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?"

Comments

Re:So much for homeland security

[Epistax]

Don't worry about anything like that. We're not going to be attacked by an organized force (i.e. an army.. note: an army is not a group of people with killing intentions). This country in it's current form will never be in another real hot war (all battles will take place solely on foreign soil or _possibly_ in international waters).

But as things go, sure an end will come. Here we are sitting with one of the oldest governments in the world with an obsolete charter and a organizational chart that looks like a spider web. As Thomas Jefferson said, this isn't going to work forever. People will have to rise up and replace the government when things have gone bad.

Well the point at which things go bad is when the propaganda has been so extreme that people think that the President is the Government, and the Government is the country. I don't know about others but I have been truly scared of these more and more prevalent beliefs. Luckily for the rest of the world we've got our selves in such a position that we won't lash out too many times before we fall over.

Re:In the land of the indolent

[Zemran]

Do you doubt that Iraq backed terrorists?

Yes, in fact I am sure that Iraq did not support terrorists. Most Islamic fundamentalists disliked Saddam because he was an ally of the US. When the US turned on him in 1991 there was no reason for this opinion to change and he was simply seen as getting what he deserved. The US turning Saddam into a parhia was just seen as another example of how dishonest the US can be. Since Saddam lost control of parts of Iraq the terrorists have managed to move in. The only terrorist camp found during the invasion was in the Kurdish controlled area where he was not allowed. Since GWII more terrorists have found their way in because they now have more widespread support.

Heck, it used to pay money to the families of suicide bombers.

In fact they are the only people to do such a decent thing. Everyone else quietly hides in the corner while Israel contravenes every international law there is. I think that it is great that someone actually points out that it is wrong to punish innocent people for someone else's crime. I hope that someone else will now step forward to help these poor people that have already lost so much and then have to suffer Israeli terrorism.

Ah, but we made the computer useful and ubiquitous.

At least you make it clear that you are delousional :)

Re:In the land of the indolent

[Simonetta]

I hope that someone else will now step forward to help these poor people that have already lost so much and then have to suffer Israeli terrorism.

The Israelis don't wrap their kids in twenty pounds of plastic explosives and then send them off to the mosques in the middle of Friday prayers.
Arabs routinely send their children to Israel to be blown to bits and murdering anyone else in the pizza parlor, bus, or university student union cafe who happens to be there. Then they dance in the streets and hand out sweets in celebration!
These people are animals and they need to be kept apart from the rest of the world until they learn to act like civilized human beings. Everything bad that has happened to them has been a direct result of their own stupidity, brutality, corruption, religious obsession, and lack of fundamental human decency.