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Verizon Retrofits Vintage Legacy Vehicles With Smart Features
An anonymous reader writes: Verizon have released an after-market system called Hum that can bring 'smart' features to 150 million existing cars of various vintages going as far back as 1999. The system consists of an on-board diagnostic (OBD) reader plugged into the vehicle's OBD port and a Bluetooth-enabled device clipped to the visor. It's the presence of the ODB port that limits the maximum age of the car to 1996. Hum comes with an app, and enables features such as automatic accident reporting, roadside assistance services and the tracking of stolen cars. The service will cost $14.99 per month via subscription.
Another monthly payment on top of everything else. Thanks, Verizon!
I thought a car would have to be 25 or 30 year old to be called vintage, and only a Subaru could be called Legacy. I suppose ye Americans are living in a faster-paced consumerist throw-away society. If it's not this year's model it's considered old.
More monthly fees...
Hopefully they didn't use the code from their tech dispatch system- I don't want my car to give me a two hour window for a drive to the corner store, and then miss it anyway.
I hope nobody retrofits bicycles... Otherwise everything is lost!
Will they accept liability for any damages caused as a consequence of commands on the CAN bus originating from or passing through their device? If yes, put it in writing. If no, it's not getting on the CAN bus of my vehicle.
Ian Ameline
"as far back as 1999"
Thats not vintage
A vintage car is one made between 1919 and 1930.
1918 and earlier then its a veteran
1931 to WWII and its post-vintage
Vehicles made in the latter half of the twentieth century may be considered 'classic' but certainly not vintage.
The accident reporting and roadside assistance features could be useful. As soon as these become readily available, though, one of the first things that a car thief would do is pull the dongle out of the OBD II port and throw it and the visor widget out the window, making it impossible to track the car. As a built in module, it works, because it's difficult for a thief to remove, but if it can be removed in 30 seconds without tools, it's worthless for tracking a stolen car.
So... this performs the same functions as the Automatic dongle, which has a one-time cost of $100, does not have a recurring monthly fee, requires no association with Verizon, and doesn't require something to be clipped to your visor? Pass.
I had a feeling those with cars that hackers could not take over at will may have felt left out. Ain't technology great?
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
Hum that canÂbring 'smart' features to 150 million existing carsÂof various vintages going as far back as 1999
With all of the potential for malicious hacks in modern cars with "smart features", why would I want to introduce an attack vector into a car that's relatively secure? And pay fifteen bucks a month for it?
Yea, Automatic is a bit pricey for the dongle.. but you don't pay any reoccurring fees for it. And I get all of that stuff Verizon is selling - with no additional charges.
You can buy a cheap ELM327 module that plugs into your OBD2 port. It can connect to your Android over Bluetooth, and then run the Torque Pro app. Very cheap, and a one time price, and gives you a lot of functionality that Verizon wants to gouge you for. It may not have some of the extra frills. But with these devices internet connected, what could possibly go wrong? Didn't somebody just demonstrate a hack of internet connected Jeeps?
I have a 10 year old Honda Civic, base model, power nothing. I really am not looking forward to buying a new car as it seems they all have some Smart (TM) enabled tracking computerized bullshit that does nothing to enhance driving safety or performance, it just adds more shiny stuff to the sticker price.
I need a reliable set of wheels. Period. It has been my experience that adding computers to things does not make my life any simpler or easier, it simply adds a new layer of headaches.
Please, everyone, fuck off with the IoT shill - some of us don't want it or need it.
Left MS Windows for Linux Mint and never looked back!
Vote for Bernie in 2016!
So hackers will be able to cut YOUR brakes just like on the new cars!
The accident reporting and roadside assistance features could be useful. As soon as these become readily available, though, one of the first things that a car thief would do is pull the dongle out of the OBD II port and throw it and the visor widget out the window, making it impossible to track the car. As a built in module, it works, because it's difficult for a thief to remove, but if it can be removed in 30 seconds without tools, it's worthless for tracking a stolen car.
Thing is, accident reporting and roadside assistance features can be had with any cell phone. And also some aftermarket in-dash radio/gps units.
Having these features as an add-on to the car would be convenient, if not for the monthly cost. It seems like Verizon is really reaching here.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
"As a built in module, it works, because it's difficult for a thief to remove"
Really?
Just disconnect/disable/destroy the antenna. The YouTube video is easily watched on the thief's smartphone.
Oh, the wonders of the InterWebs!
Most of us can get about 2 loaves of bread worth of sandwiches out of $15. That' my lunch budget for a pay period ... with toppings.
That's so cutting edge, what's next, something that will fit in my pocket?!
Most linux users don't know this, but the man pages were named after Chuck Norris. Chuck Norris fsck'ing hates noobs!
for calculation of road maintenance taxes by every jurisdiction, since fuel taxation is bypassed at the socket.
"How to ruin cars that don't come with this crap."
Verizon have released an after-market system called Hum that can bring 'smart' features to 150 million existing cars of various vintages going as far back as 1999.
1996. Maybe a couple of 1995s.
The system consists of an on-board diagnostic (OBD) reader plugged into the vehicle's OBD port
OBD-II, actually.
and a Bluetooth-enabled device clipped to the visor. It's the presence of the ODB port
That's On-Board Diagnostics, not Ol' Dirty Bastard. And also, OBD-II.
that limits the maximum age of the car to 1996.
That's why it's OBD-II. Because cars before 1996 had a variety of interfaces, some of which went away and some of which just got folded into OBD-II. We now call these "OBD-I" collectively, although they actually have broad variety.
Hum comes with an app, and enables features such as automatic accident reporting, roadside assistance services and the tracking of stolen cars. The service will cost $14.99 per month via subscription.
So, it's like Onstar, which wasn't mentioned here why? Seems kind of obvious.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Maintenance, fuel, registration and insurance aren't expensive enough. I need another recurring fee and some privacy invasion. I'm sold if it's compatible with my Zune though.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Also, Dice eats balls. CTRL+F vint - no matches.
I can't tell if samzenpus is the idiot, or submitter, but either way someone needs to die in a fire. Fires are deadly, but slow. And well deserved.
Company tracking millions of customers via GPS and being paid to do so by both the customer and intelligence agencies, devises new 'scheme' to extract more location information from the masses and boost the bottom line. Safety first guys! Another brilliant move.
I already have an ODB2 reader in the car (always attached). It provides live readouts of the engine computer, engine RPM, temperature, current (instant) fuel consumption, fuel consumed (tank), plus I can real all diagnostic codes, reset the check engine light, read the in-air temperature (usually about 10 degrees warmer than the outside air temperature), plus a whack of other stuff. And I don't need to spend 14.99 per month.
My Jeep is from 1988. It can't be fitted with this, and that makes me happy. I specifically bought it for this very reason. It's a simple machine and easy to fix. Parts are easily found and cheap.
Please Verizon... give us window cranks! Maybe... you could find a way to inject mesenchymal stem or progenitor cells directly into the vehicle's OBD port that would circulate in the wiring harness until they find and attach to the window crank receptor ligands, which still reside in the motor body driving the worm or ratchet gear in door panels. The cells would begin to grow knob complexes in door panels, culminating in functional window cranks that can manually turn cranking motors, with a simple clutch that disengages during electric operation.
The primordial coding of the crank gene remains, though in cars young enough to have OBD ports excessive use of factory hormones has triggered aberrant malignant growth of 'power window' motors and associated electric musculature. The design is not nature's own and seems to be comprised of shoddy outgrowths of crap metal and plastic. The lack of a crank is most noted in Winter as windows stick slightly but enough to overwhelm the shit fuck mechanism and render them inoperative. This evolution could have occurred naturally without supplanting the crank, which allows direct human strength (and finesse) to be used to unstick and operate windows... under ALL conditions... and should have by all rights. But bad choices in selective breeding at factory farms and also a drop in average consumer IQ has manifested these undesirable characteristics into the domestic automobile genome.
Please Verizon, give us top battery terminals! Another correctable factory farm genetic 'defect' are the little tits that have grown on the sides of batteries. These began as novelty traits prized by deviant automotive breeders, but the natural robust lead posts on the top of batteries were bred out of the line to enhance plumpness of maintenance and pure fucking grief. Where there had once been massive same-metal clamp-bonds attached to copper wires with sealed solder slug or factory crimp junctions on top, now there are these side terminals with pitted metal discs secured by sorry-ass monkey-fuck bolts that cannot endure serious tightening, whose heads round out, and provide no reliable purchase for jumper cables. Or do so in a way that ensures a shower of sparks and mayhem.
By introducing Testosterone into OBC ports it may be possible to re-grow top battery terminals again in time for rutting season. As for most mammals the side tits in batteries may retain some vestigial function but would shrink once the top terminals were again in constant use. Elevated Testosterone may also provide other improvements to automotive function yet to be discovered.
And finally Verizon, please help the automotive industry eliminate the 'fob'. I am not certain what these are. They seem to have something to do with keys, though I have always used keys to open my cars without fanfare or 'fob'. Fob is such a despicable word, a silly word. I have seen grown men tear up the moment they are compelled to say it. Out of respect for human dignity, the fob must go.
<blink>down the rabbit hole</blink>
So my hooptie can hook up with the Wu Tang clan?
Just buy an OBD-II reader and then watch the zillion youtube mechanics explain what the codes mean and how to fix it.
The OBD-II reader can be found for about $20 on lots of sites. You don't need the Snap-On readers that cost $1,000 or more. And you definitely don't need to pay Verizon an additional $14.99 a month in addition for what you're shelling out for Verizon mobile service too.
Meh.. it's just another telecom offering for a monthly fee what any good maker could provide themselves.
You just need a Raspi set up as a car computer with ODBC reader. Add a GSM modem for those emergency calling features. I suppose you could use that for tracking too. Better yet though.. get a ham license and track the car via APRS. It's free! Saves minutes on your sim card.
Total price if you are a good scrounger.. less than a years worth of Verizon's service. After that it's basically free so long as you aren't using you aren't actually making calls and your prepaid SIM card doesn't expire. You can even transfer it all to your next car.
Go to Amazon.
They sell odb2 blue tooth readers starting at 8$.
Works with smart phones.
Does hundreds of things.
Not just these three.
No subscription fees.
Tons of choices for software.
One of the worst summaries you can remark?
/confused
I missed you