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I’ve always thought a great weapon for the opening days of WWIII would be firmware updates that blow the battery packs up. There are probably billions of Chines
by steponlego 4y ago
I’ve always thought a great weapon for the opening days of WWIII would be firmware updates that blow the battery packs up. There are probably billions of Chinese made devices plugged in across the US, in homes and offices, and the flip of a switch could easily trigger a fire. Now that China has entered the fray and is providing lethal aid to Russia, I suspect such a development isn’t just something in the kooky conspiracy theory realm, but that it’s a realistic possibility. Just imagine the damage to the US and other NATO allied infrastructure if, suddenly, every home and office building “burned down.” And there is no way to prevent this possibility or mitigate it.
- Scoundreller 4y agoCould also just overwrite firmwares on a loop until the cells wear out. Then you have a brick until you break out the soldering iron.
- verall 4y ago> and is providing lethal aid to Russia Can you provide a source for this? Everything I have read suggests they have "considered" or "are considering" or "could consider" and nothing suggests any aid has occurred.
- jesterson 4y agoYour comment made me miss old good HN. While other members do better job in requiring you to provide proof of ridiculous claims you have made, I will just focus on technical details - may I know how would you suggest firmware to "blow the battery up"?
- steponlego 4y agoHow do you suppose a lithium battery’s charging is managed? What controls it, sets safe limits? Is this hardware able to be accessed from the device in any way? Your phone is a bomb as long as you just adjust your attitude and think a little deeper.
- jesterson 4y agoI suggest you to learn the subject more before making assertions about thinking a little deeper.
- ryan_lane 4y agoI've worked with batteries, and firmware, and the person you're responding to is correct. The firmware on a battery controls things like charging limits (and more!). If the firmware is written poorly it leads to battery fires.
- jesterson 4y ago> firmware on a battery controls things like charging limits (and more Was I opposing this? > firmware is written poorly it leads to battery fires Do you have any supporting to the claim? While there may be some correlation between battery firmware and fires, I doubt fire can be caused by firmware routine, even if it is calling short-circuiting the battery.
- steponlego 4y agoYou're out of gas dude.
- dang 4y agoCould you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly, and we've already asked you to stop. We ban accounts that keep doing this. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.
- ryan_lane 4y ago> Do you have any supporting to the claim? Direct experience. You're going to have a hard time finding public documentation about a battery maker owning up to firmware causing a fire. Usually the product the battery winds up in takes public responsibility for the issues and they'll list the problem as quality control. In the case I'm describing, we had to get the firmware code from the battery manufacturer and rewrite the firmware while we shopped for an alternative battery with better quality control. To cause a fire, you'd remove the limits on overcharging.