I hope you never have to defend that position. Any time you connect to any hardware, you introduce a risk of interfering. Speaking of which, it hurts your argument if you continue to use the term “pulling”. Pulling implies some control. You’re really just listening to bus traffic and recording those communications, right? That’s far less intrusive than pulling which implies a request-response structure or protocol. And I think it would be wise to incorporate or at least get some personal liability protection. Because when you sample the bus, you’re physically connected to it. You say no possibility of interference but any reasonably competent technical person can punch numerous holes in that position. And you can bet, if a lawsuit is filed against a car manufacturer and they find your hardware device connected to the communications bus on the car, their lawyers and technical experts will have a field day with your assertion that there is zero possibility we had anything to do with it. Even if you’re only found to be 1% contributory, that could wipe out the infant company and/or anyone associated with it. Just something to consider…
I had a former neighbor who worked for a short time for a plumbing service. After he returned to the shop after a call the boss called him into the office and asked him why he was driving 75mph on the freeway. Turns out their trucks had hardware/software installed that let them remotely monitor their fleet.
I agree that there is always the possibility of unintended transmissions occurring on a CAN-bus using an off the shelf interface. OBD2, however, generates a request for every data value reply. That brings a much higher risk than simply listening to the bus. To avoid this problem, we developed an inductive coupler for another customer that could only receive CAN bus traffic. Of course, we could not use OBD2 with that device.
If the screen on this thing turns Yellow does that mean it was hooked up to a school bus instead of a regular bus.
Shawn, I think you are real close to promoting on this site.
@Shawn_Conner
How do you intend to deal with the proprietary info that car makers put into their software? That is to me, anyway,) the biggest beef I have with the expensive scanners- I have to purchase separate software for each make of car I want my scanner/computer to talk to.
Some of the data you are looking to show may not be easily accessible without shelling out some $$$ to the car manufacturers.
Hi Eddo,
This is why we have been test-driving cars and reverse-engineering the recordings for the past five years. In many cases, the manufacturer won’t reveal their data for any price to a company that is too small.
We don’t mean to, but it’s difficult to get feedback and requests without some details about our product and methodology. Please note, we have not mentioned any specific names.
hmmm, sounds mildly illegal…
(referring to grabbing proprietary data)
Like microsoft, you own the computer, we own the operating system, mess with our stuff and your computer or car is a brick, I like it not.
Another user mentioned a name. I deleted it. I don’t see anything wrong with the discussion of the concept.
You don’t have to transmit to interfere but that is one way. How about shorting the bus When a part fails or your connection shorts it out? Or introducing noise that disrupts the bus? It doesn’t matter who makes it, the risk exists fundamentally.
Sounds like a fun venture although I still don’t see the commercial viability yet. I reviewed your site and one suggestion would be to focus on your best prospect. The opportunities you cite are all over the place. It dilutes the message and gives impression you aren’t organized and laser focused on the business. Pick one and focus your pitch on that. Edit that youtube vid to remove realtime waits at stop lights etc and add some overlay highlights to the data to bring attention to what is changing and of interest to prospective investers. Don’t take this wrong way. Just trying to help. I’ll give anybody credit for investing the time and energy needed on a fledgling business venture like this and your passion is evident. Good luck!
Hi everyone, I’m sorry for the delay. I’d like to direct your attention to the 2015 DMCA ruling. This is a temporary ruling, but does currently make our process legal. This exemption must be renewed every three years, and limits what can be reverse engineered regarding music and wireless access. These exemptions expire on October 28, 2018 unless successfully renewed.
Here’s a link to an interpretation for those who really don’t want to read legalese. JDSUPRA.
Exactly correct. Our goal is to make something useful enough to provide a substantially reduced risk of collision and give quality-of-life improvements to make the risk worthwhile. Due to our hybrid active/passive system, we have a greatly reduced strain on the vehicle bus when relying on our passive extraction.
We’re on it! We ran into some issues with Dashware accepting our data (very frustrating), so we decided to pursue another piece of software that could display gauges. We’re imminent to releasing videos with beautiful graphical displays, and we’ll edit them to remove the boring parts.
Shawn:
As you’ve seen, many of those who responded to this thread have enormous vehicle repair experience as well as with scanners and diagnostic tools. Some of the input was brutally honest.
While I would definitely listen and learn from it, don’t let it derail your youthful idealism and energy for some breakthrough you’re seeking.
All the best.