Acvn the elecronics of an F1 car be compromised?

[EnsignMN08]

There is a new novel just out that uses the premise that an F1 car can have its performance affected by someone with the right equipment and knowledge to bypass the encryption and get into the ECU, and so effect some of the control systems of the car. This is very interesting because the Beeb recently had a story about a group who set up some electromagnetic pulse equipment at an airfield and stopped a number of cars by damaging their electronics. (Early December 3 on BBC 4 if I remember correctly).

Imagine what would happened to racing if this actually becomes possible in Grand Prix racing. The book is written by the husband of F1 lady racer Desire' Wilson and is called Zapped. The story is interesting and the background scenes of the various Grands Prix the book follows are very accurate, as are some of the insider stories about the goings on in F1. But the premise of someone being able to get into the telemetry of F1 cars is well thought out and appears to be feasible, if not yet ready to actually be used in racing. I wonder how feasible this really is.

Can someone with tech knowledge put me at ease?

[tux]

These days its not possible because 2 way Telemetry has been banned. The car can only send data back to the pits but the pits cannot send data back to the car unless it is plugged into the laptop.

[Pingguest]

The current regulations indeed forbid pit-to-car telemetry. But some years ago I read a story about Alain Prost's McLaren being sabotaged electronically by Ferrari during the 1984 Belgium Grand Prix.

[ScotsBrutesFan]

A directed emp would kill any electronics within range in that direction regardless of where the electronics were capable of receiving signals

[cerdic]

There was a story in the news recently about a device that had been developed to stop cars. It was to be marketed at police forces to replace 'stinger' type devices. It fired an electromagnetic pulse which fried the electronics and caused the target car to coast to a halt. They reckoned it worked on any car with modern electronics - the guy said that you would be OK if you were driving a 1960s Landrover or something though!

[wolfhound]

Originally Posted by cerdic

OK if you were driving a 1960s Landrover or something though!

Landrover... ha electrics by Lucas prince of darkness no need for any elctronic stingers, but if you are handy with sparks you will always get a Landy going again!

[Casper]

Originally Posted by tux

These days its not possible because 2 way Telemetry has been banned. The car can only send data back to the pits but the pits cannot send data back to the car unless it is plugged into the laptop.

Communications are not necessary so I am told. I don't understand any of it but those that know reckon it would be easy.

[EnsignMN08]

Here is a news report today on FOX NEWs in the USA. It shows how easy it really is to ZAP a car and that the consequences can be extremely dangerous.

COPS CAN USE RADIO WAVES TO BRING YOUR CAR TO A HALT

FOX NEWS
By Peter Braun
Published December 31, 2013
Digital Trends

Finding a safe way to stop fleeing cars has been a difficult problem for law enforcement for a long time. Police have tried everything from spike strips to PIT maneuvers to bring fleeing villains to a halt. Now, however, a British company has a slightly more high tech idea: radio waves.

The company, known as E2V is working on a system called RF-Safe Stop that projects radio pulses which overwhelm and shutdown engine electronics. The system is in essence a small radar transmitter that uses specific radio frequencies to create an effect similar to an electromagnetic pulse.

The BBC reports that in testing the system has been able to shut down slow moving cars and motorcycles at a range of up to 50 meters. It may not be a flying car, but still I am pretty sure this is the 17th sign that we are in fact living in the future.

There may be one or two problems with that future, though. For starters, the system doesn’t bring a car immediately to a halt, as the car will coast from whatever speed it’s disabled by the RF-Safe Stop.

The bigger problem is that the system interferes with ALL electronics – that means, cell phones, navigation, oh and the electronics controlling the brakes and, you know, the drive by wire steering systems that are becoming increasingly common. That could create some safety issues.

On the reverse side of things, any car made before about 1980 might be immune to this thing, because of their analog construction. Unless of course that car was made by the British or the Italians, in which case I am assuming the electrical systems would cut out just from idea of being near the thing.

Still, even with those disadvantages, there are some reasons to be optimistic about this technology. All of the alternatives have their own problems. Spike strips can stop motorcycles, but in doing so they also tend to stop the hearts of the people colliding with them.

The PIT maneuver generally works. But it can have unpredictable, and, shall we say, ‘unsafe’ results. A quick YouTube search yields a lot of videos showing cars getting stopped with the PIT flipping over and catching fire.

That makes for good episodes of “World’s Wildest Police Videos” but helps to explain why most departments don’t use it anymore.

And the RF-Safe Stop is a far cry safer than what we used to consider the future of law enforcement. In the 1950s, the Texas Rangers thought it would be pretty neat to mount a gun in the hood of its cars that you could fire with an arcade style pistol grip, presumably while shouting “Pow-Pow! Yeehaw!”

So with those as our other options, I am definitely willing to give E2V a shot at figuring this thing out. And, apparently, so are the British Police and the Ministry of Defense. I look forward to bringing you more details.