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Texas Considers Putting RFID Tags in All Cars

Posted by timothy on from the hot-pursuit dept.

An anonymous reader submits "In section 601.507 of Texas HB 2893, the Texas Legislature is considering replacing all vehicle inspection stickers with RFID tags. The legislation also makes provision for the government to use the devices for insurance enforcement. The bill contains limited privacy provisions, but does not seem to exclude other law enforcement usage."

10 of 445 comments (clear)

  1. Remember... by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...RFID works only at a very close range. The tags themselves are powered by the radio transceivers that in turn detect them, making their range, by nature, very limited. This isn't a global universal tracking mechanism.

    It's a unique vehicle identifier that can be deciphered using the electromagnetic spectrum, similar to the way human eyes or a tollbooth camera might use visible light to view a license plate, another unique vehicle identifier.

    Texas is planning on using it for automated vehicle registration and toll booths (relevant bill excerpt below).

    Sounds like a perfectly reasonable use of technology to me. Are we to now fear any new legislation that doesn't specifically and explicitly "exclude [...] law enforcement usage", even if utterly irrelevant?

    This may sound trite, but:

    RFID != bad

    Anything - including a license plate or an old fashioned inspection sticker - can be abused for illegitimate purposes or to abridge someone's privacy. And keep in mind that "illegitimate purposes" is awfully subjective. But trampling - or spreading FUD about - technology is not the answer.

    Relevant section:

    Sec. 601.507. SPECIAL INSPECTION CERTIFICATES.
    (a) Commencing not later than January 1, 2006, the department shall
    issue or contract for the issuance of special inspection
    certificates to be affixed to motor vehicles that are inspected and
    found to be in proper and safe condition under Chapter 548.
    (b) An inspection certificate under this section must
    contain a tamper-resistant transponder, and at a minimum, be
    capable of storing:
    (1) the transponder's unique identification number;
    and
    (2) the make, model, and vehicle identification number
    of the vehicle to which the certificate is affixed.
    (c) In addition, the transponder must be compatible with:
    (1) the automated vehicle registration and
    certificate of title system established by the Texas Department of
    Transportation; and
    (2) interoperability standards established by the
    Texas Department of Transportation and other entities for use of
    the system of toll roads and toll facilities in this state.

    1. Re:Remember... by NanoGator · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "The privacy implications are mind boggling...."

      I wonder what Slashdot would have said if it had been around for the invention of the license plate.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  2. You've already got "RFID" by Sheetrock · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Your license plate.

    This takes very little away, but think about what it might add: the ability to pay for tolls, gas, or parking meters without swiping a card. You have to admit that'd be pretty cool.

    --

    Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
    -- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.




  3. /me microwaves sticker by Ph33r+th3+g(O)at · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't know what could have happened to it, officer! Must have been the same stray electromagnetism that wiped the stripe on my license!

    --
    I too have felt the cold finger of injustice.
  4. Hmm, this presents a bit of a problem... by pla · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does anyone have a really big microwave oven I could put my car in for a few minutes?

    Hmm, I wonder if a radar gun at very close range would suffice...

    Well, the old "whack it over and over with a rubber mallet" would work, I expect. Break the chip but not the windshield and hopefully not the sticker itself.


    AHA! I've got it...

    A Tesla coil! Put 200kv across the sucker and see how well it fares.


    Nevermind, problem solved. Go about your cries of doom and gloom, everyone.

  5. A few points that need clarification: by Pig+Hogger · · Score: 5, Insightful
    • Driving is NOT a right, but a PRIVILEGE.
    • Privileges can be revoked if you abuse them.
    • People driving on PUBLIC roads have absolutely, positively NO EXPECTATION OF PRIVACY.
    • The thousand of lifes lost to careless and/or stupid drivers most definitely warrant that public authorities to the utmost to increase road safety.
    • Rules of the road are implemented to maximize road safety. Including a 50 km/h speed limit on a 10 lane-wide ultrastraight strip mall at two in the morning on a clear night with no other traffic.
    • Police find ticketing drivers a demeaning task, so they will only do it when pushed or shoved.
    • Therefore, it is only logical that the State implements automatic means of enforcing road rules, such as red-light cameras, radar cameras; tracking vehicle position can also be used to punish speeding.
    • The next logical step would be a black-box that also records what the driver has seen.
    • That black box can be used to exactly determine the blame for road accidents, thus darwinizing bad drivers out of the roads.
    • With all the above said, there is nothing wrong, illegal, immoral and unethical to have the black boxes used to automatically ticket bad drivers. Aircraft have been thusly monitored for generations; if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander.
    1. Re:A few points that need clarification: by Kingstrum · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hmmm, where to begin...

      * Driving, per say, isn't a right; however, freedom to travel without producing papers is. Read up on the actual law for a "driver's license"...it's not as bad as the conspiracy nuts make it out to be, but it's not what you think it is either. Much like the "opt-out Social Security System" that seems to be pretty darn mandatory.

      * Driving on public roads doesn't automagically negate your rights...especially when "We the People" are "The Public" and paid for those roads.

      * We apparently have different definitions of "public safety". Preserving such safety does not warranty *ANY ONE* to violate said rights. Hence, the cops not being able to roust you on the road just because you're on it ("Sir, we pulled you over because we don't like your face."). Personally, I'm all for such things as "Kill someone while DUI, get a bullet on the spot", but I'm a capricious bastard that way.

      * Rules of the road are implemented as any other civil rule of law: by whomever is in power at the time for whatever gain they may get from it (including, but not limited to, personal sexual gratification from knowing they can make others do what they want.) We had 55MPH held over from the '70s to appease the MADD loonies instead of something based on actual science and current socio-political circumstances.

      * Some police find it a demeaning task; others fall into the above catagory of power-trippers.

      * So basically you'll be all for writing automatic tickets when you pass a given 1/4 mile stretch randomly chosen by the state? No appeal, no ability to explain that you were going 8MPH over the posted limit to get around a dangerous driver? These days Big Brother gets just as much of a whacking as Nazis, but it really does push to a very scary future, don't you think?

      * Under no legal standard that I'm aware of is anyone required to be a mobile snitch for the law. For other victims of American Education who didn't bother to get better informed later: our system of law is *POSTSCRIPTIVE* not *PRESCRIPTIVE*. "Innocent until proven guilty" means "do whatever you like, but if we catch you, your ass is grass". Much like the Ten Commandments, you're free to be an asshole, but you can't whine later that you didn't know there was a punishment for getting caught.

      * Planes are a lot different from cars. My car can't wind up in your living room unless there's a road nearby. My plane can destroy your remote log cabin and you'd never know it until someone contacted you. The ability to cause harm is much more limited and requirements for operation are way lower for a car. Applying a blanket standard for wildly different things is rather silly and, well, unsafe for the public, eh?

      Time to stop pandering to the narrow-minded nimrod special interests and actually excercise some Freedom for a change.

      Kingstrum

      "He had that rare weird electricity about him -- that extremely wild and heavy presence that you only see in a person who has abandon all hope of ever behaving 'normally.'"
      -- Hunter S. Thompson, "Fear and Loathing '72"

  6. TOP SECRET FACT: Cars altready have RFID! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    TOP SECRET FACT:Most modern cars have tracking transponders!

    Spy transmission chips embedded in tires that can be read REMOTELY while driving.

    A secret initiative exists to track all funnel-points on interstates and US borders for car tire ID transponders (RFID chips embedded in the tire).

    Yup. My brother works on them.

    The us gov T.R.E.A.D. act (which passed) makes it illegal to sell new passenger cars lacking untamperable RFID in the tires.

    Your tires have a passive coil with 64 to 128 bit serial number emitter in them! (AIAG B-11 ADC v3.0) . A particular frequency energizes it enough so that a receiver can read its little ROM. A ROM which in essence is your GUID for your TIRE. Multiple tires do not confuse the readers. Its almost identical to all "FastPass" "SpeedPass" technologies you see on gasoline keychain dongles and commuter windshield sticker-chips. The US gov has secretly started using these chips to track people.

    Its kind of like FBI "Taggants" in fertilizer and "Taggants" in Gasoline and Bullets, and Blackpowder. But these car tire transponder Ids are meant to actively track and trace movement of your car.

    Taggant research papers :
    http://www.wws.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/byteserv.prl/ ~ota/disk3/1980/8017/801705.PDF
    (remove spaces in url from slashcode if needed)

    I am not making this up. Melt down a high end Firestone, or Bridgestone tire and go through the bits near the rim (sometimes at base of tread) and you will locate the transmitter (similar to 'grain of rice' pet ids and Mobile SpeedPass, but not as high tech as the tollbooth based units). Sokymat LOGI 160, and Sokymat LOGI 120 transponder buttons are just SOME of the transponders found in modern high end car tires. The AIAG B-11 Tire tracking standard is now implemented for all 3rd party transponder manufactures [covered below].

    It is for QA and to prevent fraud and "car theft", but the US Customs service uses it in Canada to detect people who swap license plates on cars when doing a transport of contraband on a mule vehicle that normally has not logged enough hours across the border. The customs service and FBI do not yet talk about this, and are starting using it soon.

    Photos of chips before molded deep into tires! :

    http://www.sokymat.com/sp/applications/tireid.html

    (slashdot ruins links, so you will have to remove the ASCII space it insertess usually into the url above to get to the shocking info and photos on the enbedded LOGI 160 chips that the us gov scans when you cross mexican and canadian borders.)

    You never heard of it either because nobody moderates on slashdot anymore and this is probably +0 still. It has also never appeared in print before and is very secret.

    Californias Fastpass is being upgraded to scan ALL responding car tires in future years upcoming. I-75 may get them next in rural funnel points in Ohio.

    The photo of the secret prototype WAS at :
    http://www.tadiran-telematics.com/products6.html ...but the link finally died in July 2004 and the new location does not have a photo of a RFID bridge underpass collector. But does discuss thhe toll booth RFID uses...

    http://www.telematics-wireless.com/site/index1.php ?ln=en&main_id=33

    but the fact is... YOU PROBABLY ALREADY HAVE A RADIO TRANSPONDER not counting your digital cell phone which is routinely silently pulsed in CA bay area each rush hour morning unless turned off (consult Wired Magazine Expose article). Those data point pulses are used by NSA on occasions.

    The us FBI with NRO/NSA blessin

    1. Re:TOP SECRET FACT: Cars altready have RFID! by Fookin · · Score: 5, Interesting

      From Zebra

      What are the implications of RFID for automotive suppliers?

      There are no industry-based automotive mandates out there today. Perhaps the only exception to this is the Tire TREAD Act in which RFID is specified as a method of identifying tires supplied to OEMs. The U.S. Congress passed the TREAD (Transportation, Recall, Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation) Act after the Firestone/Ford Explorer issues emerged. The act mandates that carmakers closely track tires from the 2004 model year on, so they can be recalled if there is a problem. RFID tracking could be available for the 2005 model year. Michelin revealed that it has begun fleet testing of an RFID transponder embedded in its tires to enable them to be tracked electronically. After it completes testing, which will likely last 18 months, Michelin plans to begin offering automakers the option of purchasing tires with embedded transponders.

      But there is no reason why automotive manufacturers and suppliers should not adopt RFID to achieve supply chain improvements just like any other industry.

      --------------

      Any chance this isn't as heinous a plot as parent believes?

  7. Re:Do you have OnStar? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Informative

    OnStar equipment includes a phone.. Could somebody record what you are doing without you knowing? I'd bet it is possible.

    More than possible, it has already been done. The FBI got the Mercedes equivalent of On-Star to route a suspect's telemetry to them first. They remotely turned on the "phone" and listened to all the conversations in the car.

    We know about it because Mercedes took the FBI to court over it after the monitoring had extended for more than a month. Mercedes's problem with it was that if there was a real emergency, the FBI's wiretap prevented normal emergency services from being provided to the car owner who had paid for them.

    The courts ruled in favor of Mercedes, without addressing the privacy issues at all, instead basing their opinion pretty much on the issue of the wiretap interefering with normal usage.

    Here's an article that summarizes it pretty well. The part they missed is that the car vendor in question was Mercedes. I read in a different article at the time that while the company's name was sealed or otherwise not made public, the lawyer for the auto company in the suit was public knowledge and it was also public knowledge that his firm primarily worked for Mercedes with few, if any, other auto manufacturer clients. Thus the inference to Mercedes.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.