NASCAR & carrying that smartphone in the car

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

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I was visiting the app store for my phone yesterday and did a quick search on MPH apps. There are pages after pages of apps that allow you to monitor your MPH. What would there be to stop someone from using one of these apps for pit road use? I tried one yesterday on my what home and found it to be pretty accurate.

There are a bunch of smart people out there. I wonder how hard it would be to create some sort of app that could allow a driver to control some of the programming that is involved with EFI? Just a thought. I wonder if NASCAR could be opening themselves up to something like this down the road by allowing phones in the cars?
 
Doubt drivers will be digging their phones out of their pockets at the speeds they run to try out an app or two. NASCAR will let phones continue to be in the cars until they catch someone using it during green flag racing and then it'll be a no no to have a phone in the car. I figure one of the reasons they're letting it ride right now is that it's good for the Series sponsor.
 
Why not temporarily put a phone on the instrument panel during practice do gauge pit road speed?

And I predict that this whole phone in-car thing will end soon. There are too many smart people and people with money who could have an app designed to do all kinds of interesting things.
 
as I said before, iphones are locked down. The most advanced app I know about is a ODBII scanner that uses a proprietary cable.

An android, on the other hard, with enough ingeniousity, you could write an app that detects when the car is on pit road, tell it what pit stall you're in before the race, and it can audibly speak the car's speed and pit-box countdown into the drivers headset wire. Along with telling him the ideal point of pulling out of the draft for a slingshot last lap pass. And count laps and say how many is left. And recalculate the chance of rain every lap.

you get the idea.
 
Aside from radios for the CCs, Drivers, and Spotters I would like to see it all banned, including laptops in the pits.


It should be mechanical manipulations ruling the day. The phone thing will also become just part of the sponsorship circus, more blah blah that doesn't make the racing any better.


And a new platform for tootie fruities like Michael Waltrip to annoy the crap out of folks who just want to see a race.
The indignities a no nonsense fan has to endure. Find a APP that tells you were to stick the APP, shut up and just put on the best damn race possible.


Brad K is great driver, but I could care less about his tweeter account, that probably wouldn't even be mentioned with a different type of series sponsor.


If I must be subjected to the 24/7 marketing noise, at least follow some protocols that are honourable. Let the Sprint babes dress like they like being a women while promoting the phones.


A grouchy post, just my two cents.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I was visiting the app store for my phone yesterday and did a quick search on MPH apps. There are pages after pages of apps that allow you to monitor your MPH. What would there be to stop someone from using one of these apps for pit road use? I tried one yesterday on my what home and found it to be pretty accurate.

There are a bunch of smart people out there. I wonder how hard it would be to create some sort of app that could allow a driver to control some of the programming that is involved with EFI? Just a thought. I wonder if NASCAR could be opening themselves up to something like this down the road by allowing phones in the cars?
Click to expand...


NASCAR said that one of the main reasons they went with McLaren is because of their very tight security key. NASCAR locks the EFI units before the race and checks [spot?] them after. Some have suggested wireless access, which is pretty funny to think that the EFI unit supports blue tooth. A team would have to defeat the security key and bypass any rom logger that time stamps changes. Then the driver would have to physically plug the phone into the unit while he's driving and update firmware right after the race.

I doubt cell tower GPS is accurate enough to be of any use on pit road, where tenth's of a mile per hour are important. Besides, MPH on pit road is useless since timing loops are used. If you did pit road speed, you'd loose a ton of spots entering and leaving your pit, where guys often exceed 70 or 80 mph.
 
FenderBumper said:
GPS for pit road? It just isn't accurate enough to be of any use at all. GPS uses triangulation. For super accurate triangulation, you need the exact location of 3 transmission points, which are the GPS satellites. Since our military uses those satellites and doesn't want foreign governments know their exact location, there is a built in error on the location data GPS units calculate off of.
Click to expand...
I sure hope the foreign governments don't buy a Garmin then. That dang thing seems to know exactly where I'm at. ;)
 
Greg said:
Aside from radios for the CCs, Drivers, and Spotters I would like to see it all banned, including laptops in the pits.


It should be mechanical manipulations ruling the day. The phone thing will also become just part of the sponsorship circus, more blah blah that doesn't make the racing any better.


And a new platform for tootie fruities like Michael Waltrip to annoy the crap out of folks who just want to see a race.
The indignities a no nonsense fan has to endure. Find a APP that tells you were to stick the APP, shut up and just put on the best damn race possible.


Brad K is great driver, but I could care less about his tweeter account, that probably wouldn't even be mentioned with a different type of series sponsor.


If I must be subjected to the 24/7 marketing noise, at least follow some protocols that are honourable. Let the Sprint babes dress like they like being a women while promoting the phones.


A grouchy post, just my two cents.
Click to expand...
Agree all the way
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I sure hope the foreign governments don't buy a Garmin then. That dang thing seems to know exactly where I'm at. ;)
Click to expand...

lol First thing, I made a mistake by using GPS. Most cell phones calculate these things a different way based on cell towers. Most GPS units use FM transmitters on the ground to fine tune location and speed. Typical GPS units have a accuracy of 45 feet, but WAAS (FM) can bring that error down to 9 feet. Totally useless on pit road, even if NASCAR installed WAAS transmitters on pit road to make it easier to cheat.
 
If someone gets caught even attempting to use a smart phone to access EFI from a smart phone I would expect to see at least a 10 race suspension and the loss of 100 points along with a $250,000 fine.
 
Matthew2470 said:
If someone gets caught even attempting to use a smart phone to access EFI from a smart phone I would expect to see at least a 10 race suspension and the loss of 100 points along with a $250,000 fine.
Click to expand...

I would expect even more than that.
 
FenderBumper said:
I would expect even more than that.
Click to expand...

NASCAR should just announce that "any manipulation or attempted manipulation of any aspect of the car via smart phone or remote device will result in 36 race suspension of the crew chief and car chief, a $1,000,000 fine and the loss of 500 driver and owner points."

That would probably do the trick.
 
Matthew2470 said:
NASCAR should just announce that "any manipulation or attempted manipulation of any aspect of the car via smart phone or remote device will result in 36 race suspension of the crew chief and car chief, a $1,000,000 fine and the loss of 500 driver and owner points."

That would probably do the trick.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm sure they have told teams that messing with the control unit would be treated like messing with engine displacement....or worse.
 
You're giving them too much credit. HMS didn't even know where the EFI reset button was.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Correction, that was a subdivision of HMS.... SHM. HMS redux.
Click to expand...

I guess you missed it on my silly list. It was kind of funny hearing Addington covering his oversight by pointing out that HMS guys came over because they didn't know either. I think it was EGR that had everything laid out for CC's and drivers before the race.
 
FenderBumper said:
lol First thing, I made a mistake by using GPS. Most cell phones calculate these things a different way based on cell towers. Most GPS units use FM transmitters on the ground to fine tune location and speed. Typical GPS units have a accuracy of 45 feet, but WAAS (FM) can bring that error down to 9 feet. Totally useless on pit road, even if NASCAR installed WAAS transmitters on pit road to make it easier to cheat.
Click to expand...

My phone, if I'm locked onto 6 or more birds (in a clear sky I can lock on all 10), will have me down to 1 meter. When GF and I were on our road trip, we parked, it knew exactly which parking spot we were in, after turning satellite view on.

Think GPS can't be accurate to the foot?
 
The way I look at it with all the media coverage we have right now. Anywhere that they can mount a phone so the driver can see it in the cocoon they got these guys sitting in an in car camera would see it no problem. If they suspect someone they just need to keep a camera near by their car and it shouldnt be hard to catch. Plus there aint nobody out there that wants to risk a NASCAR career and an awesome paying job for a 2-4 dollar app.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I was visiting the app store for my phone yesterday and did a quick search on MPH apps. There are pages after pages of apps that allow you to monitor your MPH. What would there be to stop someone from using one of these apps for pit road use? I tried one yesterday on my what home and found it to be pretty accurate.

There are a bunch of smart people out there. I wonder how hard it would be to create some sort of app that could allow a driver to control some of the programming that is involved with EFI? Just a thought. I wonder if NASCAR could be opening themselves up to something like this down the road by allowing phones in the cars?
Click to expand...
thats what DW said "its ok for now",I see NASCAR banning phones[in cars].
 
Ricky Craven called Kez totally "unprofessional" for using his phone during the red flag.

I think Ricky needs to check with "the now" and learn "what is". EH?
 
MOEJOE said:
Ricky Craven called Kez totally "unprofessional" for using his phone during the red flag.

I think Ricky needs to check with "the now" and learn "what is". EH?
Click to expand...
Ricky sux too.
 
Magnethead said:
My phone, if I'm locked onto 6 or more birds (in a clear sky I can lock on all 10), will have me down to 1 meter. When GF and I were on our road trip, we parked, it knew exactly which parking spot we were in, after turning satellite view on.
Click to expand...

Impressive. Your maps actually show parking spaces? What kind of phone is that?
 
MOEJOE said:
Ricky Craven called Kez totally "unprofessional" for using his phone during the red flag.

I think Ricky needs to check with "the now" and learn "what is". EH?
Click to expand...

I liked what Spencer had to say about all these guys up in arms about the tweet.
 
FenderBumper said:
Impressive. Your maps actually show parking spaces? What kind of phone is that?
Click to expand...

I use google maps set to satellite view. but yea, if I'm locked onto 6 or more birds (more birds = more accurate), it can get me within a meter or so.
 
I still don't understand why BK had the phone in his car to begin with. Maybe he thought there could be a red flag due to rain and wanted to have easy access.
 
Matthew2470 said:
I still don't understand why BK had the phone in his car to begin with. Maybe he thought there could be a red flag due to rain and wanted to have easy access.
Click to expand...
I heard him on Sirius NASCAR Radio the other day. His explanation was that he wanted a way to communicate quickly to family/friends that he was OK in the event of a crash. He said that he'd be able to use it from inside the ambulance or Care Center. He said that he doesn't have that option otherwise.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I heard him on Sirius NASCAR Radio the other day. His explanation was that he wanted a way to communicate quickly to family/friends that he was OK in the event of a crash. He said that he'd be able to use it from inside the ambulance or Care Center. He said that he doesn't have that option otherwise.
Click to expand...
Yeah, NOONE else in the would has cell phones
 
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