RFID for Automobile Tracking

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."

Comments

"it's for your safety"

[grub]

[...] 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

Riiiiiight... they're wanting this system incorporated to protect you. They'd never dream of setting up receivers in traffic lights at (major) intersections to track the movement of people. Watch: it will be a crime to disable these systems, "for your safety" of course.

Yeah, yeah; I may need a tinfoil hat. Ask yourself, though, do you feel safer?

Who sets standards to warn you

[millahtime]

"weather-related road hazards, or warning a driver that his vehicle is going too fast to safely negotiate an upcoming curve."

Who decides when a car is going to fast??? I live in Michigan and if your going the speed limit that's to slow. Would they warn you based on a spped limit or what the road is rated at. The expressways here are rated for safe speeds at 20 or 30 miles an hour faster than the speed limit. This is also different depending on the car. A jeep can topple over easier than a grand prix (for example). Who decides these things????

Is tracking *ever* ok?

[Infonaut]

This isn't a flamebait question. I always react negatively to news that the government is getting ready to implement some form of monitoring or tracking. But lately I've been wondering how much of this reaction is just knee-jerk fear of an Orwellian future that may never come to pass. For example, there are cameras all over NYC, London, et. al., tracking people as they walk the streets, go into businesses, and so on.

I guess my real question is this: when is it OK for the government to implement surveillance, tracking, monitoring, etc. in order to save lives? Or are we so afraid of own governments that we can't afford to allow such things?

Re:Goodbye privacy

[mindless4210]

Well, the technology is called DSRC, which is a form of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). DSRC uses radio frequencies to collect the data, which could be considered the identification part of the process. Either way, it's a network of sensors which pick up data from transmitters--RFID.

And yes, I read the article--I posted the damn thing.

In the year 2010 on the freeway

[gone.fishing]

I'm late for work, I jump in my underpowered Toyota Pyris hybrid and rush off for work. Manage to get it up to 66MPH and hear the speed alarm at just about the same moment I see the printer shoot off a slip of paper. A speeding ticket. These tickets have evolved to a sort of tax. The automated equipment can't take your license and can't stand up to cross examination in court so, they don't count as points on your driver's license so you are emailed a ticket you have to pay. In essence, a speed tax. I owe another $108.00. Third time this month!

A couple miles down the roadway, My GPS beeps and tells me that I should take an alternate route, there is congestion ahead. I'm sick of this because everyone else gets the same message and everyone is told to take the same alternate route. I'll ignore the advice today. Chances are, enough people will leave my route so that it will open up.

I use my voice activated phone to call the office and tell them I'll be a bit late, traffic is heavy.

The road ahead is jammed, it is not moving at all. I swerver to the right to make an exit but my radar screams! I look over my shoulder and see a car a hundred feet behind me. The alarm doesn't think that is enough room. I hear someone say "Go ahead" and I make my lane change. This intercar communication is pretty cool but it seems like almost every night you hear about a case of road-rage where someone got really pissed about what they heard. Maybe it isn't great for people with anger managment problems. I say thanks and catch my exit in a nick of time.

Golden Arches show up on my LCD display and I push the icon to place my drive through order. I'll swing in and pick up my coffee and muffin and my bank card will be debited. It is pretty cool how they know so much about you but I've heard that there are some slammers out there who routinely debit people as they drive by. It hasnt happened to me yet though.

I arrive at work and turn my car over to the valet. He can drive it slowly without the key within one mile of where I dropped it off. It is a nice service to use in this part of the city, things are pretty congested around here. I'm not worried, I can tell where my car is from my desktop, I can also monitor the wife and the kids!

I don't know how we did it back in the first part of the century! Only problem is that I gotta work 13 hours a day to pay for all this convenience!