[pavon]

There is zero novel research here, and the entire purpose of the 1.2 million dollar grant was research. All the value you are mentioning is related to bringing a product to market, which is something that the grant did not require and universities don't usually follow through. Most of the time transition to industry happens is when there are motivated companies who do all the work to bring the device to market, but need university patent licenses and expertise to do so. This would be a great senior project, but it is a complete waste of money for a cyber security grant.

[memetomancer]

I disagree: the device monitors battery fluctuations to 'authenticate' the driver. the fluctuations need to be a specific pattern - delivered either by a device plugged into the 12v accessory port, or by some specific pattern of driver behavior, such as quickly flashing lights, activating wipers, etc. This is indeed a novel approach.

And it is a fair sight more involved than a simple kill switch, by the look of things. The research aspect comes from exploring the practicality of such an approach. This exploration requires prototypes, test beds and investigators.

Who's really to say what the results of the research will be, at this point? In my opinion, I think smart phones and NFC are probably the way to go... but I'm not going to hop on the internet and make scornful remarks until I know more. I'm not sure why you have done so?