, when a known car goes by, put up "Good Morning, Senator Smith".
I think your missing the main point here...
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
The FBI has issued a terror warning to police to look out for individuals carrying almanacs or maps, reports AP.
The warning was sent to 18,000 officers before Christmas. Almanacs, warns the FBI, may be used "to assist with target selection and pre-operational planning." The Bureau acknowledges that there may be "legitimate recreational or commercial activities" that justify an individual carrying around a map or reference book.
The publisher of Old Farmers Almanac has vowed to co-operate with law enforcement agencies at every level.
uhhh....can't they just see your license plate to uniquely id you?
by Digestromath "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear but fear itself."
You are so right.
F.E.A.R.
Federal Espionage And Reconnaissance against US citizens.
captcha: disturbs
The technology is not a joke, but the story is.
The reason the batteries last so long is because the sensors only operate when the wheels are turning, and even then they only transmit on occasion, not continuously. A centripetal switch in the sensor activates it when the vehicle begins to move.
They do not need to broadcast continuously because:
A) Continuous monitoring in the case of sudden deflation or 'blowout' doesn't buy you any safety margin.
B) Slow loss of pressure is just that, slow. You don't need constant updates to track that.
They have unique codes so that the on board computer can tell which sensor is in each tire as well as which ones are on your car.
Isn't this supposed to be a tech forum? Does anybody here actually bother to research the technology before blathering on like reactionary idiots? (err, sorry. I forgot. This is slashdot after all...)
I have E-Z-Pass. So positionally, I am pwned already. Hey! I have license tags on both ends of the car as well. Damn. And, if I really wanted to track somebody, GPS transponders are pretty cheap now and widely available to law enforcement as well as personal use. Yeah, I could never attach one of these to your car without you knowing it.
Take off the tin foil hats, folks. Tire pressure monitors are the least of your tracking worries.
http://www.emarinesupplies.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1567
http://www.raveontech.com/applications_asset_tracking.html
http://www.zoombak.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=Vehicle%2BTracking&utm_campaign=Conv_Products
. . . to "TinFoilHatDad who embarrasses his wife, kids, family, and friends".
And kdawson should rename himself to "FuckingLameIdiot".
When I was in Britain last, I noticed how nice the drivers were. They share lanes when people drift, they let people in, no one ever gets mad. Traffic generally flowed better. I thought it was just the stoic British attitude that keeps them from blowing up at each other.
But just lately I realized, they have traffic cameras all over the place!!!
You know how you drive when you have a cop behind you? Well, those Brits ALWAYS have a cop behind them.
And you know what? I am not concerned with speeding or breaking the law, I would be happy to just go the speed limit, go when the light turns green and have no one blocking the intersections. If traffic would just flow, I would never have the need to break the speed limit, and then wouldn't care about traffic cams and monitoring.
- I live the greatest adventure anyone could possibly desire. - Tosk the Hunted
see Tire Industry report. The report states that 100% of all new cars sold after Sept 1, 2007 must contain TPMS
I've always said English was my second language. Had Romeo and Juliet been written in C, I might have understood it.
Using transmitters is only one way to monitor tire pressure. The tire pressure changes all throughout the day based on temperature. The point of these sensors isn't to report when the pressure changes in all tires equally. They're only supposed to notice when the tire pressure changes non-uniformly (e.g. just one tire is low). They also don't report if a tire is low by a pound or two... it has to be a fairly radical difference (e.g. 10 lbs low) to get noticed (I suppose the threshold that triggers the alarm probably varies by maker)
But the use of transmitters per each wheel turns out to be the expensive way to solve the problem. There's an another system that simply uses the rotational speed of each tire. The idea is that if a car is traveling in a straight line and one tire is low (say it has 20 lbs of pressure whereas all the other tires have 30), the rotational speed of that wheel will be different from the rest. The computer will notice this.
It's slightly more complicated than this because wheels normally do rotate at different speeds when a car is turning, but in that case all the wheels will rotate at different speeds (not just one of them) and the computer can tell the difference.
If you're thinking "Yes, but then you have to install a speedometer for each wheel and that would be expensive too.", then you've forgotten that any car with ABS or Traction Control already has an individual speedometer for each wheel. That's how the ABS system can determine if one wheel has locked up (if under braking conditions it is not spinning at all or at least not at a speed consistent with the rest of the wheels), or how traction control can tell if one wheel is spinning on something slippery (because under acceleration one wheel is spinning faster than the rest.)
The article is correct in that it would be possible to track a car using it's TPMS if it uses the radio transmitter system. But to draw the conclusion that our government only passed this law to spy on us is perhaps a bit hasty given that the law doesn't demand the TPMS system involve radio transmitters and there's a non-transmitting system that's cheaper to implement.
So the tire pressure monitors broadcast a unique ID. Is it the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)? I doubt it. Maybe theoretically someone could find out which ID corresponds to a specific person's car...but there are much easier ways to find out who's driving by, for crying out loud—like looking at the license plate. Drivel like this makes us genuine paranoids look bad.
Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
Just makes me glad I don't own a car made after 1968. All the talk of "black boxes" and tracking devices in tires makes me shudder. People are paying lots of money for technology laden cars (that aren't worth $20K+ to begin with) to lose their privacy. I don't miss onstar, I use paper maps or look up my directions before I leave. I feel no desire for cup warmers, seat warmers, a refrigerator in my glove box, doors and trunk that auto-unlock when you push a button, or a car that auto-starts with a button, power windows... My 1968 Mustang suits me fine, so does my 1968 Chevy Suburban, aside from the stereo/cd changer, there's no electronics (except maybe for the elec choke, points are a pain to tune) in them. Gas mileage is really the only drawback (but I live less than 2 miles from my work), parts are plentiful, cheap, easy to fix, (I rehupolstered my own car), no smog, cheap to insure and register.
Someone hit me a month or so ago, I've heard the "new cars are safer than the old ones, crumple zones and all of that", his car was completely totaled, mine had to have the valance replaced, the bumper bent back and re-chromed and weld the front fender. He also had more bumps and bruises than I did (I had none and wasn't wearing a seat belt). His airbags deployed "AFTER" the accident, like 1 or 2 seconds after. My audio power amp fell down in the trunk, that's been re bolted up no damage, the trunk was matted/padded (another one of my car projects). I shudder to think what would have happened if I was driving my '68 Suburban that day, they might not have gotten through the accident w/out going to the hospital, or the morgue. A small plastic car hitting a 7000 lb Truck wouldn't be a pretty sight.
I can check my own tire pressure thank you very much.
That's the first thing that popped into my head when I read your story about how your car was "crippled" because you bought new wheels without sensors. Dumb.
In fact the whole idea is dumb.
There's nothing difficult about keeping your tires pressurized. And even if the tire does go flat, so what? I had 3 flats in the last year (old tires that literally fell apart), and it was no big deal. I just pulled-over and called AAA. Nothing dangerous about it.
I think this is a case of a government employee with nothing to do, so he escalated the idea to his bored boss, who called together a bunch of other people who had nothing to do, and to justify their existence on the payroll they came-up with this ridiculous idea.
Next I suppose they'll want to mandate "Wiper Sensors"
that can detect when you need new blades, and
force your car to slow to 40 if they are worn.
I'm tired of gov't treating me like I'm a child and/or idiot.
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
"Fortunately the problem is easy to fix: encrypt TPMS data the way keyless entry systems do."
Tracking me? Encrypt the license plate too!
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.