New GPS Navigator Relies On 'Wisdom of the Crowds'

Hugh Pickens writes "The New York Times is running an article on Dash Express, a new navigation system for automobiles that not only receives GPS location data, but broadcasts information about its travels. Information is passed back to Dash over a cellular data network, where it is shared with other users to let them know if there are slowdowns or traffic jams on the road ahead. The real benefit of the system isn't apparent until enough units are collecting data in a given area - so Dash distributed over 2,000 prototype units to test drivers in 25 large cities."

Comments

not wisdom of crowds

[stranger_to_himself]

Come on, this isn't the "Wisdom of Crowds". This is just collecting and organising a lot of information from asked from different people. We should keep the "Wisdom of Crowds" tag for times when knowledge or decisions spontaneously emerge, otherwise it'll become another meaningless buzzword.

OnStar Car Tracking and Shut Down?

[intelliot]

I've heard that OnStar installed in cars will be able to shut down cars. For instance, if the police are chasing a vehicle, they can have OnStar disable it, which turns it down to idling speed, forcing (or allowing) it to pull off the road. Of course, they plan to have some common sense restrictions: police cars will need to be near the vehicle before they cut the gas.

OLD NEWS

[Computershack]

TomTom portable Satnav devices have been doing this already for some time. But as usual, being way ahead of the USA, people can also submit map revisions for things they come across as they're driving such as new roads or changes to one-way systems, the changes which are applied across everyone using the service when they do updates. Read more about Tomtom Map Share

Oh, and in addition to that, data is fed to the device via Traffic Updates System so you can avoid delays. Also, there's a Speed Trap Database as well. All available for a device costing a couple of hundred quid (or about $200 with the usual corporate $1=£1 currency conversion).

Not to worry though. Like most things, give the USA another few years and they'll have caught up - by which time we'll have moved on again. Sad that a country that contributed so much innovation is nowadays resigned to always being a few years behind purely due to the greed of the corporates.

Let me guess....

[Mork29]

Everybody is now going to freak out about the "privacy issues".
A) The device supposedly transmits the data anonymously
B) Nobody is forcing you to get it
C) You probably aren't interesting enough to bother watching

Now, privacy concerns are valid and good. I don't want a "big brother" state as much as the next guy. However, how much are we going to let "privacy" get in the way of innovation? Think about how valuable this could be if everybody did have it? Think about the time saved, the gas saved, and possibly even the lives saved. I'd love to know if there is deadlock traffic ahead that I can't see, and I'm still cruising along at 60+ mph.

Now, as far as the privacy goes. I wouldn't even mind if this could be used by law enforcement to catch criminals. What we need is a way to limit when systems like this good be actived. I don't care if the police bust down doors, listen to phone calls, read e-mails, etc... as long as they have a very good reason to suspect the person of wrong doing, and they went through a judge and have the legal authority to use these systems. If there is some good evidence that a person minght be a criminal, I'd love for the police to have every bit of possible information on that person. It makes there job easier and safer, and hopefuly makes the world safer.

We don't need to worry about the technology. We need to worry about the laws that congress passes, and the things that our govenment does that bypass a good solid legal proccess. There are plenty of gadgets in our lives that can be used against us to limit our privacy. That part is done and over. What we need to be conerned about is the actual legal basis for when the government can access those devices. So, before you post about how big brother is going to watch your car, think abougt writing your congressmen instead. Let them know what you think.

Re:So how long

[zippthorne]

It's not so bad though. With perfect enforcement, people might actually start complaining about the right things. Like roads whose speed limit is set at "revenue generating" levels or roads which really aren't safe enough for the speeds people tend to drive them and therefore need a redesign.

Sounds like..

[JustNiz]

Sounds like yet another major invasion of privacy under the guise of something else.