re electronic odometers was used bmw question in article news duke edu klg mookie mc duke edu kim greer writes i was wondering if anyone can shed any light on just how it is that these electronic odometers remember the total elapsed mileage what kind of memory is stable reliable enough non volatile enough and independent enough of outside battery power to last say years or more in the life of a vehicle i m amazed that anything like this could be expected to work for this length of time especially in light of all the gizmos i work with that are doing good to work for months without breaking down somehow mk t from thomsom it has a timekeeper clock and bytes of nvram which has a lithium battery backup the battery has a life of years of poweroff operation installed in a car it could be left powered on continuously and not draw much current the battery would only be used when your auto battery was dead or had been removed side question how about the legal ramifications of selling a used car with a replaced odometer that starts over at miles after say k actual miles looks like fraud would be fairly easy for the price of a new odometer you can say it has however many miles you want to tell the buyer it has in california they have a line on the transfer of ownership form which states that the odometer mileage is correct if incorrect you are required to fill in what you know or guesstimate to be the correct mileage if you lie on this form and are caught you can be prosecuted and the buyer can sue you for the value of the mileage differential faster horses younger women older whiskey more money
