Big Brother Stepping Up - Speed Control

[Bluehoon]

Found this on Australian IT.

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html

VICTORIA has moved to iron out bugs in satellite technology designed to make cars less friendly for lead-foots.

Victoria's Traffic Accidents Commission said VicRoads had started work on a massive roads database that would reduce accuracy problems discovered in recent trials of vehicle-fitted, anti-speeding GPS devices.

The devices, also being tested in NSW and Western Australia, warn drivers to slow down when they exceed the speed limit for the road they're travelling.

Versions of the device that will increase the resistance of the car's accelerator pedal are also being evaluated.

However, TAC Road Safety manager David Healy said the devices had given drivers false information in tests because of mistakes in the roads database used in Victoria.

"We've already got a prototype database that we're using but we admit it has some errors in it.

"VicRoads has developed a business case and is mapping out the requirements for the new database right now," Mr Healy said.

Victoria and WA have been testing the technology, known as Intelligent Speed Assist, for more than a year.

In June, the NSW Roads and Traffic Authority said it would launch its own trials of the devices.

NSW is spending $1 million on its trial, which is expected to be completed in 18 months.

An RTA spokeswoman said the trial was "still in its infancy" but its maps were more accurate than those currently available in vehicle-based satellite navigation systems.

Mr Healy said the initiative emerged from collaborative research by the TAC, Monash University and Ford Australia that began in 1999.

The group tested an advisory version of the system in fleet cars and found they reduced by 50 per cent the amount of time drivers spent travelling faster than posted speed limits.

Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries chief executive Andrew McKellar said the group was willing to work with government agencies on new road safety systems but drivers must be able to maintain control of vehicles.

"These devices should provide feedback in the form of an alarm, voice command, or pedal resistance, but drivers must maintain overall control," Mr McKellar said.

Mr Healy said it was important to understand that all the devices being tested would be expected to have an override that ensured drivers were not governed by the anti-speeding devices.

No surprises to see Vic Roads leading change.

And then this:
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/...-15306,00.html


Cheers

[DBourne]

this was on TT a few weeks ago. i wonder if itll ever come into play (hope not)

[sgt_doofey]

I think that it would be a good idea, except for the pedal resistance. That would impede the driver if they were genuinely needing the speed at that time, i.e. overtaking.
I would want to see a system that only has an audible or visual warning, nothing else.

[Fev]

well thats just great.. cant just make advanced driver training mandatory? much cheaper then satelites!

[castek]

Originally Posted by Fev

well thats just great.. cant just make advanced driver training mandatory? much cheaper then satelites!

agreed

[Cobra]

A lot of money to spend on something that will just tell us we're going to fast. Isn't that what wives are for?

[gz1]

Originally Posted by Cobra

A lot of money to spend on something that will just tell us we're going to fast. Isn't that what wives are for?

Yea but wives cost more.

[Cobra]

Originally Posted by gz1

Yea but wives cost more.

Yeah but unless you're Eric Cartman, you can derive more pleasure with wives in other ways than you can with satelites...

[Bud Bud]

Actually I can see benefits to a system like this, but only if this device aids the driver and not automatically governs the driver without the drivers input.

If the system was accurate enough to advise the driver what speed they should be doing on a given stretch of road and it was up to the driver to take this digital advice, then there would be no real reason not use it. After all, hands up those of you that have inadvertently been caught speeding in the past after not realising what the sign posted speed limit was either by confusion or being unfamiliar of you position? (Bud Bud raises arm)

I also think a speed governor could be deployed by the driver and only by the driver similar to cruise control or traction control etc. It would and should only be the choice of the driver when it is used though.

Another benefit would be the use of GPS to measure speed. This would be far more accurate than the 10% error than the ADR's allow for but the "Road Rule makers" conveniently forget.

[Rodp]

Oh, lovely. So we're going to get taxed more to cover for the reduction in speeding fines.

[68XTFairmont]

I'm gonna sound like a conspiracy theorist here but what the hell.

Once this system is in place what is stopping it being set up to identify the unit speeding and relay this information to a government body resulting in automatic speeding fines???

[Cobra]

Originally Posted by 68XTFairmont

I'm gonna sound like a conspiracy theorist here but what the hell.

Once this system is in place what is stopping it being set up to identify the unit speeding and relay this information to a government body resulting in automatic speeding fines???

...A riot!

[snappy]

Originally Posted by 68XTFairmont

I'm gonna sound like a conspiracy theorist here but what the hell.

Once this system is in place what is stopping it being set up to identify the unit speeding and relay this information to a government body resulting in automatic speeding fines???

Exactly what i was thinking . Can't see them give up there revenue from fines.
Nothing that a good pair of wire cutters would not fix though.

[sgt_doofey]

Originally Posted by 68XTFairmont

Once this system is in place what is stopping it being set up to identify the unit speeding and relay this information to a government body resulting in automatic speeding fines???

Some wire cutters or a soldering iron? Perhaps even a bit of tin foil over the antenna.

With the athermic windscreens used in Peugeot's, it's difficult to use GPS in them.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by 68XTFairmont

Once this system is in place what is stopping it being set up to identify the unit speeding and relay this information to a government body resulting in automatic speeding fines???

Civil liberty groups, they would never allow such an easy system to abuse come into existence that totally ignores the basic right to privacy. Imagine suddenly government departments can then track your every movement, eventually leaking to non government groups such as marketers. Scary!

By the way the basic vehicle tracking is in existence already, we have automatic vehicle locators (AVL) in our ambulances. The problem is the accuracy is crap and the say they can only guarantee accuracy to 500m, especially in areas with tall buildings that limits the number of tracked satellites. Glad they use this system to locate us if we trigger a distress alarm, 500m could be 3 city blocks, I want better than that if I have been stabbed.

[boss 300]

it will never happen !no goverment is intrested in saving lives,if nobody speed no revenu for any goverment.

[shane3]

Will never happen how many cars in Australia ?????? at least 20 million, like to see them try to put one in every car

[bob^]

As long as there isn't a transmitter in the unit then everything is fine. It would be easy to spot if there is one.

[Daymoe]

Government wouldn't ever dare to use this technology, they'd lose all revenue from fines.

[dom_105]

As long as it's passive, and has no transmitting/logging capability, then I don't have much of an issue with it.

I don't think GPS is all too accurate anyway, I have had mine tell me to go straight through what is now a shopping centre, and has been for the last 5 years at least.

[luke]

I've seen a GPS blocker on a website for US$38 which would work nicely.

[cowboy]

As long as it is a passive system then it could be really handy, cut out those 53km/hr fines in a 50 zone (yes, I've had a few). And if they tried to make it an active system? It took about 5 minutes for illegal bypass systems to pop up in response to speed limiters in the trucking industry.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by cowboy

As long as it is a passive system then it could be really handy, cut out those 53km/hr fines in a 50 zone (yes, I've had a few). And if they tried to make it an active system? It took about 5 minutes for illegal bypass systems to pop up in response to speed limiters in the trucking industry.

Very true but then you have the issue of tax payers funds being spent on research and devices in order to detect those systems that have been altered. Similar to the situation with radar detectors and radar detector detectors which have to be developed each time new technology comes out.

I agree, a passive system is a good idea but a system that is active or has data logging is too much power that can be abused. Infringement notices without actual visual confirmation of the offence opens too many legal issues. That would lead to defence of the infringement being too dfficult as you would then have to prove the accuracy of the satelite tracking was insufficient. An example is our ambulance tracking which is satellite based, the manufacurers claim they can guarantee accuracy to 500m yet we often get radio calls to confirm our location when we are 10km away from where the tracking is saying we are. Technology is not perfect and any machine or device is capable of failure.

The only thing I would like to see is a vehicle kill switch linked to the system so that if the vehicle is stolen, it can be disabled remotely. This system I believe should require the owners written consent to activate, which would be done when the owner reports the vehicle stolen. This would prevent high speed chases when kids steal high power cars and bait cops. I remember there was a gang of kids in WA that used to only steal Porsches and equivalent, get in a chase, lose the cops and then dump the car. I had my VN SS Grp A stolen in the mid 90's, the cops chased it at various times all night (kept calling the chase off due to unsafe speeds of up to 200km/h). They never caught the little turds and my car was found by a garbo the next morning, partially stripped (including the wiper arms : ). If a vehicle kill switch was fitted, I would have authorised its activation and their party is over.

[cowboy]

I don't imagine it would take the car thief community long however to learn how to overcome such a system.

[geckoGT]

Originally Posted by cowboy

I don't imagine it would take the car thief community long however to learn how to overcome such a system.

This is true, but then the merry circle of developing technology and then inding ways to stop people from getting past it, a lot like engine tuning really. I am amazed the insurance industry has not put some money into developing this system and making it cheaper, after all it is their payouts that it would reduce.

Anyway off topic we go, again!

[Keepleft]

Bugger GPS - a sticker is all we need;-

"I slow down to save lives", Zzzzzzzz.
http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/200...27_ntnews.html