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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?
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.
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
Time to break out the tin foil hats so they can't read my tire pressures.
Um, don't you mean tin foil rims?
Or tin foil hub caps.
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I'm having trouble grasping the concepts, can someone put it into a nice analogy using cars? What... wait... damnit.
There was a previous article about remote shutdown using OnStar which mentioned that OnStar can be used to remotely eavesdrop on your conversations. The OnStar rep didn't answer when I asked them why they included that capability.
Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
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.
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.
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.]
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.
I know 1 person with on star, and they were in a bad accident, having the OnStar saved her life.
Clearly OnStar causes accidents.
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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
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?