Like I mentioned before, we can reprogram the ME7 (only one car a day) but Volvo can overwrite it any time the car is hooked up for service. This was not possible on cars up to 1998 unless they have the interface and software. Nobody can read the software in the Motronic ECU with the interface. We can only read a 2-digit pincode with the interface to verify that the Motronic ECU have it's original memory type installed. Each ME7 car have an unique program with pincodes and each pincode will take up to 5 years to hack due to a 10 second, time-out function. The ME7 system itself is not the problem here but it's the actual VOLCANO network in the cars and the ME7 is just one of some 15 computers in the car. The memory inside the ME7 is 4 Mb but in the Volvo applications, it's not a stand alone system like the earlier Motronic. V.A.G. (Volkswagen group) also uses the ME7 in some models from 1999 but the installation is not like Volvo. The ME9 will later complicate things further than ME7, but that's the evolution.

The TDI boxes are along the same idea we are now working on but our ME7 box must do a lot more, since it must alter the signal to the engine and at the same time feed the network with simulated "original" signals from the engine or the network will shut off the engine. This requires a very fast processor that has delayed our manufacturing a few months.

The way we see it with ME7 is that we want to make things as easy and trouble free as possible for the customers and at the same time being able to offer performance upgrades like we have done before. The ME7 upgrade will not be a D.I.Y. installation like the exchange Motronic units.