Why EV drivers should worry about Big Brother

[wtmusic]

"TOKYO -- Imagine an Orwellian future where faceless international corporations track your every move. Drop by the bar after work, call in sick to go to the beach, visit your mistress’ house.

<>

Call it the downside of the electric vehicle utopia promised by today’s automakers. Under this vision, electric cars of tomorrow won’t simply run on batteries and recharge in your garage.

They will be plugged into the local electricity grid and be continuously connected through the wireless Internet to data centers monitoring the car’s location, battery charge and driving range."

http://www.autonews.com/article/20101103/BLOG06/101109928/-1#ixzz14o0WCGaO

No tinfoil, but definitely another chink in the privacy wall.

[jeff47]

1. Actually, there's an enormous bit of tinfoil here

Because there's nothing about the car being an EV that makes this possible.

In fact, there's several vehicles on the market TODAY, using traditional internal combustion engines, that connect back to the manufacturer.

[TheWraith]

4. One word: ONSTAR.

GPS tracking coupled with a cell phone system.

Anyway, it's just a good argument for extremely strict data privacy laws that prevent them from logging anything.

[Dead_Parrot]

6. Two words: Mobile phone

You could do it on a bicycle today and the technology is in place (in theory, anyways).

Mind you, calling in sick to take my mistress to a bar at the beach sounds totally worth it.

[Glassunion]

8. Actually, our own government(thanks Bush!) is funding tracking systems for all cars under the

guise that we will tax those who drive more. Normally paid by gas taxes... The more you drive, the more gas you buy, the more taxes you pay. But what happens when people start buying higher mileage vehicles? How to you charge taxed to pay for the roads that they drive on?

http://news.cnet.com/E-tracking,-coming-to-a-DMV-near-you/2010-1071_3-5980979.html
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070911/183435.shtml
http://blogs.computerworld.com/gps_tracking_privacy_violation

Just sayin...
:tinfoilhat:

[joshcryer]

12. This would certainly enable that technology.

[toddwv]

2. But is this "chink in the privacy wall" exclusive to EVs?

I would assume the same can be said of many new (and old) vehicles that are produced with comfort and connectivity in mind. So why are EVs the only ones being targeted for articles like this?

[jeff47]

5. No, 'normal' cars already do this. This article is FUD about EVs (nt)

[txlibdem]

3. Just another attempt to spread Fear, Uncertainty and/or Doubt about electric cars

My cell phone does the same thing. So does yours, and every cell phone made in the past several years has GPS. You can be tracked down by your IP address. If you use the ATM, it takes your picture and records who you are and how much money you took out. Big Brother electric cars my rear end. Not to mention that everyone under 30 seems to be twittering and facebooking their every move on the "InterWebs" anyway.

To quote Fred Armison from SNL doing his impersonation of Joy Behar on the view, "So what? Who cares?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPXcQixLF8Q

If these idiots in the oil and coal industries think that they're going to stop us all from driving electric cars they are crazy. We're not scared little rabbits that you can manipulate into sticking with the gas guzzlers. Just wait till the next gas price spike comes (and it will). You'll see the public aching to get these electric cars. To HELL with the oil companies. To HELL with the coal companies. I'll decide on my own. (and I already have)

[hunter]

7. "They" already tell you where you can and can't go and they make you carry papers.

Car people are very limited in their movements. Car people generally only go where they can drive and they are supposed to carry identification with them at all times.

Automobiles destroyed our personal privacy and imposed a kind of fascism upon our society.

[TheWraith]

9. Okay, you seriously need to go back to school, right now.

Roads and driver's licenses equals fascism? You need a remedial course on Europe, 1920 to 1945.

[hunter]

13. Okay.

"Upon assuming power in January 1933, Adolf Hitler enthusiastically embraced an ambitious autobahn construction project as part of his program of public works to help fulfill his promise to reduce unemployment. On 27 June 1933, the Reich government (Reichsregierung) enacted the "Law on the Establishment of a 'Reichsautobahn' Enterprise" (Gesetz über die Errichtung eines Unternehmens "Reichsautobahnen").<2> In accordance with Section 5 of this law, Hitler appointed Fritz Todt as Inspector General of German Roads (Generalinspektor für das deutsche Straßenwesen). Soon, over 100,000 laborers worked at construction sites all over Germany."



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobahn

Goodwin's law WIN! :woohoo:

[txlibdem]

20. And Hitler loved FOR-PROFIT enterprises

IBM made millions selling the Nazi's the computers and punch cards (the equivalent of flash cards) to help keep track of "people."

Nazis were very PRO BUSINESS. They knew that the best way to demonically control your working people is to make them worker drones in a company. Fascists throughout the world have been the greatest supporters of big business.

They (Nazis and Capitalists) go hand in hand.

[Kolesar]

16. A drivers licence is not unlike a national ID card,

or something that the RW "Mexican haters" would want for every dark skinned person to have to carry.

I have to produce papers to buy pseudoephedrine otc medication. I had to produce papers to get married. I have to produce a driver's license to ride an airplane.

I used to ask the counter clerk if she would let me drive the plane. Do that today and you will get "Rodney Kinged".

[Glassunion]

17. The good ole days.

I remember when children could get a tour of the cockpit while the plane was in flight.

How is your state doing fighting Real ID? We are still non compliant.

I can't wait for my VeriChip. :sarcasm:

[TheWraith]

18. Try replying again when you have a coherent statement to make.

Please explain how having drivers licenses are equivalent to fascism.

[Kolesar]

19. You're the one who said fascism

not me

[TheWraith]

21. "Automobiles destroyed our personal privacy and imposed a kind of fascism upon our society."

You didn't say it, but you are apparently defending and supporting that statement. So please explain how it's true.

[Kolesar]

22. no time left for you

Ooom bah Ooom bah Ooom bah

[TheWraith]

23. So your defense against being caught looking ridiculous is to look more ridiculous? nt

[Kolesar]

24. You need a hobby

[Nihil]

25. WTF is that supposed to be?

no time left for you
Posted by Kolesar

Ooom bah Ooom bah Ooom bah

Seriously, :wtf:

[joshcryer]

10. Welcome to the smart grid.

[NNadir]

11. Well, if you buy gas with a credit card at a gas station, they know you've been there.

Actually the car CULTure was built around marketing "freedom" from the so called railroad robber barons.

It was, of course, and is no such thing.

Of course, the car CULTure will collapse, even if everyone thinks that we can't live without it, because it is not physically sustainable. So the point is moot.

We will not have 100 million electric cars, never mind one billion. I doubt we will have one million. The fact is that if 100% of next year's cars were all Priuses, the world neodymium supply would be depleted.

Nevertheless, if one watches one of these forensic crime shows on television, they sometimes point to gas purchases, ATM use, and of course, convenience (and other) store video cameras. Privacy vanished a long time ago.

[tinrobot]

14. Why do you need a car when any smart phone will do?

Any phone with GPS could be compromised and used as a tracking device, so you better toss your iPhones in the trash if this concerns you.

[Glassunion]

15. I would be more concerned about how they store and protect the data...

I would be even more concerned about if or how the government would or would not have access to that information.

In an earlier post I mentioned how a few state governments are testing the implementation of GPS tracking and are receiving federal funding to do so. If I recall correctly the program was tested during the period when gas prices were through the roof and the carrot that the states dangled in front of the volunteers to test, was refunds on some of their gas costs.

They would then be taxed on how much they drove. This bothers me more than the Nissan or Toyota tracking systems. Mainly because with all of the legislation surrounding the implementation and testing of these GPS units there are zero protections legislated in to protect the information from anyone. The police could access this information without a warrant because it is simply considered DMV info. How would you like to be pulled over, and the officer would have instant access to the information of your exact whereabouts for the past week? :tinfoilhat:

The trouble as I see it, is how do you get a fair tax to pay for road maintenance and upgrades when more and more people start driving EV or ULEV vehicles? Right now, most states rely on gas taxes supplemented by federal funding. The more you drive, the more gas you need, the more taxes you pay. If you don't drive at all, you pay no tax. It is quite fair in my mind. But now you start to introduce vehicles that can basically damage more roads, yet pay less in taxes. How do you fairly tax those who use the road systems if they are paying little or no gas taxes?

Perhaps instead of GPS units, a simple odometer reading? Every time you plug into a charging station, your EV requires payment of some sort for the miles that you drive before it delivers a charge to your vehicle. Why is it that we seem to have the need to track the exact location of the vehicle at all times? Why can't we just share the simple stupid information of an odometer reading?