DOT Proposes Mandating Cars Broadcast Location, Direction and Speed

CNS News ^ | 8-27-2014 | Terence P. Jeffrey

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August 27, 2014
By Terence P. Jeffrey

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, part of the Department of Transportation, published last week an "advanced notice of proposed rulemaking" on "vehicle-to-vehicle communications."

What NHTSA is proposing could begin a transformation in the American transportation system that makes our lives better and freer — or gives government more power over where we go and when.

In announcing its proposed rulemaking, NHTSA is stressing its intention to protect the "privacy" of American drivers.

"This document initiates rulemaking that would propose to create a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard, FMVSS No. 150, to require vehicle-to-vehicle communication capability for light vehicles," says NHTSA's dryly-worded notice.

What do vehicle-to-vehicle communications entail?

NHTSA has crafted a nice phrase to describe the information cars would broadcast. It is the "Basic Safety Message."

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I’d say use your neighbor’s car when attending Tea Party meetings but it’d probably take your picture and record your body weight in the seat, seat position, stearing wheel position and flip the kill switch so the re-education team can meet you in the parking lot.