Ravenwood - 10/08/04 06:15 AM
This is truly a scary prospect:
A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers.I forsee big business in disabling or defeating such monitoring devices. But most of theThe agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity.
According to the report, cutting-edge tracking technology will be used by government transportation management centers to monitor every aspect of transportation. Under the plan, not only will movement be monitored but it also will be archived in massive databases for future use.
I doubt disabling those transmitters will become a very big business, largely because the procedure will be posted everywhere on the internet. However, if removal is difficult, i.e. removal disables the car, that will create a big black market for removal services.
Either way, look for the used car and auto parts markets to boom like never before.
Posted by: roger at October 8, 2004 11:17 AMIs that really "the government would track every car" or _could_ track every car?
Don't get me wrong, I'm against this program, but I'm skeptical of the original statement. It would require huge hard disk capacity to store the movements of every system-installed vehicle for any useful length of time.
The black boxes, that monitor speed, braking and such are part of the airbag packages in some cars and can't be disabled without disabling the airbag (which isn't legal). Just read an article yesterday in the local paper about some NH politicians that didn't know their GM vehicles come with such a thing and are very upset.
Posted by: bogie at October 11, 2004 6:19 AM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
