Your New Car is Spying On You

[Doktor Howl]

Also, consider:

How much is "your car" really "Your" car? In the UK, you have to register the vehicle like a birth with the government to get a certificate telling you that you own the thing you bought.

You must then purchase insurance against any harm you may inflict with "your" property. At a minimum here you need 3rd party cover.

If there is damage to "your" property, you report it to the insurance company that may or may not decide if "your" property is now beyond repair and worthless. Your opinion on these things is fairly moot once you report it to them.


Some insurers in the UK are now insisting on fleet vehicles to be fitted with various tracker/driver monitoring devices. Personal insurances tend to follow business trends.


Result - The chance of this kind of thing becoming mandatory in the UK within the mid-term future? Almost certain. Insurance firms will probably bear a chunk of the cost and carve it back through higher premiums, install/removal fees and brand specific devices.

Aside - The thing where there's a breath test linked to the engine is probably worth noting here due to the sheer numbers around drunk/intoxicated driving.

Second aside - Most people use a manual in the UK. My experiences in automatics is similar to a go-kart. Texting/phones while driving is a fairly serial thing in the UK. Published numbers place direct casualties as comparable to drink-driving. Given the general speed of traffic in the UK it's not a particular challenge to use a phone most of the time. The problem tends to be idiots who are trying to change youtube videos at 80MPH. That said, I have seen people fined for texting while in a traffic jam. It's fairly difficult to separate the "good legislation" thing from the "money making exercise" thing.

It's the same here.

[Sita]

I brought this up with my husband the other day.
His exact words were "So? It's in a public place, not my home. I'm not doing anything illegal, what does it matter who knows how fast I'm driving or where I've gone?" also "If you have something to hide then you are probably doing something wrong."

I think I need to stop bringing up anything in the news with family.

[Doktor Howl]

"If you have something to hide then you are probably doing something wrong."

Assumption of guilt as the default condition is a wonderful thing.

[Left]

http://www.progressive.com/auto/snapshot/?vanity=true/

Looks like this little dingus fits into your OEM port?

[Cainad (dec.)]

Ugh. I think our widest freeways are 4 lanes each way, and never getting any wider because no space.

Same. I think 14 lanes is actually wider than Long Island, and the Long Island Expressway would still be crowded.

[LMNO]

I'd suspect that the wider it gets over a greater distance, the worse the problem will become for exactly the reasons stated - Accidents/drunks/shedding loads.

Was thinking about this. The biggest choke points, in my experience, are when the lanes shrink and merge. So if you take a 14-lane road, it will eventually have to collapse back into a 2-lane. So if the 14-lane is used to capacity, it will jam for MILES with every lane reduction.

[The Johnny]

Well, if it's well planned out, the chokes would be around where a lot of people would get off the freeway, and would extend again where theres a lot of incorporations... wonder if it works out that way 

[Junkenstein]

This all assumes there's no corruption involved in construction/maintenance of these extra lanes and such. Not that there would be any kind of incentive for this clusterfuck. 

I'm sure it's all totally legit. Don't worry about it.

[Cain]

UK has a maximum of six lanes on a road.

[Junkenstein]

UK has a maximum of six lanes on a road.

Pretty sure there's a number of stretches of the M6 where there's 8. Seem to recall others thinking about it.

ETA - Yep, M1, M60 and M6 at least. May have got around the regs by being "Managed motorways"

[Cain]

Well, I don't count the M6 anyway, since it's a toll road.

[Junkenstein]

Well, I don't count the M6 anyway, since it's a toll road.

Referring to it as a road implies traffic moves on it.

This tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

[Left]

Well, I don't count the M6 anyway, since it's a toll road.

Referring to it as a road implies traffic moves on it.

This tends to be the exception rather than the rule.

They ought to call them parkways, perhaps...because it's like you parked and it's gonna be like that for a ways...

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I'd suspect that the wider it gets over a greater distance, the worse the problem will become for exactly the reasons stated - Accidents/drunks/shedding loads.

Was thinking about this. The biggest choke points, in my experience, are when the lanes shrink and merge. So if you take a 14-lane road, it will eventually have to collapse back into a 2-lane. So if the 14-lane is used to capacity, it will jam for MILES with every lane reduction.

Yeah, I think some traffic scientists have proven that the wider you make your freeways, the more clogged they will become, if you have a high density of traffic.

[Triple Zero]

"If you have something to hide then you are probably doing something wrong."

that's is a really silly/dangerous line of thought. here are some good counterarguments if you need them--I always have trouble coming up with myself, good convincing ones that do not sound trite, so I have these links bookmarked in my "counterarguments" folder, for reference:

* Why privacy matters even if you have "nothing to hide"

* "Nothing to hide"

* very poignant reddit comment by someone who lives in one of the Arab Spring countries, explaning how quickly things can change for the worse, and how/why this endangers people with "nothing to hide" just as much as those who do

and if that doesn't help, just hit them with this generic counterargument to counter all arguments: HALF the FACTS you know are probably WRONG (no it's not really relevant to privacy but it's a real gem, right there)



edit I forgot to say, maybe some of you were wondering why I haven't jumped in on the NSA Surveillance thread, (since I used to have this big privacy thread going), it's because it's 12 pages long right now and I just haven't found the time to read up yet.