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UK police could get Ghostbusters-style backpack devices to halt ebike getaways (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 6 months ago by Emperor to c/unitedkingdom

22 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Police officers in Britain could be armed with Ghostbusters-style devices that fire electromagnetic rays to shut down the engines of ebikes being used in a crime.

Gavin Stephens, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), said the weapon was in development and could be months away from being available, though it is expected to be longer than that.

He said it would be housed in a backpack, reminiscent of the equipment used in the Ghostbusters series of movies. It could tackle crime linked to newer vehicles such as electric bikes and electric scooters.

The device is being developed with the Defence Science and Technology Lab, which is overseen by the Ministry of Defence, alongside other technological innovations that British police are hoping to use. It would fire an electromagnetic pulse at a vehicle that an officer wants to stop because the rider is suspected of involvement in a crime.

The electromagnetic weapon works by tricking the engine into thinking it is overheating, which shuts down the engine and brings the vehicle to a stop. It requires a line of sight to work, Stephens said.

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[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 13 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

I don't believe that at all. It's gotta be just a directional microwave gun. It's gonna fry the semiconductors to shut it off, but it will kill any nearby electronics as well. That includes medical devices. You can find people on YouTube making these things for fun.

[–] Emperor 7 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't sound like an EMP device - it needs line-of-sight and "works by tricking the engine into thinking it is overheating".

[–] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Yeah and I don't believe the ad read. Either it's actively hacking the device or it's just a directional emp(or it's just junk). The fact that it's calling an electric motor an "engine" is a clue that the people writing the press release don't know how any of this works. At best, this is what they're really selling.

If it wants to trick the motor controller into reading the motor as overheating, it would need to know the communication protocol of every escooter and be able to overwhelm the communication between the motor and motor controller with it's own signal. That's assuming it's wireless and why would it be wireless? Also, these things can go up in smoke on their own. I doubt as many of them as we'd like actually have overheat protections.

If the escooters had lowjack software on them and knew to shutoff remotely, you wouldn't need a backpack's worth of tech and it would be easy to bypass by cutting the antenna.

Also,

electromagnetic rays

This doesn't mean anything. Could be a ham radio, could be an rc car controller, could be a flash light, but it sounds like a microwave gun if you need a backpack to power it and the escooter isn't going to be recoverable. Neither will any cell phone, car, laptop or any other consumer electronic or medical device near the target.

[–] HumanPenguin 1 points 6 months ago

Or given the lack of knowledge of the writer.

There are only a few different temp sensors used in the bms systems on all lithium battery management systems.

Developing a frequency that interferes with the signal from the sensor to the bms. Would be a viable way of shutting the bms. So the engine down.

But just a guess.