Taxing the Miles You Drive. GPS to Track and Record All Vehicles?

Associated Content ^ | 2-2-09 | Bobby Tall Horse

[Reaganwuzthebest]

The black boxes record speed, whether the brakes were on at time of impact, throttle position, turn signals, engine rpm, total run time from the time you started the car. They are obviously wired into the circuits, so simply cutting the wires and removing it will also break the curcuit for your brake lights, headlights, and maybe other stuff like your electronic TPS sensors.

People will figure out ways to disable the system without knocking everything else out. It can be done I'm sure for those who don't want it.

[PSYCHO-FREEP]

On top of that, they will also tie it in with your speedometer, and fine you every time you run over the speed limit. (Current GPS’s have speed zones programmed in with global position.)

They will send you a ticket in the mail, along with your tax bill. They will also require a national I.D. card that you must first activate before you drive. (Orwell was prophetic.)

[TxAg1981]

Look, they can’t even get people to pick up a free converter box so TV can go digital. You think people are going to put a GPS in an old car? What is the cost to government to retrofit the poor underclass’s cars?

Easy solution...the pump won't turn on if it can't read the GPS.
Look at it from the gubment's point of view...
Everyone REQUIRED to have either a new car or GPS. Increased demand...stimulated economy.
Unless you can blend/brew your own fuel (bioDiesel, waste motor oil, waste veg oil), you'll be hammered by the "friends" in high places.

[Nathan Zachary]

"I don’t know how much that the government owns in WA, more and more every day. I read, this week-end that only twenty percent of Arizona is privately owned, though."

A large hunk of Arizona is also owned by NGO's (Maurice Strong actually) in the UN, and is designated a 'heritage site" because it sits right on top of a very large aquifer. Another large ranch of some 12,000 hectares is owned by the Saudi royal family.

[pabianice]

The good news is that GPS is a fragile system whose signal is easily blocked.

[Freeper]

I have a prediction: my gps unit will fail to function properly... often ;-)

It will probably be wearing a little "aluminum foil hat"

[Nathan Zachary]

"And that's exactly my whole point. When government says you HAVE to maintain this at the point of a gun then it becomes a problem."

You don't think it's a problem already that the government is putting things in cars at YOUR expense in order to track your movements? You don't think its a problem that they've already had devices put in your car that can be used to entrap you? I call it an invasion of privacy for one thing.

[Nathan Zachary]

"Yes, you can pull the fuse for onstar."

That doesn't necessarily mean the gps part of the device is disabled. It may not even be part of the Onstar circuit board, It could be stuffed somewhere else and just plugged into it.
Otherwise car thieves could just disconnect the car battery and disable the tracking device,[ there are legit reasons for gps devices too, to help track down international car theft rings] which on some high priced cars is also part of the anti theft system. The GPS has it's own power source in case the battery is disconnected.

[Drew68]

i have a prediction: my gps unit will fail to function properly... often ;-)

I'm sure they'll have an alternative "Minimum Miles Driven" for people who's GPS devices fail to work.

[CodeToad]

I thought that was the gas tax?

[Alcibiades]

Oregon law says it's illegal for you to pump your own gas. My understanding of it is that this was done to create jobs after the timber industry was devastated up there. Devastation due to some sort of owl/treehugger relationship I believe.

They will probably just have the gas station attendants check your gps signal or something. When it comes to tax hikes laws seem to be very well thought through and the only loopholes are for the politicians.

[DoughtyOne]

This really pushes my buttons.

They take the gas tax funds and spend it on mass transit, then complain because there are no funds for highways and bridges. So then they come back to the car and truck owners and demand more money.

Mass transit does not pay it’s own way. Tickets are subsidized. Riders do not pay enough to support the service. Raise their fees to pay for mass transit, and let vehicle fees go where they were intended to go.

[Nathan Zachary]

"The good news is that GPS is a fragile system whose signal is easily blocked."

Don't bet on it. You aren't thinking like an engineer, you are just thinking based on what you perceive as a little tiny self contained GPS device with a small receiver that can be blocked. The entire roof of your car can be used as a 'reciever' for a gps SYSTEM, which doesn't have to be built as a self contained component. the rest of the GPS parts can be scattered all over or within other components, making it impossible to find and disable. Only the engineers know where everything is. And should it require repair, then a diagnostic procedure has to be run to determine with part of the system is malfunctioning.

[DoughtyOne]

As described by Fox this morning, the GPS device talks to the tank. It knows how many miles you traveled since the last fill-up. It also knows what roads you were using during rush hour, and they plan on hitting you up for that too.

Let’s face it, if you have a job, you’re the one with deep pockets.

When does open season on politicians up there open up this year? LOL

[Old Professer]

“In 1958–1960 the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) carried out a large scale road teston six test tracks in the USA. It was found that the decrease in pavement ‘serviceability’ caused by a heavy vehicle axle could be related to the fourth power of its static load. This ‘fourth power law’ has been used as a basis for pavement design and road user charging throughout the world ever since.”

[Just another Joe]

I don’t think my ‘98 Harley will support GPS. ;^)

[Leisler]

You can only imagine the rate if there was no use.

No one could afford it.

Then of course taxes would have to be raised further to provide that which was economically taxed out of existence.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Myrddin]

They’ll nationalize OnStar as part of universal healthcare and make it manditory.

Most of OnStar's customers are senior citizens who push the button to have a live human for conversational entertainment. It's an old folks social support service that can also unlock the doors and provide help finding a good restaurant. The automatic collision detection tends to be used only once per car. They push the fear aspect to buy the service, but that isn't at all representative of the cellular minutes burned on a daily basis.

[Charles Martel]

I think the only “safe’ way to disable all that crap they put in cars now is to put an aftermarket electronic ignition system in the car, by-passing the entire computer system. But those are very expensive, a cheap one is over $1,400, and they don’t make them for all models.

That's correct, since for vehicles built in '96 or later, the "black box" is built right into the OBD-II compliant engine control computer. That runs pretty much everything, including the electronic fuel injection and ignition timing.

Remember, too, that in many states, annual safety inspections include a test of the OBD-II diagnostic port.

[gakrak]

I agree, but if a lot of you folks use your GPS like I do they won’t be able to track. I only use it on vacation trips. Other wise it is off 95% of the time. Amen.