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Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

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Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#141

Post by adhesive_wombat »

VLM wrote: post #107
r00fus wrote: post #31

"The rip-offs of common powertrain control module 4 units relate to the ongoing shortage of microchips" So how long does the microchip shortage continue?

We're still in the toilet-paper-hoarding stage. Also people are still reselling at 400% to 1000% markup. Probably at least a couple years. Imagine if a shipment of 100K Raspberry Pi 2 W Zero came in today. "Everybody knows" if you buy direct you can pay $5, and the lowest price for scalpers on Amazon for a 2 W Zero is currently $149 so you can probably actually sell for $130-ish and clear $125 of scalping profit per…

1000%? Ee lad, that's luxureh! I've seen about 15,000% recently (for FPGAs).

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#142

Post by chasd00 »

ddingus wrote: post #41
themitigating wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of these thefts are related to economic issues but they come and go. Here's the NY Times in 2008 talking about an epidemic of catalytic coverter thefts https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/us/29converters.html

That appears to be ramping up again. One of the people on a project I'm working with them on just had theirs stolen. And it could total their car! People driving used Hondas may find out insurance won't cover, or will want to just total used cars due to the converter being worth more than the paper value of the car, despite a used market valuing the car much higher! Cost $1,200 to $2,400 to replace and due to the las…

my neighbor had their's stolen in the parking lot of a grocery store while they were shopping.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#143

Post by sokoloff »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #88
sokoloff wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The average age of vehicles is trending up because cars are more reliable and just last longer. It used to be an event to roll over a 5-digit odometer. Now, 250K miles is just getting broken in.

One 1998 Range Rover here with 130,000 miles on the clock, the other with 270,000 - and the latter did 100,000 miles in about six or seven years since I got it. There's a guy on my forum with an ex-police Range Rover the same age as mine that is now considerably north of 400,000 miles.

Sure. Those are examples of cars that post-date many of the significant longevity improvements (galvanizing, better primers, electronic fuel injection, ABS) that are helping to drive up the average age. You can think of that 1998 Range Rover as offsetting one 2022 car to result in the average of just over 12 years.

Our 2005 CR-V and 2015 LEAF also offset each other to arrive at the average age.

Longevity improvements introduced 25 years ago pull the average age up far more strongly than improvements introduced only 10 years ago and an improvement introduced just last year has an effect indistinguishable from zero.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#144

Post by [deleted] »

VLM wrote: post #107
r00fus wrote: post #31

"The rip-offs of common powertrain control module 4 units relate to the ongoing shortage of microchips" So how long does the microchip shortage continue?

We're still in the toilet-paper-hoarding stage. Also people are still reselling at 400% to 1000% markup. Probably at least a couple years. Imagine if a shipment of 100K Raspberry Pi 2 W Zero came in today. "Everybody knows" if you buy direct you can pay $5, and the lowest price for scalpers on Amazon for a 2 W Zero is currently $149 so you can probably actually sell for $130-ish and clear $125 of scalping profit per…

[deleted]

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#145

Post by tialaramex »

bluGill wrote: post #134
tialaramex wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> biofuel-based vehicles can, in theory, be manufactured locally with machine tools The excellent thing about electricity is that it's fungible . Electricity from a wind farm in the North Sea, a nuclear plant in the South of France or a Texan solar panel is identical as far as the electric vehicle is concerned. In contrast with bio-fuels if you can't make the right chemical soup for this specific model of engine well…

Sure, but the biofuel is a lot more energy dense. People do buy large tanks of fuel so they can drive long distances where there are no gas stations. Think trips across Alaska, or Northern Yukon. Most of us live in range of a gas station and so just stopping for gas every few hundred miles is more reasonable than a large tank (which has issues), but you can do that. You cannot get nearly as much range out of a batter…

It is true that if you need energy density then you want to carry fuel and not use batteries, although whether biofuel makes a good choice I'm dubious about.

'course if you're just driving a hundred miles to see Aunt Tilly, and then fifty more to see Grandma, and then a hundred more to see your old friend from high school, well, those people all got electricity, and as we saw the EV doesn't care that it's not that premium Supercharger electricity, it's all the same if you can wait. So stay the night.

Long distance wilderness trips are both (a) not something most people ever do, so we are not talking about a mass market product here and (b) not well suited to the typical private motor vehicle of today. Who is maintaining roads across the wilderness that so few people use there's no gas station ?

I didn't ask who built them 'cos that'll be the US Government or a State Government, both huge fans of building sexy new projects. But to drive on it a decade later it needs maintenance, which isn't sexy new infrastructure and I'm guessing if there's no gas stations there's no road repair budget. Which means now you need an off-roader, maybe a pretty serious one, or running out of fuel will be the very least of your problems.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#146

Post by Gordonjcp »

gambiting wrote: post #85
b112 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Solar panels on my car roof might be good to charge my laptop. Or, keep a car from losing charge while idle. I think you'd have to leave the car in the sun for days, just to drive to the 5 minutes away store and back.

It just doesn't make any sense if you know anything about physics. Sun provides about 1kW of power per square meter.....at noon, at the equator, with no clouds. Automotive solar panels like they use are about 20% efficient. Your average car roof is....let's be super forgiving and say 2sqm. So in the middle of the day, at the equator, you are generating about 400W of power. The average EV battery is 50kWh. So you'd ne…

Bear in mind too in winter the days are shorter, sunlight is weaker, and you're using *aaaaaaall* of the electrical goodies.

Even down south here at 56°N there's about five hours of sunlight in winter and as you get further north it just gets shorter. That's about enough charge to get the length of a supermarket car park.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#147

Post by pc86 »

teddyh wrote: post #78
mminer237 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would guess that they're arguing that the first-sale doctrine of 17 U.S.C. § 109 does not apply since it was stolen, i.e., since they didn't legally acquire the hardware, they have no right to use any software thereon.

What is a “right to use” of software?

If software is licensed, and you don't comply with the license, you don't have a right to use it. Seems pretty straightforward.

In this example, if you steal a piece of hardware with embedded software on it, it seems unlikely that you're licensed to use that piece of software.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#148

Post by pc86 »

bluGill wrote: post #125
nathanaldensr wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking that, too. The thieves just steal the same modules over and over as each trucking line buys them from the black market. Nice business if you can get it.

This is why modern cars and tractors encode the VIN in computers and don't let you replace parts without dealer tools. You buy a black market part, even though it is perfectly good it can't be used without the dealer getting involved and the dealer tool can automatically check against a list of stolen parts. Right to repair has the downside of not checking for stolen parts like that. Which is why it isn't the black a…

Not going out of your way to check for criminal activity doesn't mean it's any less of a black and white issue. "But you can't automatically check if the part is stolen" is just a very specific pearl you're clutching.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#149

Post by windowsrookie »

VLM wrote: post #121
maxerickson wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Electronic powertrain controllers make vehicles more efficient and more reliable, it isn't just the power mirrors that need chips.

Not anymore. That's the point. Times have changed and they make trucks less efficient and less reliable.

That may have been true in the mid 2000's but not today. There was a lot of newer emission equipment back then and the truck manufacturers still hadn't figured it out.

But todays trucks are absolutely more fuel efficient and more reliable. The problem is if they do break, you need a mechanic with a higher level of education to fix them.

Re: Rash of parts thefts is leaving Freightliner trucks inoperable

#150

Post by pc86 »

konschubert wrote: post #128
bluGill wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why modern cars and tractors encode the VIN in computers and don't let you replace parts without dealer tools. You buy a black market part, even though it is perfectly good it can't be used without the dealer getting involved and the dealer tool can automatically check against a list of stolen parts. Right to repair has the downside of not checking for stolen parts like that. Which is why it isn't the black a…

Or we could have a police force that prosecutes theft.

Exactly. Receiving stolen property is already a crime. We don't need some automated system that as a byproduct also prevents people from fixing their own cars.
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