A pop-up ad for this device has been appearing on this forum. I realize that science/technology “truth” changes over time (anybody for flat earth?), but I suspect that this is a scam. It reminds me of the “carburetor that gets 120 mpg but the oil companies are suppressing it” myth of my youth.
Do any of you experts think it is NOT a scam, and if it is a scam, should (or can) the site block it?
https://getecochip.com/article4?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5u39uOTy9QIVYwJoCB2oLgW3EAEYASAAEgI93vD_BwE
Truth in science and technology doesn’t change. What changes is our understanding of science. We may have a certain understanding of a scientific subject and that is a scientific fact at the time. As we learn more our understanding of may change/alter or even eliminate what was a scientific fact as we learn more. Gravity is a great example.
As a software engineer and engineering manager working in the computer field for almost 50 years I will go on the record and say “THIS IS A TOTAL SCAM.” If it worked even 1/20th as well as it claims then every auto manufacturer would be using it. They spend hundreds of millions of dollars every year trying to reach their Cafe’ numbers. But it will probably sell millions.
This is a solid scam. Period.
Well, I did put “truth” in quotes.
So, should/can the site block ads for scams like this?
It’s not a “truth” unless it is true. Whether we “understand it to be true at the time” or not is irrelevant.
But I agree that the chip is bogus. It most likely interferes with MAF sensor readings or some other sensor reading. Fuel mileage might go up for a short term until the computer adjusts.
Wow
No where in the ad did I see how it works or what it does
… or, it might do nothing at all, and the scammers who are selling it are relying on The Placebo Effect to convince drivers that it is producing lower fuel consumption. In any event, a scam, pure and simple.
Quite possible. Read an article awhile back on some of the scam chips, and what I stated about interfering with sensor readings, I got from the article. No idea if it pertains to this particular “chip”, though.
A good scam would be a chip that could alter your mpg readout on the display, but do nothing else. I bet you could make a million with that before some folks did the math 
+1
Hopefully nobody can devise a scamming chip of that sort, but if someone does, there will surely be some suckers who will buy it and will then be convinced that it works.
As to claims that are made for cyber-related products, one of the so-called “advantages” of Bitcoin and similar digital currencies is that because they can’t be traced, nobody knows about your transactions, and “the government” can’t get its hands on it. I’m not sure how well that is working out for a couple who were just arrested in connection with a multi-BILLION dollar Bitcoin scam.
My favorite BAD chip was the thing you plugged, not into the OBDII system, but into the cigarette lighter! It supposedly smoothed out the 12V system, thereby allowing a huge increase in mpgs?!? It would be funny except for the fact that a major catalog retailer chose to sell it. When I emailed them complaining of the scam, they just replied ‘it passed tests in Thailand, good enough for us’…
Ok, we all agree it’s a scam (one of many, of various levels of cleverness and evil). So, should/can the site block ads for scams like this?
(It torques my wrench that people come to this site looking for solid advice, and they get an ad for a scam like this.)
BUY IT!! it comes with a free bridge.
@cdaquila - is there any remedy for the scam ad showing up?
And you’re wrong. That’s NOT what science is. Science is about discovery. Not about absolutes. Truth in science has ALWAYS been about discovery…NEVER in absolutes.
If it’s “truth” while science believes it to be true, then the earth was flat when that was the leading scientific theory.
“Truth” is an absolute/finite thing that science has to adapt to as it understands it. Science doesn’t make anything true or untrue. It pursues “truth” (hopefully).
+1
When Galileo stated that the Earth revolved around the Sun, he was persecuted by The Catholic Church because their “absolute truth” was that the Sun revolved around the Earth.
But…it was actually the “truth” that the earth revolves around the sun. The “absolute truth”. If Galileo had said otherwise, well he’d have been wrong. The Catholic Church was mistaken in this case on what the truth was. As is science at times. Truth remains constant
Scientific truths are what we at the time of our understanding call Scientific Truths. And it DOES change over time. As we learn more those old truths are no longer called truths.
Then they were never actually true to begin with. The real truth is just the truth. Regardless of what science or religion or whatever else “understand” to be true at any given time.
You call it what you want…Obviously it doesn’t matter what the scientific community calls it. You’re so much smarter than everyone else.