The Motor Authority reports that GreenRoad Technologies has developed a monitoring system that determines whether or not the person behind the wheel is "aggressive" or "safe." They claim that transforming one to the other equates to a "54% reduction in crashes and an 83% reduction in crash costs." To achieve these unbelievable results, GreenRoad's G-force meters measure roughly 120 different driver actions: acceleration, turning, breaking, middle finger saluting, etc. If the computer deems that a driver's too "aggressive," a red light flashes. Because that's safe. The box also builds a "user profile," which is (presumably) stored by GreenRoad Technologies and could be (theoretically) sent to the police, future employers and/or insurance agents. Using the same battle cry as the Simpsons' Mrs. Reverend Lovejoy, GreenRoad is hocking the system to parents who want to monitor their teens' driving habits. While my driving style would burn that red light out in seven minutes flat, in the 17 years I've had my license, I've caused zero accidents, injured zero people and died zero times. Unless you count "died and gone to heaven." Include me out.
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For gosh’s sakes, keep this stuff out of our cars! Big brother already is looking over our shoulder constantly. Most Americans and others in the world are too busy watching Biggest Loser or whatever, to care, I think.
Look up Echelon spy program on google some time – and yeah, this dates from Clinton’s time – prior to 9/11. And if any of you think this program is no longer used – dream on, little dreamer! They just changed the name and broadened it.
Slowly, slowly technology is broadening and our civil rights are evaporating all in the name of security.
I’m no tin-hat brigade person, I can assure you. I just look around what’s going on with eyes wide open and mind engaged. It’s called discernment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON
Looks like Echelon has its roots going back to the 50’s, and started in the 60’s to combat Russia and Communism during the beginning of the cold war; this was not began under Clinton.
Facts are fun.
That said, we don’t need anything like this in our cars. I can see all sorts of potential abuses by the insurance industry right off the bat.
How on earth do you differentiate “aggressive” driving from “spirited” driving? To a computer, hooning on a back twisty road will look a lot like ducking-and-weaving on a crowded freeway.
Fugheddaboudit!
Wikipedia does not necessarily equate a fact.
Have your teen take a physics class, watch videos of crashes, and possible take a emergency handling driving course.
The red light would be an accelerant…
If something like this was offered for sale and purchased and install for parents to monitor their kids, fine. Their car, their kids, their insurance. Their data, too. Anything else is wrong. When will this end? So many times this kind of technology is pushed as necessary to keep us “safe”. From what? This is just another way to beat people into submission. I have already posted comments about the notorious black box in some cars and this is another step. Soon you will find transponders in cars that track speed and usage in real time. Oh wait, that’s Ezpass. Where I live Ezpass data is collected as you drive and is used to calculate waiting time on the highways. This info is posted on signs located on various roads. While useful, it actually knows exact speeds at given points, unlike toll plazas which only can calculate average speeds from beginning to end. (keep your Ezpass in the foil bag when you are not entering/exiting tolls, folks).
As our freedoms and civil liberties erode in the name of protecting America, I have to ask: Once you strip away our rights to protect the “American way”, is there any American way left to protect?
Are all the roads going to become imperfection free, especially in the winter? Because there are roads with horrific potholes and drivers for miles and miles. Another box to pull the fuse on.
What’s this… the department pf pre-crime?
If you’re not doing anything wrong, what do you have to worry about? Only terrorists care if the government listens to their calls, watches their movements, monitors their driving habits. I, for one, want to be watched, hand-held and coddled by our overlords from the cradle to the grave.
If it’s an option that people can choose to have installed, that’s fine because it is their choice. However, the next step will be the government requiring these devices in commercial vehicles, then finally in private family vehicles. And, that is not fine.
I also don’t see how it can do a good job of measuring bad behavior. I’ve seen good aggressive driving and down right stupid dangerous aggressive driving. The funny thing is some of the down right stupid driving occurs at low speeds. How is this device going to detect that?
Today an optional device that is “for the children”, tomorrow mandatory equipment on every car driven, sold or borrowed in America. ind of like everything else, big government starts out solving a problem and ends up becoming one.
The Brits will get this rammed down their throats for sure, anti-social behaviour is a favorite charge over there.
Much as the real-time fuel consumption indicators on Priora (and others) tend to encourage hypermiling (or mild approximations thereof) I think many would find this aggro-meter an interesting challenge. Just how long can I keep the red light on? Can I keep it on for my entire commute? Just how big an ass do I need to be to get it to come on?
I could see this having a function in punishing street racers or others that have been involved in deadly at-fault crashes. Like those breathalyzer equipped cars for convicted DUIs, you could install something like this on a convicted dangerous driver’s vehicle in exchange for a reduced sentence.
I’m against intrusion into the lives of law abiding citizens but I have no problem with this equipment being mandatory in the cars of people who have previously been convicted of dangerous driving and/or causing death by reckless driving.
On the basis that these people will drive again I don’t see any problem with spying on them to protect innocent lives.
The problem is we all agree that installing these devices in the cars of convicted persons is a fair idea but in the eyes of many governments we are all guilty of bad driving, just not caught yet.
See the many TTAC articles on life on the UK roads for more information.
Many cars have a black box installed so airbags could be improved and developed. When you see the officer attaching a device to your dashboard while his partner asks you for a statement of what happened please try not to make any mistakes that will be used against you in a court of law.
The solution in the short term is to buy an older car and avoid the nanny monitoring as long as possible.
GS650G:
We do not “all agree.”
In fact I strongly, categorically and fundamentally disagree.
This is an unwarranted invasion of privacy and absolutely against the 4th Amendment. Sadly, the 4th Amendment is worth the paper it’s written on these days…
Actually, the 4th Amendment, like the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, is written on hemp. And drug paranoia has done more to slash the 4th Amendment than warrantless wiretapping
I don’t really agree either, I think we are all adults and need to be trusted at least a little by our own government. IF only cars had been around 240 years ago there would have been provisions in the BOR for them I am sure. What starts out as an interesting study with the intent of understanding why people are assholes behind the wheel gets seized upon as a new tool in crime fighting.
Cars have always been a strange 4th amendment issue since the state regulates and licenses vehicles, their operation and the drivers. This gives them broad powers of discovery and leads to invasions of privacy. The standard for just cause is laughably low, so vehicle checkpoints, roadside searches, and presumtions of guilt when pulled over for perceived infractions put the driver t a disadvantage. The standard argument runs that we have to take a breath or consume food but driving is a pleasurable option for our lives. Privilege versus a right. Maybe we need a new amendment that grants us the right to move freely upon the roadways as if we were walking in our homes.
So does this measure things like following distance and reactions from other cars to my driving habits or is it actually useless? Like Jonny, I’d be considered aggressive and dangerous despite a clean record.
Want to know how safe a driver is? How many accidents has he or she caused and how severe were they.
Maybe we need a new amendment that grants us the right to move freely upon the roadways as if we were walking in our homes.
Good luck with that.
Considering how much our rights have already been eroded in order to keep us “safe” in the war on terror, I’d expect that our cars will not only have tracking devices in the future, but video cameras, remote control capability, anti-terrorist ejection seats, etc.
I agree that future cars will be public spaces not private ones.