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RFID for Automobile Tracking

Posted by michael on from the car-talk dept.

mindless4210 writes "The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration has called on four of the largest RFID manufacturers to jointly develop dedicated short-range communications technology systems for a trial as part of the agency's efforts to cut road fatalities in the U.S. by 50% within 10 years. The DSRC prototype initiative is a prerequisite for introducing new roadway applications such as issuing alerts to drivers about impending intersection collisions, rollovers, weather-related road hazards, or warning a driver that his vehicle is going too fast to safely negotiate an upcoming curve. The FCC allocated the entire 5.9 GHz band to DSRC applications some time ago, making the development much more feasible. Any DRSC system would require DRSC technology to be built into new vehicles."

3 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Goodbye privacy by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Informative

    if you would have read the article the RFID transmitters would be in signs or markers along the roadway and your car would have the reciever.

    in fact most of what they want has nothing to do with rfid at all...

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  2. No mention of tracking by kevin_conaway · · Score: 4, Informative

    Everytime someone mentions RFID, the privacy people get to sound off about being tracked and the government being out to get them

    The article makes no mention of using this technology for anything other than alerting drivers about road conditions and paying tolls. Even the article title here on slashdot is misleading in that regard.

  3. Re:Easier, cheaper, way. by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Informative
    How can you say driving is a priveledge not a right? Especially in the USA where the whole of society is based on the assumption that you have a car to the point where you'd be unable to live without one.
    A right is something you're born with, which cannot be taken away legally except by due process. For example, you have the right to eat, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You aren't born with the "right" to drive a car.

    Driving is something you have to earn, just as, for example, the "right" to practice medicine. That's why you have a license or permit. You earn the privilege to drive on public (shared) roads. You lose the privilege when you get bombed out of your skull, because then you're endangering other peoples' safety.

    Besides, lots of people live without cars. Until the last century, that was the norm, wasn't it?