Re: Road Patriot..The Nuclear Age

[steveb@falcon.kla.com (Steven Buchholz)]

My few comments to the thread ...

WRT the "pre-computer age" cars - If your car has a generator to go 
with that ignition system you're right, it probably isn't likely to 
affect you.  But if you've got an alternator the car may not be 
immedaitely disabled, but you may need to buy a new alternator/voltage
regulator.  

The gummint has already done a lot of work in making aircraft tolerant 
of lightning strikes and EMP, and I'm sure that similar technologies 
could be adapted for automotive use.  I hope that the police are not 
considering EMP though! ;-)  Hell, simply beefing up the grounding 
system would probably take care of most of the problem ... "Yes mister 
ossifer, I added all these extra ground braids and shields because as 
everyone knows Audis have horrendous problems with resistive losses.  
See, look ... I've got 12.4 volts at my headlamps now!"  :-)

I saw a demo of the system on a show on TV the other day.  What they 
said was that since the vehicle was not slowed immediately, as the 
similar lower tech solutions that simply punctured the tires would do, 
they were skeptical that the zapper would actually get into use.  Hmm,
or should I look into starting up a business rebuilding them broken 
electronic gizzmachhies after all.  

Cheers!
Steve Buchholz
s_buchho@kla.com
San Jose, CA (USA)