The brilliant German government, in the light of insurmountable unemployment decided to use just such a black-box system to collect motorway toll for heavy trucks.
In yet another brilliant move, they bought the system from the only company offering it - a company formed by several major technology and automotive firms who had, independent of each other, developed just the kind of system described in the article. Well, pretty much, it was more focused on heavy trucks, monitoring them for logistical stuff, whatever.
Only problem was, no trucking companies were interested.
Hence, they combined their systems (or rather, rigged together with string and sheer power of will) and sold it to the government for toll collecting.
The result: More than a year after the system was supposed to go into full operation they finally got the beta running, more or less.
Constantly announcing fixed days for going operational and then failing again, this has been the biggest embarrassment to the entire German technology sector since......well, pretty much ever.
How will the US version look?
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The brilliant German government, in the light of insurmountable unemployment decided to use just such a black-box system to collect motorway toll for heavy trucks. In yet another brilliant move, they bought the system from the only company offering it - a company formed by several major technology and automotive firms who had, independent of each other, developed just the kind of system described in the article. Well, pretty much, it was more focused on heavy trucks, monitoring them for logistical stuff, whatever. Only problem was, no trucking companies were interested. Hence, they combined their systems (or rather, rigged together with string and sheer power of will) and sold it to the government for toll collecting. The result: More than a year after the system was supposed to go into full operation they finally got the beta running, more or less. Constantly announcing fixed days for going operational and then failing again, this has been the biggest embarrassment to the entire German technology sector since......well, pretty much ever. How will the US version look?