I must p*** this on to our UK friends, but they probably already know... http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1111211,00.html
What do you expect from a government who has taken it's citizen's right to defend themselves in their own homes and compensates criminals with funds to sue the very citizens who attempt to do so?There was a good reason we kicked them out of this country a couple hundrd years ago!
It's pretty hard to blame this on on the UK or any other country, looks to me like an american thing (On Star) developing to it's full potential. It'll make some folks happy when their daily is stolen, it'll control some lives a little better than our current crop of traffic control devices do. Chances are you'll never have to retrofit one to a traditional rod though. mike
The US and local governments here have been pushing for this sort of technology for decades. There is nothing new here. I read some time ago about a Canadian company that developed a technology that used an infared camera mounted under the car that measured vehicle speed much like the "optical mouse" sitting next to your computer.And recorded your GPS information to a tracking map. When you had your vehicle emissons/saftey tested the data was downloaded to and compiled and you were fined acordingly. Of course this is outdated now with the new capabilities of GPS. Just to show you how invasive this technology is now check this out CLICK HERE A lot of this is currently used in rental cars. Big Brother Government is not the only one putting controls on us, the private sector Big Brother is a lot more invasive, fortuneatly we can "choose" not to use those products. At least for now. It is a good thing that we have SEMA on our side.
That is positively Orwellian. I hate it and I'm sorry for our UK homies. Let's not drag a 200+ year old argument into the mix, we is pals now. What gets me is how these busybodies *** fascists stay in control. A measured approach? Hey parliament, hey MOT, go **** yourselves.
Interestingly enough, I don't think this is that big a deal, we have had a spate of people running from the police here in Auckland in the last couple of weeks resulting in about 5-6 deaths (some of them innocent road users) this brings all the whingers out saying the police shouldnt persue people, well that sends a great message out !!! personally I think a damn big gun on the front of the police helicopter and some use of it would put an end to people doing a runner and killing someone innocent on the way. Hell we all think the same of car theft on here this seems a pretty good way to stop it. my 0.02
[ QUOTE ] Chances are you'll never have to retrofit one to a traditional rod though. mike [/ QUOTE ] That's one bet I wouldn't want to take.There was a news item in the Detroit Free(?)Press awhile ago that almost slipped by unnoticed. It was concerning this guy who had rented a car from one of the leading rental agencies(National I think)using a credit card.When he got his bill the following month there was an additional 600 dollars or so on his bill.He questioned it and discovered that there was an electronic device on the rental car that every time a certain speed was exceeded(deemed to be a violation of spped limits)it would automatically charge his credit card account!Sounds a little Orwellian to me but apparently he took the company to court about it.Haven't heard what the outcome was and probably never will. To respond to the person who made the statement about "standing by us in Iraq" I fail to see what that has to do with the loss of your(and my)individual freedoms.Judging from the liberal(let that read biased)news reports in this country,about the only people in England supporting "us"in Iraq WAS the government;it surely didn't appear that the average person did!Let's keep this thread on track please.
Reefer nailed it, this country is ****ed. Comrade Blair and his buddies have just expedited the ****edupness of it all.
[ QUOTE ] about the only people in England supporting "us"in Iraq WAS the government;it surely didn't appear that the average person did!Let's keep this thread on track please. [/ QUOTE ] You're right. Lets keep it on track, by KEEPING YOUR UNINFORMED BIAS OPINIONS To yourself!!
[ QUOTE ] Sounds a little Orwellian to me but apparently he took the company to court about it.Haven't heard what the outcome was and probably never will. [/ QUOTE ] I can guarantee that guy will lose the court battle. All rental car companies that have those devices declare them in the rental contract as well as the fine for exceeding the speedlimit. I heard a very similar storie on Tom Martino's Troubleshooter show on the radio. 4/10/02 CALL Al in Arizona rented a car from Budget and ended up with an extra charge of $7000! They say whenever a car is taken out of state there is a $1.00 per mile charge ***essed, unless the driver has written permission. They have a GPS satellite tracking system in each car to see exactly where they go! Al says he told them he was taking the car to Disney World and they said there was no problem. He hired an attorney and is suing them. We also learned that many consumers have had the same problem with Budget. What I could not find on his site was the conclusion, he lost. He did declare where he was going but did not go there, He did drive all over California and parts of Mexico but did not stick to the itinerary he declared with the rental car agency. It was a fun call to listen too.
this is just another one of those stories that the pathetic UK press seem to get their grubby hands and publish to wind up the people...we hear them time and time again, big brother and all that ********...it`s about time the people of this country stood up together...the only time i can remember it happening was over the petrol prices a couple of years ago....which the government increased anyway after the fuss had died down...as for comment about the average man not standing behind the iraq invasion...i can tell you that the majority were behind you...the ones you saw on tv protesting were the tree hugging hippy ****ers that should have been rounded up and shipped over to iraq to help clear up those people are pretty much out every weekend moaning about some ****...causing disruption and costing me more money in taxes to help police the ****ers...sorry about the o/t rant......thats as political as i will ever get.....anyway back to the post....it wont happen monkey
That technology does exist, sure.. but its so expensive that the police forces can't afford it. In any case every single engine management system in every single car would have to be uniformed to enable an interface for the "remote control" system. It couldn't be retro fitted to older cars ( even with FI ) - even if it was it'd be so easy to remove its not even funny. As surf monkey says this is just something that the press have picked up and are playing on. You must remember that catching speeders in this country is big business, and brings vital income to local councils and police forces - without it they'd be **** broke. There is a system that a US university pioneered that forces cars to stick within speed limits etc - its relatively cheap and would work but they don't want it because they'd loose their income! being caught doing 35 in a 30 is worth £60 ( about $100 ).. and there are one hell of alot of people being caught.. Far as Iraq goes, yeah we were there alright, and the majority supported it.. what we didn't like is Blair lying to us to get his way.. but hey.. hes a politican.. we're used to it!
Thanks Surf Monkey you kinda said what i was thinkin, little old England doesn't have much left of its Greatness but i'm glad it is allied with the USA, don't know anyone who is anti American in my little world. You can take any protest in the big cities on any political subject & i promise most of those ******s are the same ones everytime, then we have the media feeding that **** to the world....just like they seem to revel in the antics of the big brother.....just another attempt to wind us all up. At least the U.S. gov used the media to its advantage in the recent conflict....a very wise move! The Brit gov can't be too hard on the cl***ic/vintage car enthusiast (they don't understand the word "hotrod") over here as most of them have old snotters (i mean cl***ics) locked away for the weekend. did i ramble on a bit.....sorry didn't mean to.
So, if I rent a car and suspect that it's got a GPS receiver/retransmitter on it, and I want to disable it for whatever reason....where in the car is it? How can you find it? I'm in rentals way too often. I speed, but haven't taken a cross country trip with a local rental yet.
Now the speeding etc in rental cars is a problem, damn !!! our last trip to the US we spent a whole lot of time in the outback doing prety close to the 110 the car was limited too, was fun and we were doing it on empty roads and no one was hurt in the process what next the tires did more revelutions then the amount to do the milage (burnouts...) Hell whats the use of renting a car if you can't play a little, and you guys are worried about some scare story in the UK ???
whats the deal in Canada about "transponders" mounted on their cars to monitor/verify that you have driven on their toll roads? Did not know that Until I was sent a bill for not paying the toll[plus a late charge=50$] didn't pay it anyway! he he......
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