Like we have seen in all too many police chases and Hollywood movies, a car in motion is a dangerous weapon. Getting a speeding car off the highway and away from potentially harming many others is often a real problem for authorities. However, Eureka Aerospace has developed a electromagnetic pulse system that is tailored to taking out a vehicle under power.
Their technology is known as High Powered Electromagnetic System, or HPEMS (H-Pams). Right now the system takes up a sizable chunk of the laboratory, but they hope to soon have it down to portable gun size. When a police officer wants the car to stop, they just have to get close, point, and push the button. The pulse scrambles the onboard computer system, and the car is left powerless.
Of course, modern vehicles tend to rely on the computer for such functions as braking and skid control, so there may be some kinks to work out in order to make it a completely safe method to stop a high speed vehicle. But given the alternatives, pulling the plug on the power plant would seem to be one of the safest so far. The only safer alternative would be with a pre-installed package such as On-Star, which has the capability to stop a vehicle remotely.
The PopSci video shows the system in action, but it could serve as a warning to potential trouble makes – if you want a get away vehicle, you are going to have to go back a number of years before cars had computers – otherwise you may find the rug pulled out from under you.
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