VIDEO. Electromagnetic gun stops a car - 20minutes.fr

That could put an end to chases to the delight American television: a technology capable of cutting at a distance, the engine of a car

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E2V, a British company, gave a demonstration to the BBC, the “RF Safe-Stop” system: a generator and an antenna used to bomb a vehicle with electromagnetic pulses via radio-wave high- frequency, causing the engine to stop.

>> Demonstration

E2V provides little technical data. The company explains that the waves interfere with radio-electronics in the car to turn off the engine. According to the BBC, “the witnesses on the dashboard started flashing and the engine is switched off until the vehicle stops smoothly.”

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In the demo, the car (and motorcycle) traveling at a low speed, 24 km / h. We do not know what the experience would give 160 km / h. According to The Engineer, the “canon” has a range of 50 meters. A 350 pounds, it can be loaded on a mobile vehicle and operate on battery power.

Modern cars are full of electronics, into the engine management. E2V acknowledges that his system “will probably not stop a Land Rover in 1960.” Some experts also believe that the assisted braking could be disrupted, making the perilous judgment. Nevertheless, the police and the army have already expressed their interest in similar technologies, including stop boats and vehicles trapped, for example in Afghanistan.

P.B.