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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."
They already track you with GPS without your permission (Cops Challenged on GPS Use), why should they stop there?
..I'm all for improving highway safety, but in a grand cosmic sorta way, we're kinda fvcking with the order of nature here. Certain numbers of people HAVE to die and the couple hundred thousand taken out by cars and trucks every year is an effective way to curtail the population, especially the idiots prone to substance abuse (I'm one of them, but my numbers haven't come up yet...I'm excited for tomorrow though..)
And plus, if we put RFID tags in cars, Ashcroft has won. And thats no good.
And you thought red light cameras were bad. Think about using technology such as this to find out a distance traveled in a certain amount of time. If each tag is tied to a specific vehicle, you could be getting all sorts of traffic citations in the mail. I think this is a horrible idea...
I know that I will never buy a car with RFID tracking capabilities built into it!
The car might not, but the tires will always have them.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
funny my vehicle has the most expensive michelin tires they make for a light truck and no RFID transmission markers exist near any of them.. hell we swept both the inside and outside of each tire on the vehicle and nothing.... not even a peep..
so without any proof to say otherwise from you, i'd say you are very wrong...
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
With driving habits like that it's only a matter of time before someone is injured or killed. I may see one patrol car a week on this long heavily travelled stretch, usually on Friday.
Short of trackng drivers with a satellite the authorities aren't going to know it even happened. Then there's the matter of who was driving the car. Much to my chagrin, after a hit and run, I found the San Jose, CA, police could care less if I have a license number, description of car and could identify the face of the driver. Just fill out the forms and your insurance company will take care of it.
It's hard to feel one way of the other about this. How does John Ashcroft feel about it? I'll probably trend the other way, but I don't think this will solve anything.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Then again, perhaps they could team up with private companies to install this and WiFi into street lamps, kinda like this plan in the UK. That might get things rolling a bit faster.
On the one hand, I'm not sure I oppose this system on principle. There's a lot of bad drivers out there (I'm lookin' at you, California and Utah), and something to say "Hey, assmuch, would it kill you to slow the hell down and stop putting on your mascara eating a bagle talking on your cell phone to your wife and just friggin' drive your car?"
On the other side, there's two things that I believe in:
a) Visible Law Enforcement
b) Leave the rest of us alone
You don't "punish" the innocent for the crimes of the guilty. You want to make the roads safe? Get more cops driving out there. Last time I checked, having more police (assuming good training, obey civil liberties, etc) on the roads tends to majorly disrupt crime of most kinds - whether its speeding, accidents, selling drugs, whatever. Those of us that are innocents will wave to the nice policeperson as we drive by knowing that Mr. Cruise Control keeps us from getting pulled over, while the idiot who likes to ride my bumper because I don't want to go 80 in the 65 MPH zone will think twice before passing on the right shoulder.
Without making me feel like a criminal in my own car because it has to remind me how to drive.
Just my $0.02. I could be wrong.
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
I've fallen asleep on the road before.. woke up just in time to avoid a head-on-head high speed collision with a weighty Buick. An 18-wheeler truck nearly drifted into my bus as I was commuting up to NYC one morning..then the driver woke up..steered away, then fell asleep again and almost hit us a second time. How many people forget to look left pulling into an intersection? How many bad cell phone drivers are out there? Even if this system is abused and I end up paying $5000 in traffic fines down the road because of it, I would go for this in a second. Driving is dangerous. Not everyone is physically capable of driving safely all the time. Not nearly enough people realize this.
2. Mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists (agan, works in my area)
3.Zero tolerance for liquored-up drivers
4. Restricted permits for new drivers (no rush hour, no driving between sunset and sun-up, etc).
5. Governors on all engines so that it's not possible to exceed the speed limit
6. Increased penalties for racing, reckless driving, etc.
7. Removal of so-called "restricted permits" for people who have accumulated too many demerits.
8. Mandatory retesting for anyone who has lost their license because of moving violations or booze.
9. Get rid of "road tanks" (SUVs) that make people think they're invulnerable.
AND
"...there's no such thing as a "right" to drive. It's a privilege."
I hate when people try to justify socialism or communism.
How do you KNOW 100% that the seat belt laws work, or that helmut laws work? The ONLY thing that is known is that it raises revenues for police departments.
It serves to add confusion to honesty. There ARE instances where it's OK not to have on a helmut on and there ARE instances where you may not have your seat belt on (ie, getting your wallet out or scratching your unmentionables) - you want to have to go and explain that in court? You want the judge to believe you?
I'm in agreeance with points 6, 7, and 8. but the others are nonsense and then justified with "right and privelege talk" - it is MY right to do whatever I want in this country - it is MY responsibility to make others safe and NOT infringe on the well being and laws of this country!
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Last week my wife and 2 year old were involved in a serious accident. They were hit from behind while driving 45 by a driver going 120.
Luckily they're both fine. But, as expected, this driver had no insurance. Since it seems most accidents are caused by the uninsured/underinsured, why not use this technology to keep the cars off the road?
You could put in rfid readers at the gas pumps, which would look up your VIN (embedded into your rfid, or hashed, or whatever) before allowing you to pump gas. The insurance industry would gladly fund the product. Your rates would go down when everyone is insured.
There are a few issues to work out, such as how you fill your lawnmower, but creative people could solve those with little effort.
I for one did RTFA. And as far as I can see the parent poster was right. The article indicates this system could replace "EasyPass" type systems. This indicatez that the car-tag *MUST* be able to transmit a unique ID code for your car.
Massive Big-Brother issues here. They could build up multi-year databases of everywhere you've driven. What stores you shop at (everything from grocery shopping to sex-toy shops). Where your friends' houses are. Whether you go to chuch/synagog/mosque, and how often. Whether you meet your secretary every month at the local no-tell-motel for an affair. Yep, by correlating records they can see who you regulary meet up with and where. The data mining protential is enormous.
Oh yeah, they can also track speeding with it. A great excuse to implement such tracking, and the least of our worries.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I have not yet RTFA, but it seems to me this is a government program that should have 100% of its funding cut. Our government has no business spending money on this kind of thing no matter for safety issues or for tracking us. For those in doubt please refer to your Constitution Article I Section 8.
RFID tags are like the transponders used on many trucks. A roadside antenna sends a signal to the RFID device, and the device sends back its serial number. So yes, that roadside system will be able to identify your car, and use your ID number for things such as toll roads, security gates, or buying a burger at McDonald's. The RFID tag can also receive a message from the roadside, and display it on a device in your car: a display screen, a flashing light, or a creepy computer voice talking to you. It is not the same thing as having a GPS unit with a satellite transmitter, like OnStar. You have more potential to be tracked by using your cell phone. One more reason not to talk while driving. "Guns don't kill people, cell phone drivers do!"