Is big brother watching you? Not yet, but it's likely that he soon will be, at least while you're driving. All the technology is in place. All that is needed is for your lawmakers to enable the technology. The safety advocates (read insurance companies) will be there standing in line to lobby for this because it will make the roads safer. Will it really? Not likely.
Look at what we have now: GM has their OnStar system and other manufacturers either use OnStar or have something similar. The good news is that if you are in an accident with a vehicle equipped with OnStar, and the air bags activate, OnStar will automatically call the car and if there is no response, call up emergency services and dispatch them to the precise location where the car is. This can be done because OnStar uses a GPS system for location and a cell phone system for communication.
Some fleet users, particularly delivery trucks, equip their vehicles with GPS locating systems that report the location of their fleet of vehicles every minute or so. Thus at a central location, the fleet vehicles can be dispatched with efficiency to a new location if necessary. These fleet users say this saves lots of money and time -- and it probably does.
And now to the next step: Your car's internal computer knows a lot about what the car is doing because various electronic components need to know, particularly the stability control system that needs to know speed, lateral acceleration, etc. Oops, did I say "speed"? Yes, I did. So, given that your car now knows how fast you're going, what is to keep big brother from making the car call up a central location every so often and report your identification, location, and speed. And that central location can then check the location for the speed limit and write you a ticket if you're exceeding that limit.
What is necessary to put this system into use? The lawmakers need to do just three things. First, they need to make the auto manufacturers equip all their cars with the necessary systems. Second, they need to write a law that states whoever is driving the car is responsible for the violation. Third, they need to figure out who will pay for the cell phone communication system.
It looks like Europe will be the first to have a system in operation like this. They already have done studies that show if ten percent of the cars were equipped with such a system, traffic would be slowed significantly.
This would look very attractive to both insurance companies and law enforcement because it would drastically slow traffic in Southern California and therefore make the highways and streets safer. At least that is the message that would be promoted. Actually traffic is safest if it is all going at the same speed, regardless of what that speed is.
Okay, now that this system is in place, what can we, as motorists, expect? First of all, lots of traffic tickets! And do you know what that means? Lots of income for local governments. Wow! They'd love this system too, wouldn't they? There are other possibilities with big brother watching like these:
Reseda Blvd., Ford Taurus -- Mr. Jones, who should have been in Burbank on city council business at 10:15am, has decided to skip the appointment. He's fired when his bosses use the data system from his city car to prove he wasn't doing his job at the time.
Horace Street, BMW 330i -- Mrs. Patel is caught doing 38 mph in a 30 mph zone. Evidence from her car's on-board GPS system is enough to convict her. This takes her license away because he points limit has been exceeded. Unable to drive to work due to a bus strike, she's fired from her job.
Ocean Blvd., Ford Explorer -- Mrs. Burns, who told her husband she was in Beverly Hills on business that day, is caught traveling 39 mph in a 35 mph zone. She couldn't explain why she was in Long Beach instead of Beverly Hills and her husband discovers the affair she was trying to conceal.
San Vicente Blvd., Jaguar XJ -- Mr. Smith, traveling in Brentwood is caught doing 42 mph in a 35 mph zone in his Jaguar. He told his bosses he was in downtown Los Angeles and his wife he was in Torrance. His life starts to fall apart.
Foothill Blvd., Mazda 6 -- Mr. Rodgers runs a red light in Monrovia trying to make up time. A witness takes his number and informs the police. After he denies the allegation, the police use the information from the car's on-board GPS transponder and traffic light information and prosecute him.
101 Freeway, Mercedes-Benz S500 -- Delivering a customer's car to another dealership, Mr. Wood was caught speeding at 72 mph where it is posted at 65 mph. The data was sent automatically to the manufacturer and both dealers. He was fired as soon as he arrived at his destination.
Does this look pretty grim? Yes, it does. That's the future, but what about today? Many new cars today, led by GM, have "black boxes" that record information about the car for about two minutes. This means that in the event of an accident, the car "remembers" what it was doing just before the accident, including speed and lateral acceleration. If your car testifies in court against you (which it could!), you can say "I was going the speed limit and swerved to avoid another car", but the car says you were going 15 mph over the limit and didn't move the steering wheel.
Is this an invasion of your privacy? There have been two cases in court where the car's information was obtained by court order and used in court. Neither was in California. Undoubtedly there will be attorneys made rich litigating cases like this in the near future.
It's interesting that something a little like this has been done for years in France. They charge tolls on their Autoroutes (costly freeways). It was simple for them to figure out when you pay your toll, the time is recorded and if you get to the next toll station "too early", then you not only get charged for the toll, you also get charged for speeding. Simple and direct. Juan Pablo Montoya tested this system (he's the BMW-Williams Formula 1 race car driver) driving a BMW 330d to Monte Carlo. He got a ticket for 142 mph which was way over the limit. Instead of just paying the fine, the police hauled him off to the station. When they found out who he was, they let him go, but insisted on autographs. And BMW used the speed in ads for their diesel 3-series because they were proud that it would go that fast!
