Nanny cars are hated

[SuperBuickGuy]

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/drivers-sick-new-cars-technology

In the choice I made to buy a Colorado truck, part of the purchase decision was to avoid the GMC equivalent because the nanny systems were beyond overbearing on the GMC... I wonder what comes next? seems to me there's room for an offshore company that provides hacks to BCMs (as opposed to ECM/TCM).... I would pay it to turn off the passenger airbag - so my dog can ride safely on the front seat....

[DanStokes]

My old Dodge has a switch for that - insert key, switch off. I thought that was pretty standard. BTW - we keep dogs in the back seat anyhow though Andy would prefer a lap.

Dan

[RockJustRock]

After my previous thread about an "expert" wanting to stimulate the economy by deregulating the auto industry I was watching TV when an airbag recall commercial came on and it hit me. Why not roll back safety regs? There would be enormous outcry if airbags were just discontinued so make them OPTIONAL. The advent of the cell phone has circumvented vehicular safety anyways.

[oletrux4evr]

After my previous thread about an "expert" wanting to stimulate the economy by deregulating the auto industry I was watching TV when an airbag recall commercial came on and it hit me. Why not roll back safety regs? There would be enormous outcry if airbags were just discontinued so make them OPTIONAL. The advent of the cell phone has circumvented vehicular safety anyways.

Isn't that the truth!?!

[SuperBuickGuy]

After my previous thread about an "expert" wanting to stimulate the economy by deregulating the auto industry I was watching TV when an airbag recall commercial came on and it hit me. Why not roll back safety regs? There would be enormous outcry if airbags were just discontinued so make them OPTIONAL. The advent of the cell phone has circumvented vehicular safety anyways.

if you could hack the BCM, you could turn the airbags off and do pretty much anything with any controlled device. Problem is the majors are fighting this - they argue 'fine, you can touch the motors private-mechanics, but you have no need to touch this stuff'

annoying, and the problem is if you hack it onshore, you'd be hit with so many lawsuits that your entire existence would devolve into that litigation.... however, if another country had a hacker do this, one without extradition.... well, then that would be a different shoe altogether.

[RockJustRock]

I used too many words. If you want to make new cars cheaper why not optional airbags?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Because of the cry "what about the children"....

[oletrux4evr]

Heard that 25% of new car owners find the nanny crap 'annoying' and attempt to remove or turn it off........mostly lane monitors and such.

[Eric]

After my previous thread about an "expert" wanting to stimulate the economy by deregulating the auto industry I was watching TV when an airbag recall commercial came on and it hit me. Why not roll back safety regs? There would be enormous outcry if airbags were just discontinued so make them OPTIONAL. The advent of the cell phone has circumvented vehicular safety anyways.

Well, before all the safety crap and nanny crap. Drivers for the most part feared getting in a crash and getting hurt.
All this safety/nanny crap has done is make drivers think they are in a bubble of safety and can drive without a care in the world.

removing the safety gear sounds stupid, but then if it brought back a healthy fear of getting hurt in a crash, maybe it isn't so dumb.
Biggest mistake The auto industry did, or was pushed into doing because of safety groups and government dept's.
Was telling and then using as a selling point, just how safe a model is.
Maybe that is information best not told to the driving public.
So they keep that healthy fear of getting harmed in a crash.

As for the O/Pers dog. the pass seat has a weight switch to turn off the pass side air bags when no one is seated in that seat.
You could wire in an earlier vehicles keyed switch or just a toggle switch to that seat weight sensor switch, to turn it off when dog is in seat.
No idea of any legal mombo gumbo from adding one. But I think you could figure it out.
I'd think if fear of forgetting you had shut it off, you might be able to use the switch the oems use for the start stop technology. That the user can hit the switch to turn it off, but every time you restart the vehicle you have to turn if off again, the switch doesn't stay off.
I'd think a relay that when vehicle is shut down, breaks the circuit, requiring a push of a button to turn off the airbag would also work.

[SuperBuickGuy]

As for the O/Pers dog. the pass seat has a weight switch to turn off the pass side air bags when no one is seated in that seat.
You could wire in an earlier vehicles keyed switch or just a toggle switch to that seat weight sensor switch, to turn it off when dog is in seat.
No idea of any legal mombo gumbo from adding one. But I think you could figure it out.
.

that would trigger the air bag light and shut the entire system down. even presuming that the engineers did a zero-5v scale (after all, there is a mandated low-inflation setting for the children in the federal regs), a dead wire would trigger a fault code because the reference voltage that goes through the system to make sure it's operational at each start sequence would detect a 'broken' wire. More likely the scale is 5v and the amount of resistance then allows the system to determine if a kid or adult is in the seat.....thus, if you cut that 5v, it would trigger a light.

and in an effort to answer your next question - the system is programmed to look for a slight resistance that would equate to the nominal voltage drop through resistance in the line... e.g. there is a .01 volt drop - it looks for that and if it's not there, again triggers the light....

[Eric]

that would trigger the air bag light and shut the entire system down. even presuming that the engineers did a zero-5v scale (after all, there is a mandated low-inflation setting for the children in the federal regs), a dead wire would trigger a fault code because the reference voltage that goes through the system to make sure it's operational at each start sequence would detect a 'broken' wire. More likely the scale is 5v and the amount of resistance then allows the system to determine if a kid or adult is in the seat.....thus, if you cut that 5v, it would trigger a light.

and in an effort to answer your next question - the system is programmed to look for a slight resistance that would equate to the nominal voltage drop through resistance in the line... e.g. there is a .01 volt drop - it looks for that and if it's not there, again triggers the light....

You are just bypassing the sensor that senses weight on the seat bottom.
it would not set off the air bag light, it just not know anything was in the seat.

iirc the seat switch is just weight on it closing the circuit. a switch before the seat bottom switch/sensor. would do the same thing the seat switch is doing, but still allow it when the inseat switch/sensor is closing the circuit from weight on it. if the switch added wasn't there.

[SuperBuickGuy]

iirc the seat switch is just weight on it closing the circuit. a switch before the seat bottom switch/sensor. would do the same thing the seat switch is doing, but still allow it when the inseat switch/sensor is closing the circuit. if the switch added wasn't there.

not anymore.

[Eric]

not anymore.

ok, explain it to me. The last seat I recovered to reuse with one in it. it was a simple 2 wire switch, weight on the bottom, closed the switch.
The seat was out of a 2015 citron, not a vehicle sold in your market.

[RockJustRock]

A lot of work to set a bomb off in someone's face after they've crashed/

[DanStokes]

Sadly, I fear that the nanny car situation came largely out of a group of drivers coming of age who simply don't care about driving and a society that has evolved in a way that requires driving (limited mass transit, etc.). It's a sad situation. I can't believe that many kids coming of age today don't really want a driver's license. When I hit 16 the first thing I did was bug my Mom to take me to the Secretary of State office (where you get your license in MI) so I could take the test. I had memorized the SoS driver's license brochure by the time I was 15 so I was READY! But many kids these days would seemingly be happy to have mommy drive them for the rest of their lives.

Regardless of the reticence to drive, that's how you get to work, get groceries, etc. in our world. And so we have a heard of reluctant drivers who don't value the privilege who are forced to drive. If the auto manufacturers are going to stay in business they have to develop cars in which these "drivers" (and I use the term loosely) can't kill themselves or others. And so we get the mess we see today.

I know I've typed all this before but it's still true.

Dan