EU to require tracking devices on cars by 2018

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › EU to require tracking devices on cars by 2018

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nakedmolerat

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#1293475 29-Apr-2015 12:35

The topic is misleading.

It is not a tracker like what I have on my cars.

Sidestep

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#1293476 29-Apr-2015 12:35

We had OnStar in our Canadian GM vehicles at least 10 years ago. Can't remember exactly when it was introduced. Used cellphone service.

Dealer sold it as a safety feature. Crash off the highway in a blizzard? Help will be on the way.. It was an extra cost option but they would offer it as a package, I think most new car purchasers took it.

Our Insurance company (maybe in a deal with GM?) gave us a discount for keeping iy activated.

sidefx

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#1293483 29-Apr-2015 12:39

old3eyes:
Cop goes to accident, plugs his laptop into the black box , see you were doing 52 Kph in a 50 Kph area and gives the injured driver a ticket. Insurer arrives in site does the same thing. "Oh he was speeding" , no insurance payout. ..

These things start out with the best of intension's but soon become a big brother / revenue excersize..

I'm a little on the fence on this one.

On the one hand yes what you're saying may very well be highly likely.

On the other hand if all cars had these, and people came to realize they can't get away with speeding\unsafe drive they would hopefully be more careful, at which point perhaps we would see speed limits go up.

"I was born not knowing and have had only a little time to change that here and there." | Octopus Energy | Sharesies
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afe66

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#1293484 29-Apr-2015 12:39

I imagine the "strain" on the cellphone network would be the same as kindle. Turned off until needed.

Airbags deploy, turn on cellphone data connection (analogous to turning airplane mode off). Establish data link and transmit time date GPS location or nearest cell mast to police ? Repeat every x minutes.

Reasonable safety device considering how many people die on our roads and population distribution.

Time vital in trauma. Golden hour / platinum 20 minutes.

A.

Ps isn't it a crash detector _not_ a tracker.

Geektastic

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#1293535 29-Apr-2015 13:18

Talkiet:
Geektastic: There's also a link in the article to another which suggests that cars without the boxes will be forced off the road by untenable insurance premiums (because additional info such as speed, brake force and so on is collected for accident analysis) within 10 years.

I havent' read the article, but was the untenable insurance and forcing cars off the road a part of the proposal, or a but of conjecture by the author who presumably knows very little about the whole thing?

Cheers - N

It's what an insurance company Director would call a happy accident that was caused by the Law Of Unintended Consequences.

Insurance (especially for young drivers) is very expensive - circa $3000-$4000 a year equivalent for a 980cc Ford Fiesta as a rough guide.

The insurers will use the black boxes (as they do already for new drivers) as a means to get discounted premiums.

Once they are more or less common, it will become "Oh sorry no, we do not cover vehicles without the box fitted".

No insurance, no drive. And the penalties are somewhat stiffer than here - and you will get done if you allow someone who is not insured to drive your car, as well as they will for driving it.

Insurance also ramps up very steeply if you get speeding fines and even more steeply if you get DUI convictions. I read somewhere that a single DUI will double your premium and more than one will render you liable to get insured only by very expensive specialists. The figures below are a few years out of date but indicate the effect of various offences on policies for a 30 yo female driving a Mini. Numbers would be far higher for drivers under 25. (approx double the numbers for the equivalent NZ$ amounts)

Talkiet

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#1293546 29-Apr-2015 13:25

Soooo. conjecture then? I'm sure there's some truth to it, but playing it up so that driving a car without this feature will be forced off the road is like claiming that cars without ABS or airbags will be forced off the road.

Didn't happen.

Personally I'm in favour of such a system. I do my hooning on a racetrack. I think having emergency services aware of the location of a crash in seconds is worth any real or imagined impact to privacy or insurance costs.

Cheers -N

[edit] PS. Yes I acknowledge the vehicle insurance situation in the UK is worse than it is here.

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

RUKI

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#1297583 4-May-2015 12:41

sidefx: ......
On the other hand if all cars had these, and people came to realize they can't get away with speeding\unsafe drive they would hopefully be more careful, ......

People may not realise that SRS (Airbag) computers in their 10 year old cars might be already capable of capturing that data. The only thing is different - not transmitting it.
But if it is captured during crash - it can be retrieved.

I've done comprehensive research on business practice and tools used to extract that data and got quotes for the price of tools and cost and schedule of required certification.
Could get them straight away and certification within few months if there were a need from Police or Insurance Companies.

I hoped people were more careful when they were told it is a bad idea to use cell phone while driving. It has been widely advertised and even made into some sort of law .... Still see people driving and looking/typing into their phones every day on SH-1 at speeds ~ 80K!

Next law will probably be having dash cam which looks in front and inside your car at the same time. Have them in our cars already.

Being afraid of being caught is not a good motivator IMHO.

It has to be in your DNA that what you are doing is right thing to do and not because somebody is watching.

Even when you think that nobody is watching - there is always One who does!

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