Hidden radios in solar-powered highway infrastructure?
It's all too easy to imagine chaos caused by intentional interference with highway alerts, traffic signs, self-driving cars, and charging stations.
Power inverters convert Direct Current to Alternating Current, so battery-powered devices or solar panels can run standard household appliances. A Battery Management System (BMS) monitors the battery pack - its voltage, current, and temperature to ensure safe operation, balance cell energy, prevent overcharging, and extend the battery's lifespan and performance.
That's the standard definition, but two days ago Reuters reported that hidden radios may be embedded in solar-powered highway infrastructure including chargers, roadside weather stations, and traffic cameras, and that they should be scanned for rogue devices – such as hidden radios – secreted inside batteries and inverters.
An advisory was sent out late last month by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, did not specify where the products containing undocumented equipment had been imported from, but many inverters are made in China.
That said, Reuters reported in May that American energy officials had become concerned after experts found rogue communication devices in some Chinese inverters and batteries.