This Car Can Talk. What It Says May Cause Concern.

[ixion]

Last year, Curt Dunnam bought a Chevrolet Blazer with one of the most popular new features in high-end cars: the OnStar personal security system.

The heavily advertised communications and tracking feature is used nationwide by more than two million drivers, who simply push a button to connect, via a built-in cellphone, to a member of the OnStar staff. A Global Positioning System, or G.P.S., helps the employee give verbal directions to the driver or locate the car after an accident. The company can even send a signal to unlock car doors for locked-out owners, or blink the car's lights and honk the horn to help people find their cars in an endless plain of parking spaces.

Other information systems being added to cars can be used for tracking as well. Electronic toll systems are convenient for commuters, but the information is increasingly being used to track movements. When police were trying to track the car of Jonathan P. Luna, an assistant United States attorney who was killed earlier this month, they pulled the records of his charges on his E-ZPass account, which led them to Pennsylvania, where his body was found. Such records have also been used in civil cases like child custody disputes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/technology/29car.html


There was a discussion going on the other week about this. It seems that every new piece of technology these days is spyware or weaponry. What is wrong with people? I simply don't understand why people are willing to trade away their freedoms for a false sense of security.

[Wonk]

1. No registration required link here

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/technology/29car.html?ex=1073365200&en=9013046b4a8d702f&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

Related GD thread from Saturday
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=962149

[ixion]

3. thanks for digging that related thread up, Wonk

:hi:

[Brian_Expat]

2. The computers in every new car are scary

Control computers that come standard in every new car record data like rate of speed, when brakes are applied and when airbags go off. Information from those computers are used after accidents to "reconstruct" the scene. Any discrepancy between what you say and what the computer says generally goes to the computer, not you.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

4. OnStar

"I simply don't understand why people are willing to trade away their freedoms for a false sense of security."

It's a service, it's not mandatory. It's really nothing to worry about unless these things become mandatory. Essentially, there's a sucker born every minute - that's what keeps the economy moving. I think it would be a good service for old people who are prone to losing their Cadillacs in the strip-mall parking lot, but beyond that I would never get OnStar. old people should not be driving but that's another story entirely.

There are other, more ominous, technologies going into cars right now - that are similar to OnStar, but are becoming standards. The auto-shutdown feature and such things are unacceptable.