End of fast and dangerous car happiness in UAE

I guess it could be a good thing if your vehicle is stolen.

 

In a place with such skewed balances of power, I cannot see the super-rich not finding a way around this, whether by an exotic car exemption or just getting a donation to the right bureaucrat.

 

A family owned country (UAE) a great place for beta testing and giving boost to IBM's new development..

 

Look for it to be sold next to a state near you.

 

That would be a bummer unless there is a way to scramble its RX/TX when you punch the throttle.

I am sure civil liberty/activist will put on good fight on this one being implemented in the States not because of the speed detection but because of one's where abouts being detected at all times and that would be an invasion of one's privacy.

 

$125 MM worth of driver training would go a longer way towards the desired objective than the implementation of "nanny state" electronics.

Is there any wonder that so many Ferrari's and Lambos from the ME are cheap and being imported to Canada as well as other countries ? Caveat emptor for sure............

 

MB's GPS system can find you, and I'm pretty sure On-Star can too. Sure, you need to give the operator a code, but how long before they find a way to include this information in some sort of warrant?

 

I am all for drivers ed...but unlikely...and I don't understand the political motivation for not doing so. In every other country that I know, passing the drivers test is a chore and agonizing, not here. Americans have gone out of their way to make driving as idiot proof as possible and yet some idiots still drive like they are riding their moped...There is no reason why we cannot drive fast if everyone could pay attention to their surroundings and got off the road when they absolutely could not pay attention.

OnStar is only activated when the driver pushes the button, until then no one knows of your where abouts. It will be a very hard battle for government to mandate spying on you unless they pass it through some terrorist act, and even then they have to argue "position and speed" relevant to the crime/terror prevention.

 

Beware of Big Brother's mantras:

"We are doing this for your protection."

"We are doing this for your safety."

"We are doing this for your own good."

"We are doing this because God told us to."

etc

 

This is all we need. Our shortsighted government thinks all motor vehicle accidents are a result of speed. In Victoria Australia they have a 3 km/h over policy, not even 10 %, which is the accuracy of the speedometer or the radar equipment.
60kph + 3km/h and your nicked!
100kph + 3km/h and your nicked
110kph + 3km/h and your nicked!
Cruise control up and down hills couldn't even keep you at the correct speed!
They would embrace this technology, as it would raise an enormous amount of revenue.
Money money money

 

I recall reading in the L.A. Times last year that OnStar can be remotely activated and used as a listening device. It was used to gather evidence in either a drug or murder case, don't recall exactly. With a warrant, it can be a wire.

 

If it were for real nobody (no one who understands the ramifocations) would buy GM...

 

I believe this...

Back in 2000 (already 5 years ago) I was at an autoshow and at the Mercedes booth they were explaining their assistance/location system. They said it had a phone number to call to locate the car; they joked that you couldn't be hiding things from your wife cause she could call and see where the car is.

 

http://www.onstar.com/us_english/jsp/gl_terms_privacy.jsp?page=gl_privacy.jsp

ONSTAR PRIVACY PRINCIPLES

OnStar services include a broad and evolving array of safety, security, convenience and communications services that are delivered using on-board vehicle electronics, wireless telecommunication technologies, the Internet and global positioning satellite location information. As you use our services, we gather personal information to improve our services. You don't want your personal information to fall into the wrong hands. Neither does OnStar.


When you use the OnStar services, we may routinely collect information, such as the automatic network numbering information provided by the telephone network (caller-ID information), the location of your vehicle provided via satellite and GPS electronics, or any other information, including your preferences or usage patterns. We of course treat the content of your phone calls and email messages on our Personal Calling and Virtual Advisor services as private and do not record the content of those calls or view the content of the messages.


When you visit the OnStar web site, we may collect and store information about your visit on an anonymous, aggregate basis. This information may include the time and length of your visit, the pages you look at on our sites, and the site you visited just before coming to ours. We may also record the name of your Internet service provider. We use this information only to measure site activity and to develop ideas for improving our sites.


There are also several opportunities on our web site for you to provide us with information about you and your interests, such as your name, mailing address and e-mail address. If you choose to share any personal information with us, we may store it and use it for marketing research and other marketing purposes, which may include sharing it with OnStar's business partners. We will never sell your information to any other company. You should be aware that when you voluntarily disclose personal information in public areas of our web site, such as chat rooms or bulletin boards, this information may be seen and used by others. We urge you to exercise good judgement when sharing personal information in these forums.


Our web sites may make use of "cookie" technology to measure site activity and to customize information to your personal tastes. A cookie is an element of data that a Web site can send to your browser, which may then store the cookie on your hard drive. So, when you come back to visit us again, we can tailor information to suit your individual preferences. The goal is to save you time and provide you with a more meaningful visit.


While OnStar is committed to protecting your privacy, we cannot guarantee that your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not described in this policy. Subscribers are cautioned that the privacy of any information sent via wireless cellular communications will not be assured. Third parties may, for instance, unlawfully intercept or access transmissions and private communications without our consent. In addition, OnStar may disclose personal information if required to do so by law on in the good faith belief that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to (i) comply with the legal process, (ii) respond to claims of a violation of the rights of third parties, or (iii) protect the rights, property or safety of OnStar, our users or the public. OnStar cannot accept any responsibility for accidental or inadvertent disclosure, unauthorized access or for other disclosure as required by law or described in this policy.


OnStar reserves the right to alter its privacy principles as business needs require. Any alterations to these principles will be posted on our web sites in a timely manner.


You take privacy seriously, and so do we at OnStar. It's our way of sustaining your trust in OnStar and our products and services. Afterall, your trust is what we value most...


OnStar Response to General Inquiries on Privacy Stemming from 9th U.S. Circuit Court Opinion on "Eavesdropping"

OnStar has recently received a number of inquiries from our subscribers and the public about whether OnStar has the ability to listen in to conversations in OnStar-equipped vehicles.

OnStar is committed to protecting the personal information of our subscribers.

The OnStar system does not allow monitoring of vehicle occupant conversations without notice to the occupants. When a voice connection is established, a light flashes, a phone ring is heard, and the radio mutes. In addition, a voice connection is normally audible through the stereo speakers, and vehicles programmed with text messaging can see the word "phone", a phone icon or another indicator of a telephone connection appear on the driver's instrument panel display. Moreover, OnStar's policy requires advisors to announce their presence immediately upon establishment of a voice connection.

In November 2003, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an unnamed telematics company did not have to assist the FBI in intercepting and monitoring oral communications without the occupants' knowledge. Several news reports incorrectly identified OnStar as the telematics company involved with that decision. OnStar was not part of these legal proceedings.

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/11/20/court_limits_incar_fbi_spying/

 

I love that expression.

 

Thanks, I was trying to phrase it in the terms that a briber would... perhaps as a "party donation," or maybe as a personal gift.