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Submission + - Minor car crashes mean high tech repairs (cnn.com)

Submitted by smooth wombat
smooth wombat writes: With all the improvements in car safety over the decades, the recent addition of a plethora of high tech sensors and warnings comes with increased costs. And not just to have to have them on your car. Any time you get into an accident, even a minor one, it will most likely require a detailed examination of any sensors which may have been affected and their subsequent realignment, replacement, and calibration.

Some vehicles require “dynamic calibration,” which means, once the sensors and cameras are back in place, a driver needs to take the vehicle out on real roads for testing. With proper equipment attached the car can, essentially, recalibrate itself as it watches lane lines and other markers. It requires the car to be driven for a set distance at a certain speed but weather and traffic can create problems.

“If you’re in Chicago or L.A., good luck getting to that speed,” said Ebrahimi ”or if you’re in Seattle or Chicago or New York, with snow, good luck picking up all the road markings.”

More commonly, vehicles need “static calibration,” which can be done using machinery inside a closed workshop with a flat, level floor. Special targets are set up around the vehicle at set distances according to instructions from the vehicle manufacturer.

“The car [views] those targets at those specific distances to recalibrate the world into the car’s computer,” Ebrahimi said.

These kinds of repairs also demand buildings with open space that meet requirements including specific colors and lighting. And it requires special training for employees to perform these sorts of recalibrations, he said.

Comment Re: Hopefully it's improved since 2019 (Score 1) 286

by Z00L00K (#64448680) Attached to: The US Just Mandated Automated Emergency Braking Systems By 2029

I have figured out that some shadows and road patches can trig the braking system.

A side effect of the lane assist is that a lot of the 'feeling' of the road disappears and it makes it harder to find out ice on the road where just subtle changes in the feel of the car indicates bad conditions.

Comment Re: I prefer to be in charge of my vehicle's braki (Score 0) 286

by Z00L00K (#64448666) Attached to: The US Just Mandated Automated Emergency Braking Systems By 2029

I'd say that the automatic braking system is dumb as a brick - it thinks that tree shadows and pavement patches are items worth braking for.

It also makes it harder to enter roundabouts because it can't see that vehicles crossing in front of you will be out of the way in time.

Submission + - Automated Emergency Braking mandated by 2029 (caranddriver.com) 2

Submitted by sinij
sinij writes:

However, automated emergency braking systems will be a federally mandated standard . . . by 2029. Following the finalization of a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is announcing the new safety standard for all passenger cars and light trucks by September 2029.

This technology requires forward-facing camera, which makes both the price and cost of maintenance and repair more expensive. In my view, it does not pass cost vs. benefit analysis.

Submission + - German police bust Europe's 'largest' scam call center (dw.com)

Submitted by Plumpaquatsch
Plumpaquatsch writes: Investigators teamed up with colleagues from the Balkans and Lebanon in raids set up by months of intense surveillance. Authorities say the operation thwarted over €10 million in damages and led to 21 arrests.

Dubbed "Operation Pandora," the sting began in Germany in December 2023, after a suspicious bank teller contacted police when a 76-year-old customer from Freiburg sought to hurriedly withdraw €120,000 ($128,232) from her savings account to hand over to a fake police officer.

When real police investigators tracked the internet-based telephone number that had been used to lure the woman, they discovered a veritable goldmine.

Rather than shutting down the number, authorities instead went on the offensive, setting up their own call center in which hundreds of officers from Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin and Saxony worked around the clock monitoring some 1.3 million calls in real time, as the number from the initial scam was tied to an entire network of fraud call centers.

Police were able to trace and record data from the calls, as well as warn potential victims of what was in fact happening, in turn winning valuable time to put together the April 18 sting.

Police say their efforts allowed them to thwart some €10 million in damages in roughly 6,000 cases of attempted fraud.

Comment Re:And nothing will happen (Score 2) 174

It's a plausible deniability death.

So now there are two down, one from alleged suicide, one from MRSA.

If there's a third then it's becoming suspicious.

I don't expect that it's the three letter agencies directly - but that doesn't rule out individuals within them that getting money under the table.

After all - a lot of this is about big money.

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