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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
What are they going to use for "The world's stupidest car chases" now?
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
Road transport is already highly controlled, specially for hazardous materials. Things as (the terms might be off since I'm a Spaniard and I'm not sure how it is exactly in English) the driver's log book, tachometer register and tracking, and so on. Neither of these have made their way into "normal" vehicles (your car or mine, that is).
---- Take the Space Quiz!
Requiring them to have onboard GPS with remote deactivation makes sense here, and I don't think that just because hazmat tucks have it that it will be forced upon everyone. Commercial traffic, especially hazmat, has far less 4th amendment protections than your average joe.
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...
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You can't legislate away these kinds of problems.
That'd be insult to injury. A BSOD right before the blinding flash.
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"All hail the glory of the Hypnotoad."
Your a terrorist. You want to steal a tanker truck full of some toxic chemical and blow it up/release it in a city , whatever. Do you
A) Break into a truck depot at some obvious time (where there just happens to be a truck full of something nasty) and put the pedal to the metal
and hope no one stops you before you reach your target. Or
B) Steal a truck WEEKS in advance , have time to throughly remove any id , electronic shutdown aids, put fake plates on , respray, fill with a chemical
of your choice and drive normally into the city unrecognized?
Terrorists might be evil but generally they're NOT stupid. The is just more balony about "stopping terrorism" that we've had
consistently since 9/11 and I for one am sick of being treated like some wide eyed brainless child who's supposed to accept all these removals of libery
with a thumbs up and a "god sake america!"
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.
As a trucker, I'll weigh in on this. The systems on trucks are generally Qualcomm satellite systems. The problem with that being it relies on a line-of-sight link with the satellite. Going up a mountain, pulling under a fuel island, all sorts of normal operation things cut the signal. Lots of guys put trashcans over their dishes at night so dispatch won't bother them while they're sleeping.
So this fancy-shmancy Homeland Security plan can be defeated with a trashcan. Satellite signal blocked = No shutting the truck down remotely. And I know what you're all thinking, "What a redneck, we could just make it where X minutes of signal blockage shuts down the truck!" Right. And if there's a traffic jam in a tunnel, you'll just exacerbate it by having a dead truck there? This is just another of the gov't's "Big Ideas That Will Not Work."
It's easy to block those satellite signals, and it's not reasonable to put a timer on it so that X minutes of no signal == shut down truck.
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.
I'm the sysadmin at a trucking company and we've had kill switches on engines as well as gps tracking for a long time. Most major carriers do, if not for hazmat, for pharmacuticals and baby formula. In fact, we have flowthrough to our EDI system so that our customers can track thier own loads if they want to and stop calling us about it. Anyone ever heard of AIRIQ?
-- Please don't use a sig that makes me hate you, do that in your post
It will make the Deputy's job in Smokey and the Bandit a lot easier though!
The nasty McGuffins in movies just aren't. If it's unstable, no-one wants to transport it, and will neutralize on-site. About the worse thing I've seen is used transformer oils (PCBs) and cutting oils.
There _are_ serious road-vector hazards (LPG, halogens), but no one is talking of them.
And in other news, based on these tests the US Government signed a contract for full support for follow-up product for remote control of mobile military weaponry. You know, to make sure control doesn't fall into the wrong hands. The product, called SkyNet...
Unlike most North Americans, most Europeans where in the middle of the cold war, most people in Germany had relatives on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
Most Europeans can drive for a couple of hours and still see how "bad" it was over there, you can still find places where you can see bullet holes in Walls. If you go through some woods you can still see bomb craters, some old, destroyed buildings.
If you go a bit east of Berlin and walk through woods and fields you can still find human remains from the battle of Berlin in '45.
If you have a Metal detector you can still find bullets, Dog Tags and other stuff.
Even though "Western Europe" was pretty much war free for the past 50 years, conflicts where always raging nearby. While the US lived in "harmony" with itself there was terrorism in Europe (think RAF in Germany for example).
Yeah, Europeans have no concept of cultural diversity either, right?
Go, get a passport and travel a bit.
If anything they were afraid of loosing Euros. But in reality the US supplied just as much, if not more, materials to Iraq than the Europeans did.
Furthermore, it is very clear that the US Government knew what Saddam was using it for. While in Germany for example there were public investigations into the involvement of the then German Government in those deals and the companies fined money, the US didn't do anything like it.
Despite that there even is Photograhic evidence that Rumsfeld was shaking hands and telling jokes with Saddam.
Well,
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?
The reality is the US is about money (or the illusion of it), humanitarian effort don't quite fit in there.
So tell me, why exactly did the US go into Iraq (and the UK happily followed)? If it wasn't for the oil, then it was for what? WMDs?
Wow, now that was a real good argument.
Actually the Computer was invented in Germany, too bad, so was TV btw, but heck, who really cares right?
You are just jealous because people can actually live a happy life without working 50 weeks out of the year.
Furthermore, you seem to think the more people work the more productive they are, that this might not be the case somehow escapes you.
I worked in both places and I can tell you that the per hour productivity in Europe is a lot higher, when people are at work, they work, don't talk at the water cooler, but hey, it's all about stereotypes here, isn't it? No real arguments, so use stereotypes.
If you want to e-mail me, use my PGP Key.
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