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  • Author Author: Catwell
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Police may soon use EMP technology to disable drivers

Catwell

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Remember from "The Dark Knight Rises," Batman used an EMP gun to stop cars? It's about to be real... (via TDKR Trailer)

 

Police chases are not very common, despite what we see in our media. However, when one does happen in real life it can be extremely dangerous and cause large amounts of damage to properties. Current methods for stopping a runaway driver consist of cop cars swarming around them to trap them, using spike strips to blow out their tires, or waiting until the driver pulls a bad move and takes himself out. Either of these are not the best methods for stopping someone and usually result in injuries and damage to anything unfortunate enough to get in the way.

 

Police in Europe are looking into looking electromagnetic technology to disable vehicles. The technology would work similar to an EMP used by the military. However, where EMPs work by frying electronic circuits, the technology being developed would work by temporarily disrupting the electronics. Currently, a European Commission- funded consortium is developing such a device as well as electronics firm E2V. In fact, E2V of the UK has recently run successful tests using their technology. It consists of using a 350 kilogram aperture antenna mounted on an SUV to beam microwaves pulses at vehicles.

 

Additionally, Europe has been funding another project known as SAVELEC (Safe Control of Noncooperative Vehicles Through Electromagnetic Means). This project looks to exploit vulnerabilities in microchips on car's computers. For example, one prototype in development works by constantly resetting a car's ECU making it useless. SAVLEC still has lots of work to be done with the project but they are expecting to have a working prototype by 2016.

 

Both of the projects will work by temporarily disabling electronics, but both will still have to face the same safety concerns. If trying to stop a speeding vehicle, they must stop it in a manner that is more safe than current means. Temporarily disabling electronics can lead to lots of different outcomes, not all of them so good. Brakes locking up, steering disabled, or both can lead to fatal accidents. Overall if this technology can work it will be great for cops. But then again, it will probably only be a matter of time before the getaway drivers have their own preventative measures.

 

C

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Parents Comment Children
  • in reply to johnbeetem

    Fortunately that is not how EMP works.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to DAB

    An EMP gun would be excellent on any car that has electronic throttle control.

    Just imagine instead of stopping, it jams on full throttle.

    It might be like the other runaway vehicle issues that some electric cars have had.

     

    Better yet if one or more of the occupants had pacemakers .....

     

    My classic 60's vehicle has no electronics, which is just fine with me, so they can EMP all they like.

     

     

    DAB

    I've seen drivers who aren't capable of driving at the 100kmh (62mph) limit here in NZ, however rather than target these, the police have decided that speed is the only factor in crashes.

    Poor driving seems to be ignored unless they almost run the police car off the road.

     

    Mark

  • in reply to mcb1

    Yeah electronic throttle/Brake and Steering I believe on many Mercedes for example. Imagine total failure of all these systems in a vehicle and also on a motorway/highway  with 100K vehicles per day up and down it how could they  be certain they stopped the right or even only the right vehicle ..What happens if they  EMP say an entire lane by accident  and dozens get killed. Might not  even be that popular with the police if an out of control Vehicle squashes the patrol car certainly not with the other emergency services that after they have to hose people off the streets.

     

    Sounds similar to the Taser been non lethal lets zap every one idea!

  • in reply to mcb1

    I think they only worry about speed in crashes because it's a simple to measure quantity and can easily be converted in to an instant fine with out much labour or consideration where as judging driving style would be subject to skilled judgment and legal whatevers ...Make it nice and easy fine speeders job done ..move on  to diddling the taxpayer image

  • in reply to Problemchild

    Thankfully the chances of this are minimal. Standard procedure in many countries is to create a sterile zone around the vehicle allowing room for police to work with minimal risk to the public. It also needs to considered that this is likely to have a very limited range in a specific direction meaning that there is a chance the energy released could have dissipated by time it passes the other side of the vehicle.

     

    Due to the risks involved in suddenly disabling portions, this kind of device is probably only going to be used in reasonably low speed situations. The general method used in the UK, where this prototype is being developed, is to slow the vehicle in a controlled manner, be it by containing them with other vehicles, or by using "stinger" devices. The stingers, typically, work by creating a slow puncture in the rubber rather than causing it to blow out as you would see from hitting debris on the road or improper vehicle maintenance. This slow puncture forces the vehicle to slow and become unwieldy causing the driver to hopefully stop, or run on rims, in which case they are more likely to spin out and stop anyway. The use of any EMP device is most likely, at least from my point of view, be used in combination with other methods to bring the vehicle to a halt with no chance of pushing their way out. I would not be surprised if deployment of such equipment would be considered more of a last resort in this geographical area than a first choice for stopping vehicles regardless of whether they are simply speeding, stolen or otherwise suspected of being involved in criminal activity.

     

    Safety aside, there are a couple of practical reasons why it's use on speeding vehicles isn't likely. The main one being the current weight of the device. At 350KG, you would struggle to fit it to vehicles and maintain their ability to carry out the rest of their duties and maintain a speed that would allow it's use. Containing a vehicle and then disabling it would be more practical. Until the mass of the device is reduced, police forces are also unlikely to spend the money on a one trick vehicle used on a relatively rare basis.

     

    There are other concerns that would need to be taken into account when deploying such a device. In the event you are required to deploy it in an urban area, you run the risk of long term disruption to infrastructure, businesses, homes. If you are unlucky enough to miss a vehicle, have too large of a pulse, there is a risk of damaging communications equipment, perhaps underground services (An EMP applied to your buried power cables can't be good). There are endless risks of deploying such a device, all of which would need to be considered. I have faith that before any device is even tested outside of a lab setting in a few years time (Should it make it that far), a huge amount of work will have been done to minimise the chance of things going badly wrong.

     

    All that said, with another 2+ years of development, things may well change and such a device may become more practical. Personally, I can see the military acquiring such technology first for use in situations like roadblocks. Large nets are good, but once it is used you need to take the time to reset the system and hope nothing else shows up, an EMP device however, like the one described, could be a great help.