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Tanker Truck Shut Down Via Satellite
unassimilatible writes "Satellite Security Systems, in cooperation with the California Highway Patrol and InterState Oil Company, demonstrated the first wireless remote shutdown of a fully loaded, moving gas tanker truck. Described as "a viable solution to the challenge of controlling rogue hazardous waste vehicles that could pose a threat to homeland security," satellite communications were used to disable the truck in seconds, 530 miles from the demonstration site. But that's not all. California Assembly Bill (AB) 575 (PDF link) would require truck disabling devices, global positioning or other 'location reporting systems' on all hazardous material haulers. With all of the police pursuits in California, can mandatory GPS and disabling devices in all vehicles be far away?"
Imagine the US gets attacked by an organised force. Suddenly, the enemy has the full ability to completely disable the transport infrastructure. Not only that, with a minimum of their own vehicles they can have a replacement that they fully control within days.
This sounds to me the beginning of the end
"Tanker truck remotely shutdown on railtracks, thousands die in ensuing fireball." How can they be sure that shutting a truck down isn't going to cause a disaster/pileup?
Cress, cress, lovely lovely cress
Land of the free and home of the brave ?
...
...
One would have to be pretty naive to beleave that
America is one of the least free places in the western world!
And yet, they feel they have to help the rest of the world be free...
Americans shout words they dont know the meaning of
When will they come off their ego trip, and realise they are just an enslaved population, following their governments every whim ?
Sorry. As a german citizen I always saw the USA as an example of freedom. Whats going on in the last few years is seriously disturbing, though. I hope Europe doesnt jump on the train again. I wouldnt love to see this kind of Orwellian politics over here as well. If this really takes off please rebel against since this trend really cuts into privacy and freedom rights of everyone of us...
You can't legislate away these kinds of problems.
Like California can really afford this.
*eyeroll*
To the paranoid... get over yourself. Like they're going to track you down and shut down your car and arrest you for the CD full of pirated MP3s in your stereo.
If they know who you are, it's easier to just send the cops to your house. This is useful for hijacked hazmat vehicles and maybe eventually for stopping high-speed chases or tracking fleeing felons. Not for keeping tabs on everyone... not even California has enough state employees for that kind of volume.
Don't be so sure. It's already on the table in the UK. It started out as just a way to collect use fees on high-traffic roads turing peak times, but is slated to expand into a means to enforce all traffic regs.
Can't happen in the U.S. you say? Maybe not, but photoradar had no trouble jumping the pond.
Note, too, that GM's OnStar already does the tracking bit, BTW. So does your cell phone (has to for 911 service). Even if you don't have OnStar or a cell phone in your car, do you use EzPass or similar? They can't track you from very far away, but they can see when you've gone through a toll both and can spot you from a hundred or so yards out with a reader.
The question really isn't whether law enforcement has the capability to track your car (or phone). They do. 'Get over it,' as McNeally says. The questions are who can use that capability, under what circumstances they should be able to use it and what sort of safeguards there are to prevent unauthorized use.
Hijack the HAZMAT truck and switch the semi to one excempt from the remote disabling requirement. They need to do it so the whole rig is disabled, just killing the semi is not enough.
Pedro
----
The Insomniac Coder
This looks like a geek project leader with too much money to spend. Maybe I don't read the papers too carefully, but how many cases of hazardous, runaway vehicles threatening Homeland Security have there been since that ISB (Insanely Bad Movie) Speed.
Even the stupidest terrorist is going to figure out how to cut the wires connecting the GPS device and the motor, so this obviously is not a counter-terrorist measure.
Sure. They'll pitch this as an anti carjack, kidnap, child abduction law to get soccer mom buy in and then they'll just make it a required part of the annual safety inspection for new vehicles. As old vehicles go out of service there will be little need to grandfather them in.
Step 2 is constant motion monotoring to insure speed limit and red light compliance. This will be pitched as a cost savings measure since fewer cops will be needed. You'll simply get a bill in the mail each month for your driving usage and overage a.k.a. speeding/violations.
Step 3 is a comprehensive shut down program. Unpaid fines, lapsed insurance, orders of protection, domestic violence, etc. Will all be used to trigger the vehicle's shutdown.
Its called 'on-star'. its a customer 'feature', along with constant GPS type tracking of your movements. 24/7.
However currently its just to get people acclimated to the concept of others having control/monitoring. Incremental acceptance of loss of privacy.
Later it will be extended, then mandated "for our safety".. The police have been asking for this level of control for years.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Seems to me that its a mindset issue, that terorist mindsets like bush and bin Laden are the problem, not the mechanics.
Such technology should always be counter balanced with consideration of problematic mindsets, who are the controller behind such technology and machinery.
Is such technology making it possible to effectively shut down major highways during rush hour by simply getting ahold of the controls of the technology to do so?
In warfare, isn't control over communications and transportation top targets?
Dont know if you've noticed, but the democrats and the republicans ARE THE SAME THING. They both want the same thing in the end, just have subtly different ways of going about it. The only person that ever stood out and stood up was JFK, and look what happened to him.
The people who own and drive hazmat trucks *WANT* this. This isn't the government messing with your right to drive on the highway, it's hazmat handlers in pursuit of safety.
The Iraqi military was 70% Russian/Soviet equipment, %20 French, and %10 Other(mostly European). The French are well-known arms-whores. The US doesn't sell to countries it decides are "evil".
it looks like you still pay the price in Blood these days, but you honestly think the US went in there out of the good of their heart? When was the last time the US did something just out of pure humanism?
Kosovo? Somalia? I defy you to find ANY pressing national interest for the US in places like that.
Despite that there even is Photograhic evidence that Rumsfeld was shaking hands and telling jokes with Saddam.
(no debate is complete without a Hitler reference)
I'm sure Neville Chamberlain had a jolly time negotiating "peace in our time" with Hitler. National relationships change all the time. Furthermore, diplomacy is often about glad-handing the opposition while simultaneously letting him know through "back channels" that you could blow them to pieces if they get out of line.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
you rock dude - the first comment that I have read that has clue!
Then you are not following what is happening. Iraq had borrowed heavily to build new infrastructure which was destroyed in the war.
No, it's utterly obvious that the large sums of money borrowed by the Baathist government for public infrastructure improvements was not actually used for that purpose. The electrical distribution network, for example, was using 1950's technology, and outside of Baghdad there was no power for much of the day. The water purification plants and sewage plants were in a state of terrible neglect. Even the earmarked oil-for-food money was diverted, thanks to the incompetently lax management of the UN. Look at the huge palaces and mosques. The only improvements made were those that contributed to directly the glorification and comfort of the ruling officials, especially Hussein himself.
They are now expected to use the oil revenue to rebuild what was destroyed in the war. America decides who gets the contracts to rebuild and awards the contracts to American companies that submit closed bids. The oil flows again and America gets the money. Iraq has to pay yet again for infrastructure that it still has to pay for the first building of. And America wonders why the Arabs hate them ?
See above. Much of the infrastructure that hadn't already fallen apart due to deliberate neglect was damaged in the Gulf War of 1991, when Hussein invaded Kuwait. (Remember that?) It was not rebuilt, despite claims to the contrary by the Hussein government and despite aid given them for that purpose.
As for American companies getting the many of the contracts, yeah, so what? You may have noticed that we're also paying $87 billion for the reconstruction. The recent "study" which attempted to coorelate campaign contributions to contracts is so flawed as to be completely bogus. And the UN has turned tail and run, clearly showing how interested they really are in long term results.
Forget Palestine, just follow what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.
What's happening in Afganistan? We dealt one of the world's major terrorist operations a critical if not fatal blow. We've freed the people who live there from a regime that killed people for such horrible transgressions as being a female teacher, and kept those same people from reasserting control. And then, unfortunately, we turned over reconstruction to the UN, which has spent most of the time since shuffling paper and contemplating their navels instead of fixing things.
What's happening in Iraq? We're rebuilding infrastructure that's been broken for decades, often using the huge piles of cash that the Baathists had hidden for their own use. We're establishing a police force that's not controlled by a sadistic madman and his sons. We're rebuilding hospitals and given them modern equipment. We're opening schools where the students aren't required to sing songs praising said dictator or arrested and taken from their parents for criticism of the government. For the first time in memory, Iraqi's are allowed demonstrations, private newspapers, and free speech. There are people who don't want these things to happen, including the ones that style themselves as martyrs and kill civillians to encourage a return to the good old days when all these things were illegal and the people knew their place. Right under their heels, of course.
Do not forget that the rest of us get hurt in the revenge attacks that American actions create... I am fed up with terrorism and am therefore against this American war on Terrorism and the terrorism that it creates. I think that it is time the rest of the world started a war on terrorism and stopped the US stupidities.
Er, yes, because there was no terrorism before bad ol' America got involved. Just like there were no Nazis before Churchill got all worked up over that silly Poland thing and ruined peace in our time.
If we were all just nice to the terrorists and left them alone, why then they wouldn't have to hijack planes and
this is we need Instant Runoff Voting.
kill the two party system.
kill government by the lesser of two evils.
kill the party-line campaign donations (castrate lobbying).
return to actually campaigning on the issues.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"