DoT Proposes Mandating Vehicle-To-Vehicle Communications 261
schwit1 sends word that the Dept. of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has given notice of a proposal (PDF) for a new car safety standard that would require vehicle-to-vehicle communication equipment in all new passenger cars and light trucks. The NHTSA thinks this will facilitate the development of new safety software for vehicles. They estimate it could prevent over 500,000 crashes (PDF) each year. "Some crash warning V2V applications, like Intersection Movement Assist and Left Turn Assist, rely on V2V-based messages to obtain information to detect and then warn drivers of possible safety risks in situations where other technologies have less capability. ... NHTSA believes that V2V capability will not develop absent regulation, because there would not be any immediate safety benefits for consumers who are early adopters of V2V." The submitter notes that this V2V communication would include transmission of a vehicle's location, which comes with privacy concerns.
Re:Official Vehicles (Score:5, Interesting)
Instead they will configure the V2V so that cops can simply read your speedometer as you pass. No need for radar and no way to argue it in court.
Re:what could possibly go wrong? (Score:3, Interesting)
And no government official would every request a kill switch option.
Coming to a cell phone near you next year and in your car just a few years from now. lol
According to this [switched.com], it is already a "feature" of OnStar, just like the LEO ability to SILENTLY turn on the cabin microphone, which was (supposedly) outlawed by a Court decision [cnet.com], NOT because of privacy concerns, of course, (afterall, why should there be an "expectation of privacy" when having a conversation in your car with the windows up and the doors locked?), but because the designers of OnStar were so stupid they couldn't make the system do a manual override by the occupants in an emergency...
Re:Provisionally, I'm OK with this: (Score:3, Interesting)
If we could snap our fingers, and migrate every car in America to a driverless system with no driver interaction, we'd save thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. Want the enjoyment of driving? Go to a track. Public roads are for transportation from A to B.