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Blogging for the Record

The “Haven’t Missed a Day Yet this Year” record. Feels good to type that. But also, thats my way of saying, “this will be a weak daily blog update not the proper full page refresh”. Guys please wish for me an assistant.

Today was action packed. Fridays are always stupid busy with 2 newspaper deadlines (news = A new Auto Alliance for Cyber Security), then I was the surprise guest at the Nissan Annual Employee Meeting, my Targa team and I.

That’s the most people I ever spoke in front of (300-ish, said a couple of lines about loving competing, and that a stock Micra performed surprisingly amazing, hope you guys feel proud you built a great car.)

Then a last team dinner, and I’ve finally arrived home, to 25lbs of newly hemmed curtains in my lobby!, plus a couple Corona, so that’s tonight’s agenda and that’s me complete for this mega week, TTY Monday, enjoy the warm weather and sun!

The Nissan Micra Cup Race officially kicked off at today’s meeting, introducing Canada’s best-priced racing series, the Micra Cup.

Tell ya about it in another post, short answer why I like it is: all entry cars are the same, therefore the playing field and game is evened out.

Hi Nissan guys, nice to meet you today, took your photo! :) I blogged every day from Targa, here’s my adventure: #TeamNissanMicra

Reunited for a second ahhh; gave it a loving pat.

Snuck away for some silent time as always.

This post came from my new coffee table, on a rug, on a clean floor, guys seriously GUYS. Operation winterize-a-cottage-into-a-house is thisclose to being done.

Blog tag = New House

 

 

Ranking Canada’s Cities as “Pedestrian-Friendly”

A company ranks Canadian cities by their “walkability” scores:

  1. Vancouver (78)
  2. Toronto (71)
  3. Montreal (70)
  4. Hamilton (51)
  5. Brampton (48)
  6. Calgary (48)

For sure not my most interesting column.

Read it online at Autonet.

Favourite line:

For a barometer, the highest-ranked city in the world is New York City, scoring an 88/100.

***

Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

Sign & Help to Improve Automotive Security

A group of security professionals have formed “The Cavalry“: dedicated to improving collaboration between the cyber security and automotive industries.

Because what if things like adaptive cruise control, electronic braking and stolen vehicle recovery technology could be used nefariously? What if all Toyotas in Canada were instructed to go left next Tuesday at 1pm? Like that.

Specifically, they’re proposing a Five Star Automotive Cyber Safety Program:

1 – Safety by Design
2 – Third-Party Collaboration
3 – Evidence Capture
4 – Security Updates
5 – Segmentation & Isolation

Why I signed: 

Sign it too, here.

Non-security nerds: I know this stuff can seem shadowy and strange, with a name like “The Cavalry” and a blank profile pic, but in this particular case it’s okay, I know one of the guys in real life; I signed with my real name, not Blog.

 

 

Spent the day at SecTor

Canada’s biggest security conference.

Have a rough post built about it , will publish tomorrow morning, but just got home (I don’t miss living downtown ugh), hope you guys are still out having fun, good seeing and meeting you today.

@SecTorCA

 

 

 

Access a Car’s Computer via the OBDII Port

OBDII port – On-board Diagnostics. The II is pronounced “two”.

Each of the 16 pins outputs something specific:

(photo via Wikipedia)

Found within 2 feet of all steering wheels, OBDII ports became mandatory in 1996.

That’s my ’99 VW Jetta.

When you read about car hacking and it says,
“requires physical access to the vehicle”,
that usually means through this port.

Connect an OBD II scanner to see what’s up.

It gives back readouts that look like this.

How to read the codes:

1st character – indicates which system is having the problem.

B = Body C = Chassis P = Powertrain U = Undefined

2nd digit – identifies if the code is generic, or specific to a manufacturer

0 = Generic
1 = Manufacturer specific

3rd digit – indicates which sub-system is having the problem

1 = Emission Management (Fuel or Air)
2 = Injector Circuit (Fuel or Air)
3 = Ignition or Misfire
4 = Emission Control
5 = Vehicle Speed & Idle Control
6 = Computer & Output Circuit
7 = Transmission
8 = Transmission
9 = SAE Reserved
0 = SAE Reserved

4th and 5th digits – variable, and indicate a particular problem

My Jetta output a _lot_ of codes.

Which is why it failed its E-test, so hard, and is no longer on the road.

Couple this OBDII port to the internet,
and a whole new vertical in the auto industry is starting.

Example: Mojio is a (Canadian!) company that is soon launching a cellular-&-GPS device that plugs into this port. It will provide real-time engine analytics, share your car’s location with your contacts, analyze your driving style, and much more, because apps can be written for the device.

I predict insurance companies will use these, “pay only for insurance when you’re actually driving on the road! Imagine the savings!”… like that.