The People's Republic of California: GPS tracking on all cars.

[wacki]

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/...in674120.shtml

HTS Member writes "California has a new excuse for more taxes. Claiming losses due to fuel-efficient cars, such as Gasoline/Electric Hybrids, California is cooking-up a new system to punish people who aren't using enough gasoline. They want to tax commuters by the mile. How would this be accomplished? By requiring everyone to install a GPS device in their vehicle, and charge them their "taxes" every time they fuel-up. From the article: 'Drivers will get charged for how many miles they use the roads, and it's as simple as that.. [a] team at Oregon State University equipped a test car with a global positioning device to keep track of its mileage. Eventually, every car would need one.'"

Of course, all sorts of privacy/eco issues are raised with this measure.

[Il_Mostro]

[img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]
land of the free, indeed.

This is some scary stuff.

[jaxmike]

California needs to scrap their Constitution and write a new one. Theirs simply does not work.

[sam h]

Probability of this passing = 0%

Still, a pretty frightening and idiotic proposal.

[natedogg]

Proposed by a democrat, the party that supposedly promotes personal liberty compared to the evil republicans.

natedogg

[BCPVP]

Did you need additional proof that California is a screwed up state?

[MMMMMM]

Something similar was proposed in the UK for London (and perhaps a greater region?)--perhaps a year ago--I posted on it at the time--don't know anything more about it at present.

[nicky g]

I understand the privacy concerns with this, but otherwise what's the problem? Charging you by how much you use something, if technoligically feasible, is a much better idea than charging everyone the same flat rate for unlimited access. Someone who uses the raod 5 times as much as someone else should pay more for its upkeep.

[Il_Mostro]

[ QUOTE ]
I understand the privacy concerns with this, but otherwise what's the problem?

[/ QUOTE ]
Apart from the privacy problems it's not really bad, no. But the idea to have a gps in every car so that some sort of agency can check exactly where you are at all times is scary.

[nicky g]

Yes. If it could be guaranteed that such information would only be used for road pricing purposes it would be OK, but such guarantees are often circumvented in practice. There are probably better ways to run road pricing schemes.