User:Cap'n Refsmmat/ScienceNews/April 13, 2005/display
Police have new way to stop car chases instantly--April 13th, 2005[edit]
California police have developed a new way to stop a car in its tracks--from a helicopter or a police cruiser. They hope to use this new technology to stop car chases from continuing on and possibly injuring anybody.
The device is relatively simple: It's a microwave generator. An operator in the helicopter or cruiser aims a microwave antenna at the target car. When fired, the microwave beam literally "fries" the car's on-board computer chip--and without that chip, the engine stalls and the car comes to a halt.
So what happens if they miss? Well, you might kill the wrong car or fry somebody's laptop, but it isn't going to hurt anybody. The beam isn't powerful enough to damage anything biological--only sensitive computer bits are affected.
Source: Popular Science (not available online at the moment)