We've seen some interesting ways people have tried to meld iPhonewith car, but this one might top them all. Meet Jon's Mazda RX-8, controllable from anywhere in the world using an iPod touch over WiFi. As demonstrated on video, his custom web app can be used to lock and unlock the doors, start and stop the engine, and open the truck. A telemetry window provides data such as fuel level, battery voltage, RPM, speed, and temperatures. It's even got a GPS so you can track the car's wherabouts with Google Maps. All of this is accomplished with computer hidden in the trunk, hooked up to the on-board diagnostics, and equipped with a 3G modem to stay constantly connected to the interwebs. There's no indication on whether he plans to take the mod further, but if so, we can only hope it involves some well-placed cameras and a tilt-controlled steering mechanism. We pity the foolish thief who tries to steal this "haunted" ride. Check out the video demonstration after the break.
Still not sure how great this is.. a car alarm can do most of those things and not have the delay. Not sure why I'd need to lock/unlock/start my car from anywhere in the world.
Think of it as a personal Onstar. If you lock your self out, loose your phone, have a dead phone battery, etc, just call a trusted person to unlock the car for you.
Sure its neat to be able to do that from "anywhere," though besides locking the car if you forget/aren't sure you remembered I can't really see getting much other practical use out of this, even if it is pretty cool.
He probably just disconnected the sensor on the floor under the clutch that detects whether the pedal is being pressed, and just left the car in neutral. Then tapped the remote start.
I made I own remote starter in 1987 and my new car was stick, I did the same thing bypassing the safety feature on the clutch and leaving it in neutral. It was great until one day it was left in 1st and the hand parking break was not fully on, it jumped forward and actually started and rolled into the house. :(
Buddy did this on his friend's Accord. They were at a party and someone kept playing with the remote. Turns out the car had been butting into the garage door repeatedly causing damage to both. Good times.
trunk comes from the middle english word, "trunke." Which comes from Old French, "tronc." Which means the end of a pointed or projected object. aka car.
The April Fools day timing was just unfortunate! This is real, it was seen demonstrated live to hundreds of people at linux.conf.au in January where it was featured in a talk, and also when it was on display at Hobart casino. More info on it at http://www.geekmyride.org/wiki/index.php/Jon's_RX-8
"We pity the foolish thief who tries to steal this "haunted" ride." I pity Jon if he looses or forgets that iPod... Besides, now that the would be thief knows where the hidden computer is, who will stop him from messing with the GPS or 3G modem? But kudos for the idea and all the hard work!
Yes, we all know car thieves are usually highly motivated post-grad computer science geeks with CIA wet-op training. I'm sure every dark crevice is full of savvy car thieves just bristling with antennae, flash drives, and other high tech, which they employ to steal 30K cars. Use your head, April Fool.
lol that car's fron new south wales? if so people there are seriously bored compared to queensland... (to make set up this whole *prank*)...
I got the prank of the day from Translink (hehe, Brisbane Transport) when they decided that this morning there will be no route 139 and the uni students can all be late for lectures :P
Umm. Why is everyone being so negative about this. Ooh, easily cracked via WEP/WPA cracking, it's definately fake etc etc. Can you not just realise that what he's done is epically awesome and shows the utmost in ingenuity?
this isn't new. its a system that you can hook up to your car that allows you to control it with you mobile phone. it goes for about $600 or so. i saw it about a year and a half ago when i was browsing online for car parts.
The real question - can he make the title of the music track playing from the computer's drive appear on the LED information bar above the radio? If he has hacked the head unit to do that, then triple word score for him.
(I have an RX-8 that looks to be about the same vintage (2004-05), and a nice, clean iPod/USB MP3 integration to the built-in head unit is a pipe dream all owners of these cars share.)
It must be April fools today - all these comments, and none of the usual trolls have popped in with a derogatory Apple comment. Maybe the worm took over their computers?
what happens if his web server gets hacked and someone just dicks with him while he's driving on the highway and shuts his car off and opens all the doors LOL
Not that big a deal. It's been claimed that the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered U.S.S. Ronald Reagan has been retrofitted to be operated by one iPhone. The commanding officer carries it around at all times and uses it for global positioning, weapons control and playing war games. He also said it comes in handy for ordering pizza from ship's kitchen late at night. This was one of the reasons that the application page count was expanded to 180. 148 applications for an aircraft carrier was pushing the limit.
Eventually 90% of the U.S. fleet will use the iPhone SDK to control all global naval activity. They're still trying to work out how to use in-app cash transactions for upgrading aircraft and manpower. If you look at the side of the U.S.S. Reagan, you can see a small Apple logo just below the flying bridge. The commanding officer is eagerly waiting for the next version iPhone with video-conferencing which will allow him to control the carrier remotely from his the comfort of his beachfront home.
This certainly wouldn't surprise me if someone had that kind of ingenuity but it doesn't matter if he shows a quick video of nobody in the car. What he's doing can all be easily done with someone standing behind him and a key fob. I know that in the US (at least in Washington state) it's illegal to sell remote starter kits for a manual transmission. It is not, however, illegal to have one on your car. So if the laws are the same it wouldn't be difficult to obtain one of these systems. As far as him demonstrating this in front of a crowd, I just have to wonder about the timing of this. Like I said before, I would consider this possible (and maybe even probable) but the timing on Engadget is doing his credibility any favors.
This is actualy very do-able. All the Mazdas these days have a fancy data network that integrates all 6 or so computers in the car, sharing information on all electronic devices in the car. The Tech that uploads the software updates to the car when u take it in for a service are delivered via the port that he has his gear plugged into, so its definetly possible to interface it to a compy in the boot. And with the EEE PC's these days, its only too easy. I feel like starting now myself :) My little 08 3 SP23 could be seeeet :)
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posted Apr 1st 2009 3:31AM
I love it!
Until you park for more than a few hours and your battery dies.
Check out the links; he thought of "NEARLY" everything, the computer runs on it's own dedicated battery.
Yeaaaa... I just read that.. oops.
Still not sure how great this is.. a car alarm can do most of those things and not have the delay. Not sure why I'd need to lock/unlock/start my car from anywhere in the world.
Think of it as a personal Onstar. If you lock your self out, loose your phone, have a dead phone battery, etc, just call a trusted person to unlock the car for you.
...wow..
That is amazing..lol and people praze that shit blackberry lol
Fantastic. Until it vaporises into nothing at midday on 1st April.
rx-8 is a crap gadget!
Dr. Horrible, anyone?
A man gotta do what a man gotta do!
Dammit, you beat me to it! Which reminds me, I really must download those episodes...
his iPhone could drive the car... and a remote control drone! The GUI was way better.
Any article concerning a vehicle being remotely controlled by an iPod touch that doesn't reference Dr. Horrible is an epic fail!
Wow! If I had a car I would totally do this. I wonder how much time and money he spent on this.
Hmmm, remote control cars always seem to go on sale on April 1st.
saq,
That's quite an interesting point. And oddly enough, he kept "missing" it a couple of times.
Haha,
Cheers.
That guy must put the home-brewed app in the app store!
Theives take note, his car can easily be stolen using WEP/WPA cracks.
And then you can easily be caught when he tracks the car with the gps locator.
Not if the thief jams the signal with a microwave oven.
Definitely dangerous with the latency he was experiencing and that he missed the buttons a few times, hah.
@Daza, Reminds me of Florida Voters.
Sure its neat to be able to do that from "anywhere," though besides locking the car if you forget/aren't sure you remembered I can't really see getting much other practical use out of this, even if it is pretty cool.
How did he start the car if it's a stick? I thought starters only work for automatics?
You gotta leave the car in neutral when you turn it off.
He probably just disconnected the sensor on the floor under the clutch that detects whether the pedal is being pressed, and just left the car in neutral. Then tapped the remote start.
I made I own remote starter in 1987 and my new car was stick, I did the same thing bypassing the safety feature on the clutch and leaving it in neutral. It was great until one day it was left in 1st and the hand parking break was not fully on, it jumped forward and actually started and rolled into the house. :(
Buddy did this on his friend's Accord. They were at a party and someone kept playing with the remote. Turns out the car had been butting into the garage door repeatedly causing damage to both. Good times.
So how long till someone hacks his car and really starts messing with him?
@Ross Miller
How on earth can he open the truck with his Ipod? Perhaps you meant Boot, or as the Yanks say...Trunk
dude hoosiers say trunk too.
a boot is something you wear on your foot.
trunk comes from the middle english word, "trunke." Which comes from Old French, "tronc." Which means the end of a pointed or projected object. aka car.
boosh
he was pointing out the "truck" instead of "trunk" typo....
LOL nice one engadget
could totally be a hoax, e.g. all the demo'd function could be performed by a buddy with the real remote control...
Arduino can do anything it seems.
First of all nice 8.. I drive a 05. I wish he actually remotely drove the car though.. like forwards. But that's probably too dangerous.
Definitely dangerous with the latency he was experiencing and that he missed the buttons a few times, hah.
"...and open the truck."
???
Ohhhh! Trunk!
The boot you limey bastard
he should have said boot, since he's Australian
but then you would have said
"and then we open the boot"
BOOT???????????? oh BOOT.
I see the guillibility factor has tripled this morning...
geez i hope that batmans ok i mean if anything happened to him. Oh well he will come out something even more chese like a bphone or a pizza
And another lame april's fool joke...
I doubt it, as the original article was posted 31/03/2009
James Bond.
I saw him do this 10 years ago with a Sony Ericsson
Just what you need to steal your very own Wonderflonium!
The April Fools day timing was just unfortunate! This is real, it was seen demonstrated live to hundreds of people at linux.conf.au in January where it was featured in a talk, and also when it was on display at Hobart casino. More info on it at http://www.geekmyride.org/wiki/index.php/Jon's_RX-8
His car is from Ringwood Mazda, Melbourne
Now all you need to do is steal some Wonderflonium, just watch out for Captain Hammer.
If only it was actually real and not just a good joke! Well done Engadget, fooled us all for a minute.
cmon!!.. this is screaming APRIL FOOLS prank!!
No it doesn't.
"We pity the foolish thief who tries to steal this "haunted" ride." I pity Jon if he looses or forgets that iPod... Besides, now that the would be thief knows where the hidden computer is, who will stop him from messing with the GPS or 3G modem? But kudos for the idea and all the hard work!
ehh... he can use watever "internet ready device" he wants - this is a web app running in a browser. He says that at the end of the video...
Jojo
@ Runo You misunderstand, if a thief destroys the car's method of communication with the outside world, then the whole thing is useless.
Yes, we all know car thieves are usually highly motivated post-grad computer science geeks with CIA wet-op training. I'm sure every dark crevice is full of savvy car thieves just bristling with antennae, flash drives, and other high tech, which they employ to steal 30K cars. Use your head, April Fool.
He just had to keep missing those buttons, didnt he...
April derp
APRIL FOOLS!
april fooooolllls
If only it would not be 1st of April...
Didn't James Bond already have that over 10 years ago in Tomorrow Never Dies?
If it's real ... I hope he starts selling installation kits and makes made money. Most of these features are available without the iPhone.
lol that car's fron new south wales? if so people there are seriously bored compared to queensland... (to make set up this whole *prank*)...
I got the prank of the day from Translink (hehe, Brisbane Transport) when they decided that this morning there will be no route 139 and the uni students can all be late for lectures :P
ref: Kandalom
Thanks for the numberplate tip. So he's even further down under in Melbourne =P
I hope it's not a hoax because if it is then it is a LAME April fools.
Umm. Why is everyone being so negative about this. Ooh, easily cracked via WEP/WPA cracking, it's definately fake etc etc. Can you not just realise that what he's done is epically awesome and shows the utmost in ingenuity?
I miss my RX-8...
Whatever, we all know Batman has a pre-release fully functional Nokia N97, special links with Espoo and all that...
It wouldn't be to hard to drive it with the accelerometer it seems. Other than hooking up the hardware.
Don't mazdas have keyless entry anyways?
Unless your hundreds of miles away and your friends needs the rugby ball out the back.
April FOOLS!! lol
Its a pretty sweet setup.......
Very Cool!
this isn't new. its a system that you can hook up to your car that allows you to control it with you mobile phone. it goes for about $600 or so. i saw it about a year and a half ago when i was browsing online for car parts.
This is so obvious:
Another guy has the remote for lock/unlock/open boot.
Maybe he is the one sitting in the car next to the Mazda and starting that engine.
Boooh.
April fool's. :o
Slick piece of work. Me likes.
The real question - can he make the title of the music track playing from the computer's drive appear on the LED information bar above the radio? If he has hacked the head unit to do that, then triple word score for him.
(I have an RX-8 that looks to be about the same vintage (2004-05), and a nice, clean iPod/USB MP3 integration to the built-in head unit is a pipe dream all owners of these cars share.)
It must be April fools today - all these comments, and none of the usual trolls have popped in with a derogatory Apple comment. Maybe the worm took over their computers?
Does this mean the car can be hacked? Scary...
what happens if his web server gets hacked and someone just dicks with him while he's driving on the highway and shuts his car off and opens all the doors LOL
"The World is not Enough" anyone?
that is awesome
@ Jon
It's a web app so no need for it to be in the app store.
The only thing you need to do on your end is trick out your car to work with all those features.
So if he lost the iPod the finder of it can find the cars location go there unlock and turn the car on. I'll stick to going to my car with the keys.
ok.. now im jealous
Not that big a deal. It's been claimed that the Nimitz-class nuclear-powered U.S.S. Ronald Reagan has been retrofitted to be operated by one iPhone. The commanding officer carries it around at all times and uses it for global positioning, weapons control and playing war games. He also said it comes in handy for ordering pizza from ship's kitchen late at night. This was one of the reasons that the application page count was expanded to 180. 148 applications for an aircraft carrier was pushing the limit.
Eventually 90% of the U.S. fleet will use the iPhone SDK to control all global naval activity. They're still trying to work out how to use in-app cash transactions for upgrading aircraft and manpower. If you look at the side of the U.S.S. Reagan, you can see a small Apple logo just below the flying bridge. The commanding officer is eagerly waiting for the next version iPhone with video-conferencing which will allow him to control the carrier remotely from his the comfort of his beachfront home.
This certainly wouldn't surprise me if someone had that kind of ingenuity but it doesn't matter if he shows a quick video of nobody in the car. What he's doing can all be easily done with someone standing behind him and a key fob. I know that in the US (at least in Washington state) it's illegal to sell remote starter kits for a manual transmission. It is not, however, illegal to have one on your car. So if the laws are the same it wouldn't be difficult to obtain one of these systems. As far as him demonstrating this in front of a crowd, I just have to wonder about the timing of this. Like I said before, I would consider this possible (and maybe even probable) but the timing on Engadget is doing his credibility any favors.
Flux Capacitor not included
I would add a killswitch.
OH. And a big red button to make it blow up on command.
This is actualy very do-able. All the Mazdas these days have a fancy data network that integrates all 6 or so computers in the car, sharing information on all electronic devices in the car.
The Tech that uploads the software updates to the car when u take it in for a service are delivered via the port that he has his gear plugged into, so its definetly possible to interface it to a compy in the boot.
And with the EEE PC's these days, its only too easy.
I feel like starting now myself :)
My little 08 3 SP23 could be seeeet :)
Any one else seen a similar thing done with a Storm and Lewis Hamilton's F1 car? Its on youTube
He should be using Connect2Car http://www.connect2car.com/store/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=74
awesooooome. I want this prog on my iphone. i've got a RX8 too ^^
I dream of a computer in my car. somebody have some information ?
Thx