Over the past couple years, I’ve taken a lot of guff from people when I’ve stated my implacable hostility towards the Internet Of Things [spit] intruding on my private life, and specifically when it comes to my car.
“Oh but Kim,” the response comes, “think of the convenience of not having to drive!” , etc. etc. My retort to giving up control of one’s vehicle is usually, “Giving up control to whom, exactly?”
Well, here’s a little example of what I could see was coming down the pike:
The bipartisan infrastructure bill includes a provision that would require auto manufacturers to equip “advanced alcohol monitoring systems” in all new cars.
Buried in the massive proposal—which is already longer than 2,700 pages—is a section titled, “ADVANCED IMPAIRED DRIVING TECHNOLOGY,” which mandates new vehicles include “a system that … passively and accurately detect[s] whether the blood alcohol concentration of a driver of a motor vehicle is equal to or greater than the blood alcohol concentration” of .08, in which case the system would “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation.” Automobile manufacturers would have a three-year grace period to comply with the regulation.
Here’s another prognosis to this already-ghastly invasion of our privacy: it won’t stop at “prevent or limit motor vehicle operation”. Given the all-pervasive network of operations from Skynet, what is to stop the government (federal, state, local or a combination thereof) from levying a fine for drunken driving (to be deducted automatically from your bank account), as well as sending your car’s GPS coordinates to Officer Friendly at Hometown P.D.?
Tell me I’m exaggerating or overstating the thing, I dare you.
But it’s all for our own good, isn’t it? So why would I be so upset about this? After all, seatbelt mandates have saved countless lives, so why not apply the same rationale for car immobilization and punishment for intoxicated driving?
By all means, let’s all get upset when the government suggests implanting computer chips into guns so that they can be controlled by law enforcement during times of emergency — “That’s like totally beyond the pale, dude.”
This car nonsense is precisely the same thing, being suggested for all the same reasons.
I foresee a rush towards the purchase of older cars which don’t contain computers of any description — until, of course, the government outlaws ownership thereof.
Once again: tell me I’m exaggerating or overstating the thing, I dare you.
It’s gonna happen because we’ve morphed into the United States of Sheeple. All too eager to grab our ankles and open wide. The KDTs & SEPs of the world are an endangered species. Prove me wrong.
I stumbled across Brett Favre’s HOF induction speech on youtube last night. He gets more than a little choked up about his dad, who was evidently a tough customer. “There was no room for crybabies in our house.” Those days are long gone. We’re a nation of crybabies & pretend victims; slavering to take a knee before Big Bro’s crotch.
SHEEPLE doesn’t even begin to describe this bullshit. $ 300 extra bucks a week and so many people sit at home and do jack shit while they happily allow the DEMON rats to shove it up their ass.
Imagine selling your soul… For a MEASLY $ 300 a week.
SHEEPLE isn’t the word…
…tell me I’m exaggerating or overstating the thing, I dare you.
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No takers. Looking forward to the Teddy Feature, that rolls up your windows, locks your doors, and then drives you off a bridge.
Some years back there was a science fiction short story that involved periodic closing off of tunnels, which then would be flooded with poison gas – as a means of dealing with overpopulation. Somehow seems rather less unlikely, now.
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Why not a slot to prevent the vehicles from starting without a valid driver’s license being entered into it (and logged), valid proof of insurance and all seat belts being fastened? Maybe they could do a vision test at the same time, too.
BUT BUT BUT, “IF IT EVEN SAVES JUST ONE LIFE!” (As the DEMON Rats and RINO’s would say).
And of course, members of Congress and staff will be exempt. They’ll be issued government drive-while-drunk-capable electric cars.
It would be even easier to have a gps interlock that governs your car’s speed to the speed limit on the road, regardless of driver input. Hell, Tesla has it for self-driving mode, they’d just have to make it impossible to override with the accelerator pedal. Voila! No speeding, fewer accidents and no reckless driving. All for your own good! When you start down the (metaphorical) road to what’s perceived as a safety utopia, this is where you end up.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
― C. S. Lewis
Fifty years later, we are there; damn the do-gooders.
Question – when the next SCAM Demic comes (China Flu 2.0), and we are all masking up and using hand SATAN izer (Sanitizer) again, will the sensors in the car NOT let us drive when
– The sensors smell hand SATAN izer and say ALCOHOL, NO ENGINE START!
– NO MASK, NO DRIVING!
And as a side note, maybe at some point car companies will become WOKE and the anti gun car companies will make it so their models have metal detectors that won’t let the car operate when there is an EVIL WEEPON inside…
This is all scary sheet!
Will there be an OVER RIDE Button for Government officials to the alcohol sensor? I bet there will be. RULES FOR THEE NOT FOR ME. How else will the politicians Ted Kennedy their mistress?
HEY GUMMINT! You wanna test for alcohol? How’s ’bout tuning that sensor to smell weed or tobacco smoke? How ’bout crack, coke, speed, or fentanyl? Maybe you could make a sensor that tests if you’re too tired or too angry to drive? Or one that determines of you’ve had too much Thanksgiving Day dinner at the in-laws house and you’re slipping into a food coma?
Since you insist on treating us like babies anyway, you should include one that can sniff out if our diapers need changing, too.
Just wait until TPTB decide that you’re guilty of wrong-think on social media, or made a donation to the wrong person or group, or your GPS showed at a Chik-Fil-A drive through. Then your car won’t start and you get a recording saying “This is strike one of three. Three strikes and your vehicle will be permanently disabled!”
Oops- posted in wrong string. Head over to Chips
“I foresee a rush towards the purchase of older cars which don’t contain computers of any description — until, of course, the government outlaws ownership thereof.”
“Cash For Clunkers 2” will solve that problem…. as will instructions to automatically fail inspection of any car over 5 years old.
Don’t know about your state, but in Texas I believe any car over 20 years old is exempt from emissions requirements.
For starters, thanks very much. Within a year this poxy idea will be implemented here in NZ once they see your lot get away with it.
I am conflicted on this idea. I grew up in the 60s and 70s in Sydney. My parents were very reluctant to go out on Saturday nights. It was dodgem city, you would see car wrecks every saturday night. Everyone knew someone who had been killed or maimed in a car accident, almost always involving someone being drunk behind the wheel.
One night, we three kids were loaded into the car and dragged over to dads bosses house for a BBQ. My mother couldn’t drive. For whatever reason, my father proceeded to get so pissed he had to lie down for a couple of hours. As he staggered (literally) out to the car, his workmates were giving him a hard time for being so weak. Not took his keys off him to stop him driving….
In Aus, random roadside breath testing was introduced in the early 80s. Overnight, the death toll on the roads went from thousands per year to hundreds, and continues to drop as cars improve.
RBT destroyed the pub scene in Aus. I could make more money playing in pubs three nights a week that I made in my day job. Over a couple of years it just collapsed as people stopped going out.
So, undoubtedly, tens of thousands of Aussies are alive or not maimed today as a direct result of RBT. They already have in car monitoring for repeat dui offenders.
From a libertarian perspective I see this as an outrage, but I suspect it’s only a question of time till ZERO alcohol becomes the norm for driving.
Your old car won’t save you. You’ll either be required to retrofit the system as a requirement for registration, or, once electric cars / Hydrogen cars become the norm, the cost of owning a petrol car will get cranked up the same way cigarettes have here. I don’t smoke, so I don’t care, but 2oz of tobacco here is something like NZ$75.00. A packet of Marlboro is maybe $30.00.
Premium unleaded here is just under us$6.00 per gallon. It is expected to double in five years to help drive take up of ultra low emission vehicles.
Welcome to the future….
If zero BAC will be the new standard, you will see bread and other simple carbohydrates disappear from markets as they produce too many false positives. I attended a lunch seminar on defending DUI cases a number of years ago, and the speaker, a lawyer specializing in those cases, demonstrated that eating white bread (of the Wonderbread or Barbara Ann variety, for Americans) got him over the limit on the breathalyzer test.
The only new electronic feature that I like is being able to connect my phone to the stereo in my truck so I can listen to music or podcasts.
Im sure the day will come when police can just press a button and every car in the area shuts off so they can go arrest someone while riding their segways.
Rush to the hospital? can’t do it due to a power governor on the engine or motor. Need to drive a long distance? nope can’t do that because it takes too long to recharge batteries that don’t hold enough charge for the trip. Instead you get herded into trains or plains that leave at a time not of your choosing. That controls freedom of movement.
JQ
“ seatbelt mandates have saved countless lives”
Countless is a good word here. As I recall, several studies have suggested that the net decrease in auto accident deaths attributable to mandatory seatbelts is one half the square root of fuck-all.
i will bite on this one
I own a non-computerized 1969 MGC GT that would be my sporty vehicle
The next would be the 1976 E100 Econoline van I owned in the 1980’s
And I have always had a hardon for 1969 Roadrunners
In elementary school, at about age 12-13, we were getting too rough playing “touch” football. So the females made us start to play soccer.
I don’t have to tell you that we sent just as many kids to the hospital playing soccer as we did playing American rules football.
They don’t understand that young male kids are simply going to find a way to blow off steam, one way or another.
I am 61 and I got this old by being cautious about other people. There are nuts out there, and I am nutty enough for the both of us, and don’t need another person to add their own crazy to the relationship. We can, of course, take turns, when needed.