Hey everybody! Big news, big New York news! Just days after the city was rocked by an unusual 4.8 magnitude earthquake, the city must have developed a taste for earth-shaking news, because the NYPD (that’s the LAPD of NYC) unveiled an all-new way to disable cars that have delinquent parking or have in one way or another earned the ire of the NYPD: the Barnacle Device. It’s an alternative to the famous/infamous wheel boot, but this thing is a windshield boot, looking like a large book opened and laid flat against the windshield, blocking vision.
Part of me thinks, hey, this is better! At least you can still drive the car! You just need to lean your head out the side window, excited dog-style, and keep speeds low, right? Or get a helpful friend to sit on the hood and yell LEFT or RIGHT or STOP STOP STOP PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY STOP and then you can be on your way, right?
Well, no, those are all terrible ideas and you should in no way do that. Besides, they have all your information when they stick that thing on there, so you’ll be in an even greater depth of shit if you do that, I suspect.
The Barnacle device seems to have been first deployed on a Volvo VNL semi-truck, as seen in this tweet:
Tonight was the NYPD's 1st deployment of a windshield boot aka the "Barnacle Device." It's used to immobilize vehicles violating parking regulations.
This allows us to hold those accountable, reduce parking congestion & address cars that are a nuisance & hazard to the community. pic.twitter.com/XMkBltOvm9— Chief of Transportation (@NYPDTransport) April 5, 2024
The Barnacle grips onto a windshield in much the same way as an octopus would attach to something, via suction cups. Ironically, that is not how barnacles (the crustacean) attach themselves to animals like whales. Those biological barnacles secrete a fast-drying glue that is incredibly strong – and works in wet environments. This glue has been the inspiration for new surgical glues that can stop bleeding incredibly fast, and other industrial uses are being studied. It’s amazing stuff!
Oh, but back to the Barnacle device, which lacks any sort of exciting biologically-inspired adhesives. It’s just powerful suction cups. One nice thing about the Barnacle is that the victim – can I call them a victim? Sure, why not– is able to pay their fines right there on the device and have it release itself when a given code is entered, eliminating any need to hunt down a police officer to get a boot off.
The whole process can be seen in this video about these things produced by the Henry Ford Museum:
I guess in cities that use these, those drop boxes would be around? I suspect if you don’t return them to a dropbox and instead choose to, say, fling it into a lake, like a giant, rectangular frisbee, you’ll be charged some exorbitant amount for the thing. Barnacle has their own video showing this process in even more detail, from the “enforcer’s” perspective:
I guess overall, these are much better than the traditional wheel boots. At least these have a process for relatively easy removal by the car’s owner, which wheel boots never did. Nobody likes dealing with these, but the windshield variants do seem like a step in the right direction. And, even better, if anyone ever develops spray paint that renders objects transparent, we won’t have to worry about these at all!
I feel like this will be abused by both parties. The officers may start to ignore cracks and dirt and cause damage that way (This statement is not intended to offend Law enforcement Officers, sorry if you were offended by this statement). And the recipients might just drive anyway and cause even more accidents.
Also, what happens if it’s not a Jeep, and the code pad thing gets placed smack dab in the middle of your windshield and you can’t reach it? Now what?
Also, what if you don’t have a phone, and no one is around or will help you? Then what? (And before you ask, some people still do not have phones for some reason, or they are damaged and cannot be used.)
what the hell has ever been wrong with a paper parking ticket.
you don’t pay them, eventually you go to jail.
this is all about power dynamics and not at all about rational traffic enforcement.
Well this is New York so they probably won’t go to jail and the NYPD is fed up with that.
NYPD themselves are the biggest offenders. that guy who goes around un-futzing obscured and vandalized license plates finds most of the futzed plates right parked at police precincts.
So, drill the plastic to pierce the suction cup from the back? I literally carry a toolbag in my car because I’m renovating a property. Seems like a 10 second removal to me. Is there a strong metal shield?
Or possibly instead of metal, something like the fabric used for chainsaw trousers, that would wind round and jam up a drill bit?
Is all it does block the drivers’ view? Does it not interfere with the RFID key security system or something? That was my knee jerk reaction to the lede photo.
Drive a turd box jeep with an exocage. Then you can smash into the terrible NY drivers and they wont be able to fit the device on the windshield. Device looks pretty big. Probably just need one section of cage down the middle of the windshield.
https://www.welderd.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/XJpic1.jpg
The problem is this doesn’t actually immobilize the car and idiots will try and drive while looking around the thing. Watching people trying to drive in the winter with a tiny square of their windshield scraped has taught me that.
Ace Ventura is unafraid of these boots.
https://i.giphy.com/ORhnB8bcCB0SfC3Bzz.webp
I don’t hate these.
I’ll spend 60 bucks on WD-40 before I pay that Damm fine, screw you very much NY!!!!!
They started using this last week, not yesterday… What’s with the article headlines today….
These have been used on college campuses with predictable results of students hacking the device. Plus one evil genius did a denial of service attack buy placing a bunch of junk cars on campus and exhausting the supply of Barnacles.
That DNS.I tried not to laugh and failed miserably
Someone will figure out a vulnerability in either the hardware or the software. The problem is that if you remove the device without paying, the city overlords will just fine you even more.
How many of those drop boxes for removed devices are they going to install? Seems like you’d need a lot of them to cover NYC. It was hard enough for me to find a mail box to send a letter while I was visiting NYC back in 2014.
Last time I read about these it turned out there aren’t drop boxes and the user still has to go to a police station to drop them off. NYC may have changed that, but most likely the scofflaw will need to drop them off in person somewhere before a designated time limit ends.
I’d still prefer people just chuck them in a river or lake.
I kind of hate the immobilizer strategy. The fines exist because whatever the car is doing is some level of public nuisance.
Don’t leave it there to be an immovable nuisance like you did something to help. Tow that shit or decide the fines are enough.
My thoughts exactly! This thing is being a problem located where it is. So, let’s fix it by… making it semi-permanently located there!
Well you’re right