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The $1 Trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (text) passed by President Biden in Nov 2021 included a little law that I think might surprise everyone.

ALL cars sold from 2026 onwards must include a breathalyzer or other drunk driving detection equipment in order to use the vehicle.

SEC. 24220
            (1) Advanced drunk and impaired driving prevention 
        technology.--The term ``advanced drunk and impaired driving 
        prevention technology'' means a system that--
                    (A) can--
                          (i) passively monitor the performance of a 
                      driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify 
                      whether that driver may be impaired; and
                          (ii) prevent or limit motor vehicle operation 
                      if an impairment is detected;
                    (B) can--

[[Page 135 STAT. 832]]

                          (i) passively and accurately detect whether 
                      the blood alcohol concentration of a driver of a 
                      motor vehicle is equal to or greater than the 
                      blood alcohol concentration described in section 
                      163(a) of title 23, United States Code; and
                          (ii) prevent or limit motor vehicle operation 
                      if a blood alcohol concentration above the legal 
                      limit is detected; or
                    (C) is a combination of systems described in 
                subparagraphs (A) and (B).

Modern vehicles are marvels of electronics. Many contain over 200 controllers in domains from infotainment to ride management to engine control. But the software behind our driving experiences has been treated largely as afterthoughts.

Audi is trying a new approach in the Q6 e-tron SUV’s. It allows over-the-air upgrading of the software to all those different domains and controllers.

This involves a new way of working with component suppliers, dealing with regulations that differ country-to-country, and how to get cars certified in all these geos.

The article is a good quick read on the current state of affairs.

Articles:

• https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/05/throw-out-all-those-black-boxes-and-say-hello-to-the-software-defined-car/

Car thieves are nothing if not persistent. Locks can be picked or ripped out. Wireless key fobs have become vulnerable to a number of new attacks.

Univerisity of Michigan students came up with a new method. Instead of relying on wireless fobs and locks, they connect a security monitoring device between the battery and electrical system. It watch for users to make a series of voltage changes on the electrical system before the car can start.

What voltage changes? They might perform some combination of flicking the windshield wipers, turn signal or headlights on and off, or locking and unlocking the doors.

Battery Sleuth’s default mode allows the battery to deliver enough current to power systems like electronics and lights, but not enough to power the vehicle’s starter. Only when it detects the pre-set series of voltage fluctuations in the vehicle’s electrical system does it turn up the juice, allowing the battery’s full power through to the starter.

Articles:

• https://news.umich.edu/a-surprisingly-simple-way-to-foil-car-thieves/
• https://hackaday.com/2023/07/25/car-security-system-monitors-tiny-voltage-fluctuations/

In 2015, David Pickett, Volvo Australia’s technical lead, was a part of the team that tried to develop the world’s first kangaroo detection and avoidance system by a major car manufacturer.

Volvo’s team spent the next two years searching for a way to make Volvo’s cars detect and avoid/brake for kangaroos before the company admitted defeat to the media in 2017.

Volvo’s camera and radar system were no match for the marsupials. Wallabies proved to be equally challenging.

They look entirely different in full flight than when resting, and they’re fast. They jump in unpredictable ways, maneuvering mid-air to confuse and outrun predators.

Articles:

• https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/04/hazard-identification-software-cant-make-sense-of-kangaroos/

It’s not been a rosy year for electric vehicles.

EV sales in 2024 are only 9% of vehicles sold – and seem to have reached a plateau. Automobile manufacturers such as Ford’s popular F-150 Lightning, GM, and Renault are quietly cutting production back. Even Volvo that pledged to be 100% electric by 2030 just pulled the plug on it’s efforts with Polestar. It certainly doesn’t help that average EV’s cost several thousand dollars more than gas and diesel powered vehicles.

Only 2 years after pledges to convert 25% of its fleet to electric vehicles by 2024, Hertz decided to sell 1/3 of it’s EV fleet (about 20,000 cars) in January 2024 and replace them with gas-powered vehicles – citing higher expenses related to collision and damages. By March 2024, and embattled Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr ultimately resigned over the fiasco as Hertz now focuses on a return to profitability. They’re not the only rental company quietly replacing EV’s with traditional vehicles.

Other shortcoming are starting to come out. Batteries are physical devices – devices that don’t work well in high temps of the Southwest nor in the cold winter temps of the upper states. There’s also range-anxiety, higher tire consumption and higher road wear due to the heavy weight of EV’s, higher repair costs, rising electricity prices, and now a new issue: reliability.

Now we have a few years of reliability data – and Consumer Reports says it’s not that good. The data says that EV’s have lower reliability ratings than standard gas/diesel powered vehicles. The worst reliability is for full plug-in hybrids that have 146% more issues on average.

EVs had 79 percent more reliability problems than a gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicle, on average. Plug-in hybrids fared even worse; these had 146 percent more issues on average than the conventional alternative. But simpler not-plug-in hybrids bucked this trend, with 26 percent fewer reliability problems than conventionally powered vehicles.

Consumer Reports via Ars Technica

It’s not just Consumer Reports.