London to Experment With GPS Speed Limiters

Originally Posted by ralph_dog

Frankly, I'm sick and tired of people wanting to track my every move with GPS, cell phones, surveillance cameras, speed passes, satellite photography, etc ad infinitum...Aren't are civil liberties precious anymore?

How does a GPS receiver, your cel phone, a camera, or enforcement of traffic law restrict liberty? I'm just curious what your take is. I understand that a lot of people would like the ability to take risks with their own life and well-being, although on the other hand, when they do so, it's typically Joe Responsible Taxpayer who ends up footing the bill when things go wrong anyway. Joe deserves the ability to have a government that keeps the cost of idiots down to a reasonable level. If you think your country sucks, move to a different one.

[tbaleno]

Careful guys. This is getting a little hot.

[hobbit]

If you think this GPS thing is a scary concept, read up on what
the gummint wants OBD-III to be. Realtime reporting of your emissions
status, *all the time* including your VIN and godknowswhat other
details, to roadside listening stations. The only reason we
don't have it yet is the very sound objections from civil
liberties groups [well, and maybe a few technological hurdles].
.
The kicker is how everyone thinks of throwing excess technology
at various HUMAN/social enforcement problems, which is really
the last thing you want to waste time and money on. How hard
would it be for cops to spot those long lines of tailgating
yupsters all bouncing along behind each other in the left lane?
The "resident officer" over on Priuschat claims that tailgating
is hard to prove, which confuses the crap out of me because
all you need is thirty seconds of footage off the cruiser's
dashcam as you come up behind these twits and start picking them
off one after the other. Think of the revenue.
.
But yes, teaching people to *drive* and making sure they have
the right mindset to handle it would likely fix *so* many of
today's problems. I often point out what's involved in pilot
training -- with very minor exceptions, *nobody* screws around
in the traffic patterns around airfields, because they know that
if they do their tickets are *toast* within milliseconds of
touching down. Ground vehicles should be no different. Even the
things that people studying for a CDL are required to learn
should also be required for vehicles other than heavy trucks,
f'krissake. It's high time to stop subsidizing these bonehead
drivers who never learned about the importance of how they guide
their two tons of scrap metal. Somehow in the process of those
essential taking a back seat, they've all settled into this
mindset of being in a tearing hurry and on the phone, even
if that methodology is so sadly misguided in the first place.
Somehow it *feels* like they're accomplishing something, and
it would absolutely be the best cost/benefit path to disabuse
them of this notion and prescribe serious corrective penalties
for buttheaded, "me-first" behavior on the public ways.
.
None of this requires any additional technology.
.
_H*

[Chuck]

I touched on a socio-political issue and regret it took the direction it did in this thread. I apologize to the group.

There are probably a number of ways of dealing with people that drive in a way that makes you wonder if their keys should be removed. I'd rather not have the vast majority of drivers suffer for the actions of a relatively few.

[hobbit]

well ... some of these things are important to not lose
sight of, so I would submit that it's not entirely bad that
they come up. Clearly, some of the people here are thinking
about some of these things fairly routinely...
.
_H*

Originally Posted by hobbit

If you think this GPS thing is a scary concept, read up on what
the gummint wants OBD-III to be. Realtime reporting of your emissions
status, *all the time* including your VIN and godknowswhat other
details, to roadside listening stations. The only reason we
don't have it yet is the very sound objections from civil
liberties groups [well, and maybe a few technological hurdles].

You need to go over to www.vwvortex.com in the forums and look for one called the 1.8T forum. There are TONS of guys on there running ultra-rich illegal aftermarket ECU's that run as rich as 8:1 and with no catalytic converters. Then for that one time every year or two years, or in the case of some states, never in the first 5 years, they run the stock ECU program and put their cat back on the car to pass emissions for 15 minutes before switching the chip and taking their cat out again. I know so many guys that run around with ultra-rich mixtures and no catalysts that it's not even funny. OBD-III is needed to stop the modern-day hot rodders from ruining the environment with their illegal mods.