Big Brother in your car, its worse than you imagined
New cars with factory installed GPS have this creepy little icon on the LCD display screen that reminds you (oh-so-helpfully) of the speed limit on whatever road you happen to be driving on at that particular moment. It’s white with black letters – just like the real (physical) signs. And it updates in real time, as you drive.
A brand-new (and all-new) 2014 Mazda3 sedan arrived for me to test drive. All the latest bells and whistles. Including an updated take on the oh-so-helpful speed limit “sign.” It now turns angry red in
whenever and wherever you exceed the speed limit.
It shifts back to black on white once you reduce your speed to within legal parameters.
Think about that!
Most new cars have GPS, which makes it feasible for the car to “know” at any given moment where it is, where it’s headed - and where it’s been. As well as how fast it’s going. Or gone. The data can be – is – recorded.
It can also be transmitted.
GPS technology is “send and receive.” In order for the car to know its position (and speed) at any given moment, it must be able to communicate with GPS satellites in real time. This communication is not a one-way street. Many factory GPS systems have “concierge” or “emergency” services that are explicitly two-way. Lesser known – but working on the same principle – many new cars (like the 2014 BMW 3 I have this week) can send – and receive – service updates and such like. Wi-fi Internet/e-mail access is becoming a not-uncommon in-car feature.
Cars so equipped “know” exactly what the speed limit is on any given road, at any given moment – just as they know the name/number of the road itself. They also know when you’re “speeding” – as Mazda’s helpful little helper helpfully lets you know. I have no doubt they also know exactly how much you’re “speeding,” too. This is not – yet – displayed.
Using GPS, the car knows when you’re “speeding” – every single time you “speed.” This is easily done by comparing your velocity at any given moment with the posted limit on that road, which info the car downloads continuously via the GPS. The data about your “speeding” can be recorded – and transmitted.
Add a dash of insurance mafia lust to rifle your pockets – and your legal inability to tell them to piss off. You cannot – by law – say “no” to insurance. You must buy it. And they will tell you how much you’ll pay.
The cherry on top: The govt’s increasingly demented but ever-more-turgid insistence that it must know about – and control – literally everything. The Fourth and Fifth Amendments are as inoperative as Hugh Heffner’s penis. They are impotent relics of a sepia-tinted age, receding rapidly in the rearview.
All new cars - by law - are being fitted with Event Data Recorders (EDRs) or “black boxes” that record this data – and many others things besides.
The ’15 Corvette will – reportedly – take video of your driving. And store it. See here.
Here is an interesting preview of what’s in store for the rest of us – not just Corvette drivers.
The ’14 Mazda3, like an ever-expanding roll call of new cars, also offers pre-emptive braking. Mazda calls it something else, of course (“Smart City Brake Support,” to be precise. Yack). But that’s what it does. Pre-emptively brakes. The car decides it’s time to slow – or even stop – and does so. You are second banana. This usurper technology is integral – essential – for the practical implementation of the driver-free (Google calls it driverless, but that’s a misnomer) car.
The car has a driver, It's called Big Brother!
The premise underlying all of this is: You are (pick one) inept, reckless, addled – and cannot be trusted to drive the car. The computer will drive it for you. More accurately, the people who program the computer will drive “your” (ahem) car for you. It’s not safe for you to drive the car.
Big Brother to spy on every motorist throughout Europe, click here to read more!
http://ericpetersautos.com/2014/05/13/heebie-jeebies/
http://www.salon.com/2012/09/17/big_brother_is_in_your_car/
Michigan police are using “military style” tracking devices on motorists:
A legislative oversight committee will discuss a new secretive cell phone tracking device the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department is using.
Not much is known about the device, other than its being funded by DHS!
It can reportedly trick nearby cell phones into providing data to the police. It can be helpful in tracking people, like missing children and fugitives, but it’s not clear how much more information is collected and what the sheriff’s department does with it.
The Department of Homeland Security reportedly paid for the device, and that’s why its uses are still mostly secret, even to state lawmakers like Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills.
“Basically what the sheriff’s department has said is ‘We’re not doing anything wrong, trust us,'” McMillin said.
In a time when the federal govt has misled the public about mass surveillance, question need to be asked. Like what information the device tracks, from whom and when? How is the information stored? What happens if officers abuse it to, say, spy on their ex-girlfriend?
“But I also think it’s just important to make sure the public understands how they’re being surveilled and making sure that the citizens are comfortable with what is going on,” he said.
Here's another example of the new political B/S spin on surveillance...
Senator John McCain: Americans should “accept” that their private conversations are being monitored. Click here to read more.
WTF? Politicians are telling us the public needs to be comfortable being surveilled? Are they F***king kidding me!
“I think law enforcement needs to be aggressively telling and informing and assuring the public that they’re not doing anything wrong; not to stonewall,” McMillin said.
Officials in several states show that local police departments are beginning to make their extensive databases available to investigators from the federal government on a routine basis. In some areas, agents from the FBI, DEA and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency can tap directly into local police records, leveraging the intelligence gathered by beat cops for their own investigations.
http://michiganradio.org/post/hearing-tuesday-explore-military-style-tracking-devices-used-oakland-county-sheriff-s-office