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📬 Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here. Tomorrow: Strangers, headstones and a whole lot of heart. I’ll share how volunteers are helping families find and photograph faraway graves for free.
Happy Saturday, {{first_name | friend}}. If WALL-E swapped trash cubes for bushels, he’d look a lot like this: a giant green sprayer barreling through an Iowa cornfield at 15 mph, arms stretched 120 feet wide like it’s going in for the world’s biggest farm hug.
Now the techy twist. Cameras line those arms, and AI decides in a blink what’s corn and what’s a weed. Corn gets a pass. Weeds get a tiny, targeted squirt of herbicide. No more soaking the whole field.
The payoff? Farmers using it cut their weed killer by more than half. That’s real money back in their pockets (and fewer chemicals headed toward your dinner plate).
🌽 Quick quiz: How much cornfield can this thing scan every second? A) 25 square feet, B) 250 square feet, C) More than 2,500 square feet, D) Less territory than when my husband scans the fridge looking for the ketchup. Stick around. The answer pops at the end. (Corny, I know.)
📻 Listen up! My national radio show is airing all weekend across the USA. With over 510 stations strong, find your closest one by using our super-duper station locator map, or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart or watch the entire show on YouTube. I’m wherever you are. — Kim
TODAY’S DEEP DIVE
Torque of the town
Image: ChatGPT/Kim Komando
🤯 WOW! Your car runs on more code than a jet. A modern vehicle carries about 100 million lines of software, and Ford’s F-150 tops 150 million. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner needed roughly 6.5 million to fly. Mechanics today spend as much time with laptops as with wrenches.
The Short Version: Your car has computer quirks most drivers never learn, and knowing them saves real money. Steps below.
📖 Read time: 2 minutes
I’m a car gal. My daily driver is a Porsche, but my true love is a 1946 Chevy truck. No tracking with that one. Take that, Big Tech and data brokers.
I talk to a lot of mechanics (occupational hazard of owning cars that think they’re smarter than me).
Here’s a trick Mike, my trusty mechanic, shared with me that you’ll love knowing.
The secret to finding your car in a packed parking lot: Hold the key fob against your head and press the button. Stay with me here. The water in your noggin acts like an antenna and stretches the signal. Engineers who tested it found the head boost reached farthest.
🔑 Tricks that save you a tow
A dead fob doesn’t mean a dead car. How to get rolling:
Hold the fob right against the push-to-start button. Press the button with the fob. A backup chip lets the car read it up close, no battery required.
Some cars use a special slot in the console instead. Check your owner’s manual now, not at 10 p.m. in a dark garage.
Your check engine light has two moods, and they mean very different things:
Solid: Get it checked soon. AutoZone, O’Reilly and Advance Auto Parts read the code for free, so you know what’s wrong before a shop quotes you.
Flashing: Pull over immediately. It usually means a misfire, which dumps raw fuel into your catalytic converter and cooks it from the inside.
A bad ignition coil runs about $500 with the tow. Keep driving, and you can tack on $1,200 to $2,500 for a new converter. That’s your cash walking out the door.
Some everyday fixes need a computer step most people skip:
New windshield: The camera behind your rearview mirror runs lane assist and automatic emergency braking. New glass can knock it a hair off. AAA found recalibration averaged $360, so make sure it’s in your quote.
New battery: Many BMW, Audi and VW models need the battery “registered” with the car’s computer. Skip it, and the car can overcharge the new one and shorten its life.
Your car remembers you. Pair your phone, and it can store your contacts, call logs and favorite addresses. Wipe the memory before the vehicle leaves your hands.
Selling or trading in: Look for a factory reset or “delete personal data” option in the infotainment settings.
Returning a rental: Delete your phone from the Bluetooth list.
The mechanic asked me if I’d ever rotated my tires. How does he think I got there?
🗣️ Text/post this stat: Your car runs on about 100 million lines of code. A Boeing 787 needs around 6.5 million to fly. Get tech smarts like this free at GetKim.com.
📩 Send this to someone who drives with their check engine light on and calls it “mood lighting.”
Share this now:
📺 YOUTUBE: THE KIM KOMANDO SHOW
Your plate is being read. This guy built a fix.
Harry swears he invented a license plate holder that fogs up so Flock cameras can’t read your plate. Genius? Maybe. Legal? I asked him point blank. You’ll want to hear his answer before you order one.
That’s just the warm-up. One woman dumped ChatGPT, and the internet split into teams. A murder victim “spoke” in court, thanks to AI. And ChatGPT helped flag a real medical emergency. (Yes, really.)
Plus, I’ll show you how to see the file Amazon keeps on you. Spoiler: it remembers more than your mother-in-law. And that “free” smart thermostat from your power company? There’s a catch they don’t put on the flyer.
📺 Watch on YouTube →
Or if you prefer a podcast, ▶️ Listen to the show →
Why did the license plate go to therapy? It felt like everyone was reading it.
WEB WATERCOOLER
🚰 Kindness gets expensive: Here’s your reminder not to scan just any QR code. A $2 bottle of water allegedly cost an Atlanta woman $2,400. She says a street water seller approached her car. She scanned his QR code, shared her screen and approved a Zelle payment. Then $1,200 disappeared, followed by another $1,200 through Apple Pay. Her bank denied the fraud claim. Ouch. For $2,400, Poseidon should rise from a storm drain and fill my fridge with Saratoga Springs.
Bank bot blabbed: So this tech investor’s AI assistant gave his coworkers a guided tour of his bank account. The guy connected the bot to his finances without realizing it could chat with his work bot. The result? Balances, a full expense breakdown and details about a home gym project, all posted right in his company’s executive Slack channel. The bot apologized afterward. Cool. Rule of thumb: Never hand an AI agent your bank login.
⚠️ “Kim, I’m dating and I don’t want my kids to know my exact location all the time. Can I give them something like a vicinity?” Yes! (Your love life is your business.) Most family tracking apps are all or nothing. HeyPolo gives you a dial. Share your exact spot, the general area, or go private. You can set start and end times, so sharing shuts off when the date begins. Your kids know you’re safe without knowing which restaurant or whatever. HeyPolo never sells your location data. Try it free for 14 days at HeyPolo.com/Kim.*
Trial before trial: Drugmakers are using “virtual patients” to predict how a drug might work (paywall link) before testing it on people. Copenhagen startup BioinvestGPT ran a simulation that predicted a muscular dystrophy drug wouldn’t meaningfully help patients. Months later, the real trial resulted in failure, and Novartis shares fell 11%, reducing the stock by $30 billion. The AI has correctly predicted 5 out of 6 major trial results. Nobody’s replacing human trials, but running a digital dress rehearsal before recruiting patients suddenly seems less optional.
🌕 Moonshots meet mortgages: Jeff Bezos packed his predictions for the future into one interview. He said America can beat China back to the moon by 2028, AI may let families live on three workdays, and 50,000-plus satellites could move data centers into orbit. Very sci-fi. Meanwhile, people are worried about jobs, electric bills and rent. Bezos says productivity will ease work. I’m sure nothing reassures the 30,000 workers Amazon has laid off since last year like hearing AI may someday improve their weekend.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Is someone using your identity?
Identity theft and online scams don’t always come with a big red flag. Sometimes the first sign is a strange charge, an account you don’t recognize or an alert that makes you think, “Wait, I didn’t do that.” By then, a scammer may already have your money.
That’s why I protect myself with Coveron. It monitors my credit and accounts, alerting me when something is off. I don’t have to constantly check everything myself. Coveron keeps an eye on it for me.
And if the worst happens, Coveron includes up to $2 million in identity theft insurance, up to $50K for cyber extortion, $10K for online fraud and $10K for cyberattacks. That’s a lot of protection for only $4.36 a month with my 71% discount.
Thank you for supporting our sponsors, who keep this newsletter free.
DEVICE ADVICE
⚡️ 3-second tech genius: Coffee in one hand, a message to answer in the other? On iPhone, hold the keyboard’s globe icon and choose the left or right keyboard icon. On Android with Gboard, tap the four-square menu icon above the keys, then One-handed. The keys slide closer to your thumb without shrinking the whole screen. All that effort just to type “OK.” 😂
🎨 Love the picture, except for that bit: You can ask ChatGPT to change a specific part of a generated image. Click Edit > Comment, then place the speech bubble beside what’s bothering you. Type something like “Remove the coffee cup” and hit Send. It helps focus the edit where you want it. The cup goes. Hopefully, your face stays. 😅
📍 Keep the way home on your phone: Download your city in Google Maps, and you’ll have driving directions even without signal or mobile data. On Wi-Fi, tap your profile picture > Offline maps > Select your own map. Choose an area covering your city, and tap Download. It’s free, and the map stays on your phone when you need it.
💾 Hard drive, hard lesson: Imagine losing 20 years of photos, tax records and important files in a split second. Ouch! I’ve used Carbonite for years. It automatically backs up my files with unlimited cloud storage, quietly in the background. Get my Cybersecurity Awareness Month special offer and save 60% today.*
🖥️ Rearrange your taskbar: Remember I mentioned Windows lets you move it? Here’s how. Right-click the taskbar > Taskbar settings > Taskbar behaviors. Choose the top, bottom or either side of your screen. You can also set the size to Small to shrink the icons and the bar itself. More space without buying a bigger monitor.
👀 Subtitles shouldn’t need subtitles: YouTube’s captions don’t have to leave you squinting. On your phone, go to Settings > Captions > Caption size and style. On your TV, play a video, then open Settings > Captions > Caption style. Adjust the text size and colors until they’re comfortable to read. You sat down to watch something, not take an eye test.
🎟️ A weekend plan that isn’t errands: Have a look on Eventbrite. Enter your city, choose a date and set the price filter to Free. Narrow it down to music, food, arts or whatever you’re in the mood for. You can browse without an account, then sign up to reserve a spot. There, something to suggest besides “we could grab lunch.”
KIM’S DAILY DEALS
As an Amazon Associate, some links pay us a commission at no extra cost to you. Keeps this newsletter free. Thank you.
🤖 Overachieving tech
Five smart finds. Two of them will save you $50.
🚗 Eyes on the road: Dual dashcam (25% off, $150)
4.4 ⭐ 14,400+ reviews
Somebody rear-ends you, then blames you. It’s your word against theirs. Not if you got footage. This bestseller records front and back with night vision, GPS and a free memory card. No more guessing what happened.
Image: ROVE
🎧 Leaf blower at 7 a.m.? Pop in AirPods Pro 3 (20% off, $200). They cancel twice as much noise as the previous model. Ahh, sweet silence.
Pull for power: This fast wall charger (21% off, $30) hides a retractable cable inside the brick. One less cord to pack, untangle or lose.
🔌 Burglars love a dark house: Make yours look lived-in. Amazon’s smart plugs (20% off, $40, two-pack) turn your lamps on at night while you’re away.
Flex cord: Lisen’s chubby USB-C cable (40% off, $12) won’t fry or kink in your bag. Handles a hefty 240W. That’s way more than most can.
💻 Computer shopping? Before you upgrade, check my top 20 picks here.
Prices and deals were accurate at the time of publication.
WHAT THE TECH?
Image: Rivian via YouTube
👻 Who ya gonna charge?
Rivian decided your driveway needs an exorcist. Preferably one played by Bill Murray.
The EV maker teamed with Sony Pictures for a Ghostbusters ad starring Murray as Peter Venkman. Rivian’s limited-time Ghostbusters Halloween Mode (runs Oct. 9 through Nov. 2) update turns R1 and R2 vehicles into electric Ecto-1 wannabes, complete with spooky lights, movie sounds and motion-triggered scares.
It even comes with Trick or Treat Mode, which turns the parked vehicle into a synchronized light-and-sound show. How fun!
🐕 Paws on the dash: Speaking of, Rivian R2 owners can watch their furry companions on their phone’s lock screen. The new Pet Cam uses the car’s built-in interior camera for a livestream or quick snapshots. You can also switch on Pet Mode, which keeps the climate comfy, right from the app if you forget before walking away. My new car has a reverse camera. Since I got it, I haven’t looked back.
LOGGING OUT …
🎓 What you learned today: Your key fob has a few hidden tricks, QR code scams can drain your wallet, AI assistants spill financial secrets and virtual patients help predict drug trial results. Not bad for one email. Thousands of people are photographing graves for families who can’t make the trip. Tomorrow, I’ll tell you how to request a photo for free, or become one of the helpers yourself.
🚜 The answer: C) More than 2,500 square feet. John Deere’s See & Spray uses boom-mounted cameras and onboard processors to cover that much ground per second while rolling at up to 15 mph.
Farmers used it on more than 5 million acres last year, an area bigger than New Jersey. By only spraying the weeds, they skipped almost 31 million gallons of chemical mix. What does corn use to get on the internet? The cobweb.
🛡️ Before you go: Identity theft rarely comes with a big red flag. Sometimes the first sign is a strange charge or an account you don’t recognize. By then, a scammer may already have your money. That’s why I protect myself with Coveron. It watches my credit and accounts and alerts me when something’s off. If the worst happens, you get up to $2 million in identity theft insurance. All for only $4.36 a month with my 71% discount. Don’t wait for a warning sign.
🚙 Some things don’t need an update to be great. An old truck. A long drive. Somebody riding shotgun who makes you laugh. Go find yours this weekend. — Kim
Kim Komando • Komando.com • 510+ radio stations • Trusted by millions daily
🏆 THE KIM CHALLENGE: Forward this to ONE person who needs to hear it today. Pick the person who popped into your head while reading. You know who it is.
Photo credit(s): ChatGPT/Kim Komando, ROVE, Rivian via YouTube
Companies and products denoted by an asterisk (*) within this publication are paid sponsors or advertisements. As an Amazon Associate, the publisher earns from qualifying purchases. Statements regarding products denoted by a double asterisk (**) have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration; such products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. This newsletter is provided for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, medical, or professional advice of any kind. Readers should consult with a qualified professional before making any decisions based on this content. The publisher disclaims all liability for any loss, damage, or injury resulting from the use of or reliance on the information contained herein.