Three mainstream news articles crossed my desk this fall, with the most recent arriving this past week, all talking about either electric vehicles, or connected vehicles, and there’s no reason to believe that soon, EV’s will be that much more connected than they already are!
In October, this article showed up:
Connected vehicles can be at risk of hacking, consumer awareness paramount: experts
VEHICLES AT RISK OF HACKING Ritika Dubey, The Canadian Press – Oct 8, 2023 / 10:20 am
“”Cars are tracking how fast you’re going, where you’re going, what your altitude is — and all the different pieces of information are being calculated … It’s all computerized,” he said.”
“”Let’s say someone is driving on the highway and the doors get locked, the car speeds up and the (driver) gets a message asking for bitcoin or they’ll crash the vehicle,” said AJ Khan, founder of Vehiqilla Inc., a Windsor, Ont.-based company offering cybersecurity services for fleet cars.
“That scenario is possible right now.”
Khan added any car that can connect to the internet, whether gas-powered or electric, could be at risk of hacking.
But electric vehicles are particularly vulnerable to cybersecurity thefts.”
“Researchers at Concordia University in Montreal found significant weaknesses in their 2022 study of public and private EV charging stations across Canada — all of them connect to the internet. The study showed breaches could affect drivers, power stations and the power grid they are connected to.”
“”Another critical aspect of cybersecurity in this ecosystem is the power utility itself,” Assi said.
If a hacker synchronizes multiple charging stations and turns the charging of cars on and off, the power grid could be destabilized, he explained.
Assi said these shortcomings were flagged to manufacturers last year.”
That article was followed immediately the following day, but this:
Rob Shaw: Where will the ‘voluntary’ BC Hydro measures take us?
AN OPTION, FOR NOW Rob Shaw / Glacier Media – Oct 9, 2023 / 11:39 am
This is an opinion piece, as the local news outlet refers to it, and the author has some important concerns to raise in my province, and I’m seeing these concerns start to be raised in various states south of the border too.
“Did you know BC Hydro can reach into its smart network and shut off your hot water heater when you need a shower in the morning, or lower your thermostat when you are curled up on the couch at night?
Probably not. But it turns out, Hydro is quietly up to all sorts of interesting new ways to directly control how you use its electricity.”
” the latest, called “Peak Rewards,” in which Hydro can lower your thermostat, shut off your hot water heater, turn off your electric vehicle charger and more during “peak time events.”
“Peak time events can happen any time of the day, but most commonly take place between 6 a.m. to 11 a.m., and 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.,” reads the website.
Right now, the program is in a kind of beta status, where you can sign up “voluntarily” and get a $50 annual credit per device.
In order to be eligible, you need specific internet-connected items like a Sinope-brand “load controller.” How would you get one of those, you ask? Simple, Hydro will give you one for free under a totally different “voluntary” program called the “Energy Capacity Management Trial,” in which it offers up a bunch of gear to “help you manage your home’s energy use.”
That program is geared towards people who want to add new appliances or an electric vehicle charger to their home, but have maxed out the capacity and are facing a costly upgrade to their service panel. Hydro can solve that, in exchange for these new internet-connected switching devices that help manage the existing load.”
“Time-of-use pricing makes perfect sense on paper, in that you charge higher electricity rates at peak times of the day to try and push people to use power in off-peak hours.
But it’s also political kryptonite. Try telling families they are going to pay more for electricity to run their ovens during dinner time because it just so happens to be the “peak” hours. Or, stand before voters and explain the financial penalty for using your hot water in the morning when you want to have a shower, because that’s a busy time for the grid.
Good luck. Most people can’t shift those behaviours. You just end up penalizing them for living their lives.
To avoid that kind of blowback, the NDP government and Hydro have made time-of-use pricing — you guessed it — “voluntary.” Again, for now.
Hydro’s proposed new system will give you a 5 cent per kilowatt hour credit for electricity used from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and ding you an extra 5 cent per kilowatt hour for electricity used during “peak” 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.”
Remember the two-tier pricing that Fortis has in place had recently scrapped as of a year or so ago because of customer complaints??? Apparently we should try this again with the OTHER electricity provider in the province that just so happens to be a crown corporation!
“By billing all of these new initiatives as “voluntary,” and accompanying them with rebates, Hydro is glossing over the fact it’s gaining more and more direct control of the internet-enabled electricity infrastructure in peoples homes.”
Well, if you clicked that article link, you will have tripped across frequent mentions that this should benefit people who charge their EV’s overnight. So yes, we’re still talking about cars here, talking about electricity, and. . . well. . . about how connected everything is! Internet of Things is going to bite everyone who doesn’t tow the line in the future!
Let’s take a look at the most recent article to cross my desk now.
Will connected cars mean the end of speeding?
THE END OF SPEEDING? Mark Richardson / The Globe and Mail – Dec 12, 2023 / 5:58 pm
How will connected cars handle speeding??? Let’s take a look. . . remember the first article’s thoughts around potential hacking and dangers that already exist to the drivers of connected cars!
“…the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) wants to implement “intelligent speed assistance technology” in new vehicles, and to do so as soon as possible.
In the NTSB’s own words: “Intelligent speed assistance technology, or ISA, uses a car’s GPS location compared with a database of posted speed limits and its on-board cameras to help ensure safe and legal speeds. Passive ISA systems warn a driver when the vehicle exceeds the speed limit through visual, sound or haptic alerts, and the driver is responsible for slowing the car. Active systems include mechanisms that make it more difficult, but not impossible, to increase the speed of a vehicle above the posted speed limit, and those that electronically limit the speed of the vehicle to fully prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit.””
“…it’s recommending that car manufacturers install ISA technology in all new passenger vehicles. At a minimum, this will warn drivers when a vehicle is speeding. It also wants to assist states in implementing ISA interlock programs (mandatory speed limiters) for repeat speeding offenders.
This won’t be hard to do. Most new vehicles are already connected to GPS signals that tell their drivers what the local speed limit is, and some of those will change the colour of the speed readout to warn when the limit is being exceeded. “
“There’s been no push in Canada for such legislation – at least, not yet, says David Adams, president of the Global Automakers of Canada, which represents 15 automakers. “My view is we’re going down this road anyway,” he says.”
These articles line up with other concerns I’ve shared around 15 min cities, smart cities, and what can happen to local grids if regions fall short of string puller demands and expectations!
Since that article was written January 2023, the Oxford project has been met with major pushback by Londoners in England! Rebel News dedicated an entire section of their news site to this issue. You can read a number of related articles on the subject at that link.
This joins other articles such as one on “Lower Traffic Neighbourhoods”.
In February of 2023, they reported on a massive protest in Oxford over traffic filters being installed.
Remember, the technology is already in place for governments and string pullers to use against the movement of a connected car. They are allowing hackers and criminals to use the tech right now, but in the not -too-distant future, arguments such as that of BC Hydro for electrical usage and giving them permission to remote-control your home, will quickly grow to include government remote-controlling your car!
Have you figured out what’s in your 1-hour walking range yet??? Your one-hour bicycle range??? Assuming you even get that distance on foot or cycle power in the future? What is missing in that 2hr round trip that would require motorized travel to deal with? Time to build tangibly-supportive community where you live to address those shortfalls before it’s too late. Two links to help with this concept are in my blog’s 15min city link above.
