Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Wireless, Odds and ends
This just in: California 'cool car' law may hose your iPhone reception
Whenever I visit California, I'm always amazed with the number of state laws that have been enacted for one reason or another. For example, you're warned about alcohol's effect on pregnant women (duh!) when you go into bars and restaurants, and many buildings have mandated warning signs outside telling you if there are materials inside that might be cancer-causing.Well, the latest California state law that will affect almost everyone in the Golden State is the new "cool car" regulation, set to take effect in the next decade. The idea here is that by reducing solar heat in cars by mandating reflective metal oxide additives in window glass, car air conditioners won't have to work as hard and gas mileage will be improved. The law calls for the coatings to prevent 45% of the sun's thermal energy from entering vehicles by 2014, raising the limit to 60% by 2016.
While this is a noble and worthy goal, there's one major issue -- these materials, according to a post on our sister blog Autoblog, seriously degrade the transmission of radio frequency energy as well. That means that just about any electronic device that depends on signals from the outside world, including iPhones, GPS receivers, and wireless broadband cards for laptops, will be "adversely affected by the metallic reflective standard." You think AT&T's service is bad now? Just wait until you're sitting in a car that is shielding you from any wireless signal!
Most likely, California vehicles will also need to be equipped with a group of (hopefully) aerodynamic external antennae to ensure continued wireless and GPS service as the law goes into effect.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Archion said 9:50AM on 10-13-2009
Did they forget that is also gets cold in California? How about all those soccer moms with remote starts warming their cars up in the winter, how much gas will that burn? If you turn on the defroster will they sacrifice you?
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matthew said 9:52AM on 10-13-2009
Heating cars is much more efficient than cooling them, because the engine naturally produces a lot of excess heat that can be used to heat the car.
Archion said 9:59AM on 10-13-2009
Alas, most people would think that using CARB's logic, but an idling car still burns gas and produces emissions, very inefficiently at that, any Technician/Mechanic can tell you that.
matthew said 10:08AM on 10-13-2009
Agreed. I was just saying that in a relatively temperate to warm climate, in a vehicle that by nature produces heat not cold, I can see the logic in focusing on reducing air conditioning requirements over reducing heating requirements. Improved insulation would be a huge help too, for both heating and cooling.
matthew said 9:51AM on 10-13-2009
I'd like to hope that by 5 years from now when this goes into effect that technology to deal with receiving radio frequency reception via external antennas to counteract the signal blocking of these materials will not be a big deal.
I'd also like to think that mobile service on AT&T and other networks will be amazingly better by 5 years from now.
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ItGuy said 10:24AM on 10-13-2009
Can we sell California to Mexico?
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Mike said 10:34AM on 10-13-2009
How about we trade California to Mexico in exchange for all of their oil?
kinto said 1:17PM on 10-13-2009
california uber alles
david said 9:53AM on 10-13-2009
Holy FUD. Not sure if this is really an issue as aftermarket tint has these oxided in them and they do not affect the reception that I have found. Plus I am, even as I write this, sitting in a windowless metal building and have made and received several phone calls today.
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Dan S. said 10:05AM on 10-13-2009
Either your building is not a Faraday cage, as most cars are, or the building has femtocell repeaters or internal antennas to conduct wireless frequencies in/out.
Bradley Tompkins said 9:54AM on 10-13-2009
I guess the solution would be some sort of signal booster antenna, like those used in buildings.........
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Alan Francis said 9:55AM on 10-13-2009
Talking on a cellphone while driving your car isn't really a great idea anyway, right ?
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MacBookOwner said 11:07AM on 10-13-2009
Exactly. Even with hands-free, its an unnecessary distraction. You need to call, pull over and get out.
Gregg Palmer said 10:02AM on 10-13-2009
hmmmm...as a lifelong California resident, perhaps if they would follow suit like other hot states (Arizona & Florida come to mind) they'd start allowing the residents to tint all car windows and not just those behind the driver...another example of the state being run by idiots...
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Tod said 1:32PM on 10-14-2009
No no no!
It's a real safety bonus for drivers to be able to see the faces of other drivers in order to be tipped off about the other driver's intentions. If you can't make eye contact, then you have no clue! You can't see if the other driver is waving you on or providing other non-verbal signs of their intentions or status (like maybe they've stalled).
I love Cory said 9:53PM on 10-13-2009
Gregg, as a lifelong California resident, you must not be aware of the areas of California that have serious crime, and you must not be aware of the unfortunate fact that criminals and other baddies hide behind very dark window tint, which can hide not only them but also things that make them bad... Try justifying your need for window tint for the sole purpose of keeping yourself cool to the family of a cop who was gunned down because he was caught unprepared when he could not see into the vehicle that he pulled over.
Just food for thought, before you go calling everybody names.
Gregg Palmer said 5:33PM on 10-16-2009
So essentially what you are saying is that all of the other states that allow tinting have no crime. The single fact is that California is one of the worst places for heat and it makes no sense not to allow tinting of all windows. Unfortunately, the idiots (yes I do enjoy the term when referring to politicians) dont seem to get it. I am sorry that your friend or loved one was shot and or killed. However, I am not in favor of lots of extra laws for mere protection. If we would deal with criminals in a way which suits their character, our streets would be a lot safer. However, we tend to handle criminals with kid gloves to ensure that none of their "civil" rights are violated and that they have every chance in the book to get a pass on crappy behavior.
Marlon said 10:07AM on 10-13-2009
I thought this "law" was proven to not be real or go into effect?
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SIP said 10:21AM on 10-13-2009
I installed a full hands-free car kit in my car 12 years ago, and it came with a brilliant external antenna which gives me full signal on my phone, even whilst doing max speed (+ a bit more) on the motorway (UK).
I have used this with Motorola, SonyEricsson and Nokia car kits without problems -- all the antenna connectors are the same.
The only phone car kit that won't allow use of this antenna is one for the iPhone!
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jb510 said 10:22AM on 10-13-2009
Yes and this also alievates the need for your tin foil hat to block the alien transmissions.
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