I know of a certain SM drivers wife who works for the General. She said
during Impound at Natls we could write down the VINs of all the C5s in SS and
she would void the warranty when she got back to work.
Curt O should get that letter in the mail any day. <g>
Jason "RX7 KLR" Isley
jason.isley@alltel.com
-----Original Message-----
From: jac73@daimlerchrysler.com at INTERNET
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 8:40 AM
To: autox@autox.team.net at INTERNET
Subject: RE: GPS and Big Brother Hysteria
Here's the deal, folks. If you have one of the systems like OnStar or an
equivalent from another manufacturer -- you know, one of the ones that uses
a cell phone to call for help if the airbags deploy -- yes, they'll know if
you endo the car at a race track, unless you disable the system first.
GPS systems are receive-only -- there's an additional component (the cell
phone) needed to send positional information to a third party. Disable the
phone, end of problem.
While some manufacturers (GM and Mercedes now, others to follow) equipping
some cars with crash data recorders, these do not have a telemetry
capability -- they have to physically remove the box from the car and plug
it into the download equipment. The stated purpose of these recorders is
to gather real-world crash data to make better safety systems for cars and
trucks. If you off the car on a race track, odds are pretty good that your
insurance won't cover it (or will... once... and you'll be shopping for
another insurance company) and the automaker will honor the clause in their
warranty agreement that voids the warranty if the car is used for
competition. I'm sure there's more to the story of the guy with the
Corvette getting the "no more warranty" letter than was related here.
Given that hitting a pothole in a particular fashion at normal surface
street speeds can spike g readings beyond a "normal" threshold, I find it
very difficult to believe that GM would use that data (which, again, could
only be collected by physically removing the crash recorder from the car)
to void a warranty. Showing up at the dealer for service work with a
Vortech supercharger or a NOS fogger nozzle plumbed into the intake snorkel
would certainly red-flag that VIN in the warranty computer, though.
As far as OBD-III and "fix it or fine" letters, again, there is no
telemetry. Period. The PCM will record any fault codes, same as today,
and these can be downloaded at the dealership. The main thing OBD-III does
is add some additional monitored systems over the current OBD-II. It's
still just a proposal, mind you, and has not be ratified or given a firm
timetable for implementation to the best of my knowledge. The "fix it or
fine letter" rumor has been going around since OBD-II was just a proposal,
by the way. There wasn't any truth to it then, there isn't any truth to it
now. If anything like that happens, it will be the result of roadside
monitors that operate similar to photo radar -- the sniffer detects the
gross polluter, the camera takes a happy snap, the car owner gets a "fix it
ticket" in the mail.
Think about it in terms of cost: if these telemetry systems existed (they
don't), someone would have to pay for them. The government won't spend
that kind of money. The automakers certainly won't spend that kind of
money unless required by law to do so (and they're not -- say what you will
about Congress, they're smart enough to know that a Big Brother-style
tracking system for cars won't survive its first court challenge on freedom
of expression and search and seizure grounds). Cell phone airtime costs
money. The equipment and personnel needed to monitor a fleet of cars
numbering in the tens of millions costs money. Even if it was only on new
cars -- there will be around 15,000,000 new cars and light trucks sold in
this country in 2000, give or take a couple million -- that's a lot of new
cars. Even if the system only transmitted when there was a fault logged,
that's a lot of airtime bandwidth in an already crowded EM spectrum.
What I don't get is why a bunch of Porsche clubbers are so dedicated to the
ability to commit insurance fraud and/or warranty fraud. When you go out
on a track, even for "instruction", you pays your money and you takes your
chances. If you have an oops! moment, you should be prepared to open you
wallet.
Saddened at the lack of personal responsibility in this world today,
Jim Crider
DaimlerChrysler <salute!> doesn't endorse anything I've said above. If you
wish to flame someone, flame the writer, not the company.
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