31–40 of 63 posts
Most departments already have much better capabilities that allow them to do passive tracking (air units or other technologies) or mutual aid agreements with a larger department or a county/state asset that can.
Its a good idea. I'm surprised there aren't trackers on all cars already, like a 21st century license plate. I thought toll passes would do this, but looking at the size of the sensors over interstates it isn't so easy.
> I'm surprised there aren't trackers on all cars already, like a 21st century license plate. Are you referring to a state or government tracker on every vehicle? If so, it seems like you're implying that's a good idea. If that's the case, I hope there's some joke in here I'm missing.
LPR is also used in UK by the Driver and Vehicle License Agency (DVLA) to oversee taxation of vehicles. No more “tabs” or license discs to display in your front window, it’s all LPR these days.
LPR databases are queryable by the security services and law enforcement — there are enough cameras in cities your location can be pinned down to “within a few streets”.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number-plate_recogni...
This isn’t a tracker on every vehicle but it’s pretty equivalent for drivers who don’t live in the middle of nowhere where LPR may only be deployed in major towns.
The other day I was driving through a school zone and it had that 25 mph radar screen. Most people did slow down, but it got me thinking. With modern cars being "smart", could govt offer a tax tax break for folks opting into the car sotware capping speeds dynamically?
This might be in the works already: with hybrids + full electric vehicles being increasingly used, the revenue from a fuel tax is dropping. There are regions investigating use-based taxes that track when and where vehicles are used, and assess a tax based on that information. This is, of course, a frightening proposal for anyone who wants to keep even one shred of privacy, but so it goes ....
The simplistic is to just bin roads into N categories and every mile it increments your monthly usage category N road type. The categories could be anything like road type, time of day, current congestion level, etc. There's actually little reason to track the specific location or road name.
The other day I was driving through a school zone and it had that 25 mph radar screen. Most people did slow down, but it got me thinking. With modern cars being "smart", could govt offer a tax tax break for folks opting into the car sotware capping speeds dynamically?
This might be in the works already: with hybrids + full electric vehicles being increasingly used, the revenue from a fuel tax is dropping. There are regions investigating use-based taxes that track when and where vehicles are used, and assess a tax based on that information. This is, of course, a frightening proposal for anyone who wants to keep even one shred of privacy, but so it goes ....
"Do you have anything to hide" is one of the worst sentences in existence.
Vehicles are lethal weapons. Full stop.
There is no legal right to evade police, or resist arrest. Full stop.
If you run from the cops, drive into oncoming traffic, hit speeds of 100+ MPH, or run lights, you are an imminent lethal threat to the general public and cops should treat you as such, with the power to do whatever it takes to end that threat as soon as possible, and if it risks or means killing you, tough shit. Don't run from the cops.
There is no difference between someone waving a gun around / shooting it and someone driving into oncoming traffic, flying through red lights, and doing 30+ MPH over the speed limit trying to get away from the cops.
Don't GPS tag the car. Don't follow them for hours. End the threat to the public just as you would any other imminent lethal threat to the public.
Develop spike strips that actually work. Blockade the roads so they're forced to stop by traffic. Use the "box" technique UK police do where they box the car in with 4-9 vehicles. Ram them off the road. Have a sniper put a fucking bullet through their head if you have to.
End the threat.
Watch how fast chases stop.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This might be in the works already: with hybrids + full electric vehicles being increasingly used, the revenue from a fuel tax is dropping. There are regions investigating use-based taxes that track when and where vehicles are used, and assess a tax based on that information. This is, of course, a frightening proposal for anyone who wants to keep even one shred of privacy, but so it goes ....
There's a lot of interesting ways to do usage based vehicle tax that don't impact privacy or do so only minimally. The simplistic is to just bin roads into N categories and every mile it increments your monthly usage category N road type. The categories could be anything like road type, time of day, current congestion level, etc. There's actually little reason to track the specific location or road name.
Yet, so many reasons for several government agencies to do exactly that.
The other day I was driving through a school zone and it had that 25 mph radar screen. Most people did slow down, but it got me thinking. With modern cars being "smart", could govt offer a tax tax break for folks opting into the car sotware capping speeds dynamically?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The NY Civil Liberties Union did find that toll passes are scanned far from actual toll roads. It appears to be used explicitly for surveillance purposes. Stick to cash or bill-by-mail, or connect your reader’s battery with a thumb when you need to use it. https://www.nyclu.org/en/e-zpass-readers
I just leave mine off entirely. When it fails to scan, they do ALPR to figure out who to send the ticket to, but, before they send a ticket they lookup against the EZPass database to see if your car is in it, and if so, they just debit your account like the tag did scan. If that happens often enough, they send you a new tag and ask for the broken one back. Oddly I keep getting defective tags.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm surprised there aren't trackers on all cars already, like a 21st century license plate. Are you referring to a state or government tracker on every vehicle? If so, it seems like you're implying that's a good idea. If that's the case, I hope there's some joke in here I'm missing.
License plate readers (LPR) are common in cities and on motorways in UK; there are “Average Speed” zones where the LPR is accomplished by cameras mounted on overhead gantries spanning miles. Speeding tickets can be issued automatically if you break the speed limit between gantries. It’s always been weird to me the US doesn’t do this and often requires a trooper to pull you over and give you a written ticket. Note tha…
The government has no business tracking the movements of its citizens outside of an active criminal investigation and only then within well defined paramaters.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm surprised there aren't trackers on all cars already, like a 21st century license plate. Are you referring to a state or government tracker on every vehicle? If so, it seems like you're implying that's a good idea. If that's the case, I hope there's some joke in here I'm missing.
License plate readers (LPR) are common in cities and on motorways in UK; there are “Average Speed” zones where the LPR is accomplished by cameras mounted on overhead gantries spanning miles. Speeding tickets can be issued automatically if you break the speed limit between gantries. It’s always been weird to me the US doesn’t do this and often requires a trooper to pull you over and give you a written ticket. Note tha…
Very different cultures. The US is still a culture of personal accountability and freedom. If you aren't hurting anyone you can do as you please. The UK skews toward rules for the sake of rules. Sadly the US is also moving in that direction, but mercifully still trails the UK.