Airbags can snitch on speed-demons

Cory Doctorow 8:02 am Thu Aug 22, 2002

Air-bag computers can be used to discover how fast a car was travelling at the time of collision. This is, of course, very interesting to law enforcement (and, presumably, insurance companies).

An electronic device on board the Pontiac, however, told police exactly how fast the car had been going — 124 mph in a 40 mph zone. And it enabled Trotwood to join the growing number of police departments and insurance companies across the country experimenting with data stored on computers, originally designed and installed on cars and trucks to control air bags, to determine what happened in the seconds leading up to accidents.

Called a Sensing Diagnostic Module, the electronic "brains" behind an airbag were developed by General Motors and are now manufactured by its spin-off company Delphi at an electronics plant in Kokomo, Ind. GM's air bags are made in Vandalia at Delphi's Interior & Lighting Systems plant and are later hooked up to the black boxes on assembly lines for GM and other auto companies.

(Thanks, Tim!)

Amazon used a China firm on U.S. blacklist for thermal cameras to monitor workers for COVID-19 fever

• Amazon's new Chinese thermal spycam vendor was blacklisted by U.S. over allegations it helped China detain and monitor Uighurs and other Muslim minorities READ THE REST
Financial Times journalist Mark Di Stefano accused of accessing private Zoom meetings, then publishing the information

Mark Di Stefano of the Financial Times is accused by The Independent of accessing private Zoom meetings held by The Independent and The Evening Standard as journalists were learning how… READ THE REST
Hackers tried to break into WHO, which faces more than two-fold increase in cyberattacks

Hackers tried to break into the World Health Organization earlier in March, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread, Reuters reports. Security experts blame an advanced cyber-espionage hacker group known as DarkHotel.… READ THE REST
Short Post, just one paragraph

Dessert cheesecake wafer bear claw fruitcake. Fruitcake chupa chups donut candy canes marzipan. Apple pie sweet roll tart chocolate cake macaroon marshmallow carrot cake gummi bears sweet. Pastry sugar plum… READ THE REST
Save 50% on a 1-year subscription to Dashlane's premium password manager

We all know vital information about ourselves and our private digital accounts can be compromised by cybercriminals. However, many would be frightened to know just how compromised they and their… READ THE REST
The Bite Helper removes the itch of a mosquito bite in seconds

While mosquitoes have certainly earned their title as the deadliest animal on earth, their impact on most of our lives is usually a lot less consequential. But even though they… READ THE REST