Our government is really doing some stupid shit. For starters, Biden is writing orders that take over sectors of the economy because, well because he wants to.
He is using the Wartime Production Act, an act meant to allow the president to mandate production of necessary materials during wartime, to mandate the production of heat pumps. Most of the companies announced in the order, seven out of the nine, don’t manufacture heat pumps. Now they do. Or else.
Then that is followed by news that our new Speaker of the House is the same old establishment piece of garbage that is the Republican and Democratic parties. Our speaker allowed a provision to be funded in the continuing resolution that funds a mandate requiring that all vehicles manufactured after 2025 be equipped with technology that will automatically disable the vehicle if driver impairment is detected. Adding to that, new regulations will be coming down that require vehicles to include speed limiters that detect the speed limit and prohibit the vehicle from operating above it.
I did a post in jest back in 2015 about what would happen when major computer software makers controlled cars. If you remember, I have been talking about auto manufacturers charging subscription fees in order to activate certain features on cars like cruise control or air conditioning. The air conditioner costs $15 a month, the ability to tow a trailer is $20 a month, and engaging the four wheel drive sets you back $40 a month. Heck, even the seat warmers cost $4 a month. It will cost you $20 a month to use your key fob to remotely unlock or start your vehicle. See where this is going?
Suppose you were the government and wanted to get on this gravy train. You could charge people a monthly fee to operate on high speed highways. Or perhaps charge people from other states a fee to operate a vehicle in your state. Perhaps you voted for the wrong candidate, or your Social Score drops- your car gets turned off.
I predicted at the time that a new industry would take off: an industry centered around hacking or jailbreaking your car. It turns out that I was correct. That day is already here.
I drive an F150, and people are already doing some interesting hacks on Ford vehicles. Enter a piece of software called FORScan. You can already do some interesting things. Reprogramming your temperature gauges to bee more than just meaningless scales, for one thing.
Teslas have been found to have an unpatchable security hole that will allow owners to unlock all pay to play features on Teslas.
I have already done a few hacks to my truck. I got rid of that annoying automatic start/stop feature in my F-150, for one thing.
11 Comments
joe · November 19, 2023 at 5:56 am
maybe this is how they get their 15 min cities… they won’t let you drive any further
Differ · November 19, 2023 at 6:52 am
There will be unintended consequences: hacking cars, as you point out, has already started. Mandatory heat pump not cutting it in winter, or as we find around here, high heating bills for electricity to get the heat pump to adequately heat the house? Perhaps a resurgence in wood-fired stoves: and not the high end ones with catalytic converters on the flue, nope, Bubbamade, or antique,….CO2 emissions, particulates, and more house fires anyone?
Its like they dont understand people…
Jester · November 19, 2023 at 4:39 pm
You realize many states have effectively banned wood fired stoves or made the regulations behind them so difficult you can’t have new ones? Buying yourself a new traditional stove is no more.
Elrod · November 19, 2023 at 7:01 am
The heat pump thing – like so much that government does – is insidious. Looks good on paper, but fails in practice. Standard air-to-air heat pumps are approx 3X better than plain electric resistance heat UNTIL air temp drops below 38F, and they start losing efficiency. When efficiency gets low enough the condensor (the outside unit) keeps running trying to extract heat from the air AND the backup resistance heat turns on to meet heat demand because the efficiency loss from the air-to-air unit can’t keep up with demand. Double whammy – outside air temp falls, creating larger heat demand for the house at the same time the ait-to-air heat extraction process declines, so the electrical draw is #1- the condensor – the compressor outside running PLUS #2 – the resistance heat. When several thousand heating systems suddenly activate their backup resistance heat demand goes through the roof – this is what caused the Texas crisis that crashed their power grid in 2021.
Ground-coupled heat pumps extract heat from either the constant 50-53F in a very deep well or long circulating liquid lines – approx 400-600 ft per ton (1 ton of system heating./cooling capacity = 12K BTU) buried 10-15 feet deep. Efficiency is much higher because the heat source – water in a deep well or ground heat with buried long liquid lines – stays well above 38F, but the capital cost – installation – is so far out of range for most construction (how do you bury the 1800-2400 feet of underground line a 3-4 ton heat pump requires on a suburban lot, or who pays for the two 600 foot deep wells?) that it’s unaffordable.
So, there’s natural gas which works whatever the outside temp is, but Biden & Co and the Greenie Army won’t let you have any Because Burning It Produces CO2.
Government to the rescue once again, saving us from ourselves, All Hail Government.
Differ · November 19, 2023 at 7:59 pm
Elrod. Thanks for the explanation…. I’d quite forgotten the details, especially the back-up resistive heat.
Elrod · November 20, 2023 at 9:22 am
Which is why, when I bought my present house, I had the heat pump air handler & resistance heat unit replaced with a hot air gas furnace. I kept the heat pump, which handles air conditioning in warm weather and heating down to 40F outside air temp (OAT), but when the thermostat calls for heat and the OAT is 40F or below the system ignores the heat pump and uses the gas furnace instead. (I also replaced the electric water heater with a natural gas (NG) tankless because the utility hook up to NG was a $200 utility company fee – the NG line was in the street right alongside my property. Easy Peasy.)
And when I bought it I made sure the furnace was convertible to propane and bought the propane conversion kit. I use propane for cooking and it’s a (reasonably) simple manner to extend the piping to the furnace and tankless water heater (FYI, most NG (natural gas) stoves now come with the propane conversion kit; my propane stove came with an NG conversion kit. I bought the propane kits for the furnace and water heater.)
The 90K BTU NG furnace is 120 volt and draws 865 watts when running, most of which is the blower fan, the 120 volt tankless NG water heater draws 90 watts at maximum hot water flow. I can run both with a 2000 watt Honda generator. The water heater is on a 1500VA UPS, which will provide for 16 5-minutes showers if the power fails.
Pro Tip: Put a very good whole house surge protector on the outside meter box where power comes in so it’s the first thing a surge will see, to protect system electronics (like furnaces, water heaters, etc.) I used a Siemens 140 but YMMV. They are sacrificial, so it’s a good idea to have a spare on hand.
Don W Curton · November 20, 2023 at 8:50 am
During the 5 years I lived in West Virginia we had a heat pump on the house. The rest of my life was in Texas where we always had real A/C and gas heat. The heat pump was complete crap. It was never cold in the summer, just mildly cool and never hot in winter, only lukewarm air at best.
Battle Thrones · November 19, 2023 at 3:34 pm
The slow burn to WWIII is for the election cancelling?
Dingle Barry won’t rest until it is a 3000 mile glow in the dark charcoal bird bath.
Plan accordingly.
Observations · November 19, 2023 at 4:33 pm
I appreciate the Intellect, it’s good to see, Sincerely.
But we are rapidly approaching that coming to a end if these idiots don’t BTFO.
Hackin the Highway sign to put up a dirty message, childs play. That takes some sort of skill at least.
Leaving your Tech at home and just Plain’ol Destruction..any 2bit high school asshole dropout can do.
Example-Latest LA Freeway Destruction.
They just keep PUSHING.
So they can Line there Pockets and Purses.
Terrapod · November 19, 2023 at 9:02 pm
Last December I was shopping for a small SUV, could not find one with diesel so ended up with the gasoline version of the Tiguan (sigh!). Bought the last model made (2019) before they abandoned ALL analog display gauges and went to a 100% software controlled computer screen. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was not possible to permanently shut off the utterly horrid auto stop/start feature. Earlier models had the selection via the vehicle control panel, 2019 on they apparently decided the user has no need to access this feature. So, like yourself, found a hack that involved inserting a small logic board into the manual enable/disable circuit (the one that always defaults back to stop/start every time you re-start the car). I fully expect that all manufacturers are going to go the route of non-modifiable features with remote shut off for those “owners” that misbehave, only a matter of time. Bring on the black market hacker universe I say.
Stealth Spaniel · November 19, 2023 at 10:54 pm
I know Biden is in end stage dementia, so I suspect Obummer the Magic Negro, is actually issuing the orders/Excecutive Demands/Government Bloviation. I do not expect a Republican to stand up to any government demand.It seems that, like all things new, shiny, and modern, nobody remembers that the typical American invented Rube Goldberg. No matter what extensive, extremely complicated device that executes a very simple task in a complex, indirect way is invented………some yahoo Nobody is gonna go around it. The Pentagon Folks, the 3 Letter Agencies, the sophisticated Imbeciles from Manhattan or Harvard or Silicon Valley can pet themselves all they want on their “latest and greatest”, but Jersey Ed, Fast Gun Camacho, and old Mr. Whithers down the street will simply grab a hammer and chisel and VIOLA! Old way works every time. It’s why local, local, local is so important.
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