Oddbean

Modern cars get worse and worse. Much like food and education, a ubiquitous pillar of daily life has been targeted for hamstringing. Unlike food and education, there aren’t many solutions for cars besides “only buy old ones.” This plan has the major problems of entropy and limited supply. Are there any other ideas? Is anyone working on alternatives? #cars #carstr #privacy #engineering #asknostr nostr:note1jx9j3gemh2q8ywwfydj6erl9pdde646fpkgpprzfgfay6t4uu6tqunrvfm

Probably the best is not to have the 1984 tech in the car - in the US this is 2014 or earlier. Second option is to find a mechanic or someone else to disable the 1984 tech from your car. cc @ChipTuner

Unfortunately most of those modules aren't removable 1. Voids MFG warranty 2. Often immobilizes the vehicle 3. Often tied into emissions control systems that, if tampered with are breaking laws that put them in danger of felony charges and will immobilize the vehicle These computer systems are black boxes, and modifying firmware, or removing them will often break highway safety, or emissions clean air act laws, which again will put mechanics at risk of felony charges the FBI and EPA are all too excited to kick doors in for. This is my personal experience, they spare no shop, even if the BELIEVE you've only done it once, that's enough for them to draw enough penalties up to close your shop down forever, or worse send you to prison.

Some of these patents (from Ford even) are so bad. Keep in mind the US government passed a bill that requires auto manufacturers to have in-car cameras detect if a driver is not intoxicated in order to drive then lock them out of driving or even pull the car over automatically. Finally there is another patent that allows Ford (and others) the technology that breaking road laws can automatically alert authorities, and presumably many other gray area laws, such as raising your voice at your spouse or child while in a disagreement in a vehicle, or an open alcohol container on private property, etc. Who knows? Not a farce to say that's a slippery slope IMO

I’ve been thinking about this problem for some years now. In 2021 Congress passed a law with some ambiguous language that may enable law enforcement to use a remote Killswitch. However, this technology has been installed on modern vehicles for many years. As a former resident of California, having been subjected to the draconian lockdowns of 2020 through 2021 and being kind of a car guy I knew that it was possible for somebody somewhere to remotely disable my vehicle during the state of emergency. This didn’t happen, but it was always a possibility, and as government grows more restrictive it becomes more of a possibility in the future. While doing research, I discovered that the most popular engine ever made was the old air cooled Volkswagen. To this day, one can still buy every single part for one of these cars. The second most popular engine ever built was the Chevy 350 in.³/5.7 L. Again, many of these vehicles were very popular and all parts are available. Thirdly, another less popular option, but still a highly reliable engine with ease of access to parts is the 4 L jeep six cylinder engine. I bought a 78 Chevy truck and I’m in the process of restoring it to like new condition. When my wife was recently in the market for a new car, we bought her a 97 Jeep with a rebuilt engine/transmission/transfer case/rear end. We also have a 1985 Honda nighthawk motorcycle. This serves as a back up vehicle in case of emergency. It is our plan to create a small stockpile of consumable and often replaced parts. All while making improvements and modifications to make them more practical. It it’s our intention to never buy another vehicle. Mathematically, speaking, it is cheaper to fix an old car than to buy a new one. Even if I had to replace the entire powertrain on my 78 Chevy truck, it would be less than one year of car payments on a new similarly sized Chevy truck.