GAME OVER - Busted not Wasted

Introduction

Back in 2018, I received a free Spresense from Sony to participate in Make It Better contest. One of the projects I submitted won my first Hackster award. In that project, I wanted to change my past and give my younger self a device and an advice (after inventing a time machine of course). In this project we will focus on the future to avoid the butterfly effect. The question we need to answer is" How can I keep suspects from stealing my 2004 Toyota Tacoma?"

Necessity

We can all agree that police chases are very dangerous. Unlike other projects, we will not scour the interweb for statistics to backup our hypothesis. The idea here is to avoid getting involved in a police chase and the debate that follows. We doubt that NFL lost any fans over the infamous white Ford Bronco chase. However, at the very minimum, a business brand will suffer when their vehicle is associated with a reckless activity that results in loss of life and property.

It really doesn't make sense to watch news outlets sensationalizing a police chase as if it's a competitive sport with matching commentary. A suspect leads a single file conga line of 20+ squad cars not to mention the outrageously expensive law enforcement helicopters hovering above for hours on end. The current solutions (PIT maneuver and spike strip) are not very safe and require physical intervention.

Inspiration

There is something relaxing about vehicles suddenly stopping. It does not matter if it is running out of gas, road, or tiers/rims. Suspects don't mind blazing through red lights and stop signs, but they gladly exit the vehicle with their hands up once they stop. We can certainly help with that.

When people talk about a kill switch it is usually something that keeps the vehicle from starting, but it can't kill it when it is already running. This project is the real kill switch. We will stop our vehicle in a safe manor.

Did you just ask "Why make this project when you can buy MiCODUS MV720 GPS tracker for under $20?" I'll tell you anyways. According to Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, that product has the following Vulnerabilities: Use of Hard-coded Credentials, Improper Authentication, Cross-site Scripting, Authorization Bypass Through User-controlled Key. More details available at here.

Change Of Plans

Ideally, we would use Spresense LTE extension board for a project like this. Since we didn't get approval, we will use Spresense with WeMos D1 Mini and a Wi-Fi hotspot instead. Either way, we are using Cayenne myDevices as a web interface so the implementation difference is minimal. We did explore using LoRaWan, but the network was unreliable for this project.

Putting It All Together

First, we need to find a way to stop the vehicle safely. We located the Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) relay and interrupted the circuit to introduce our own relay which is controlled by Spresense.

Spresense will connect to the internet to send the vehicle status and GPS coordinate. If Spresense receives a signal to shutdown it will turn the relay on to open the Normally Closed contacts. The relay will remain in that state until it is authorized by the vehicle owner to return to service.

To find the vehicle on the map using its GPS coordinates, and to enable / disable remotely, we need to create a free account on cayenne.mydevices.com. We only need to create the device because the widgets will be created by Arduino Sketch.

If we have multiple vehicles to manage or we just want a better mobile device experience we can build a dashboard.

Speaking of Arduino Sketch, both Spresense code and WeMos D1 Mini code are in the same file which looks like this:

#if defined(ARDUINO_spresense_ast)
.
.
.
#elif defined(ARDUINO_ESP8266_WEMOS_D1MINI)
.
.
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#else
#error Unsupported board selection.
#endif

Arduino IDE will upload the correct code per the defined Board and Port in the Tools menu. For more details checkout this project.

Finally, the project is powered by a rechargeable battery.

Conclusion

When we watch a police chase we often hear tips on evading police such as:

• Police switch to tracking mode because the suspect is driving erratically
• We can't follow the suspect near a busy airport
• Suspect got away in a large parking structure

What we don't hear is a solution, and we can't expect the media to stop broadcasting police chases anytime soon. It is up to us to keep everyone safe. We can't just hope for the best, we also have to plan for the worst.

This solution is made for private owners as well as managed fleets. A suspect running in a stolen car would not have time to check under the hood. Even if the suspect tries to yank the device, the vehicle will remain inoperable because the device completes the circuit, and without it, there will be no fuel going to the engine.

It would be nice to use Spresense LTE extension board for this project, however, using the reliable Spresense GPS Development Board was sufficient.

Demo

Disclaimer: Please don't try this at home. Modifying your vehicle will not only void its warranty, but also can be dangerous.

Is there a better way to to demonstrate this product than starting a real-life police chase? Actually, there is.