Posted on 12/13/2008 10:16:55 AM PST by FocusNexus
OnStar, the unit behind General Motors' GPS-based in-vehicle security system, offers Stolen Vehicle Slowdown technology: An OnStar operator can send a signal to a vehicle, restricting its fuel and slowing it to 3-5 mph. The technology is available on about 1 million 2009 GM vehicles, OnStar spokesman Jim Kobus says.
Another company, Virginia Beach-based StarChase, is field-testing its Pursuit Management System. It's a launcher on the front of a police car that fires projectiles that stick on a fleeing vehicle targeted by laser, enabling police to track it by GPS.
The system, which has been tested by police in Columbus, Ohio, and Suffolk County, N.Y., is in final testing by the Los Angeles police, StarChase spokeswoman Mandy McCall says. "That kind of technology is exactly what we need," says Geoff Alpert, a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina. "One of the most powerful tools the police have is to turn off their lights and siren because the pursued suspect will slow down."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsfactor.com ...
The problem with this is obvious. As OnStar tracks your car, the police, government whoever can either direct them officially to release where have you been coming and going, and to top it off, can slow you down to almost stop - or corrupt government officials can pay off some OnStar employee to track someone's car.
The second approach, StarChase, where the police could fire something that would stick to the vehicle, so they can track it, makes sense. This is mentioned in this article. but was not mentioned on FoxNews, but that makes sense, focus on the criminals, not the innocent people.
Great. Another reason for some people not to buy GM. /sarc
In a related item, Fox News also announced the premier of “The Best of Last Week’s News”
To be broadcast 15 to 20 hours per week, whenever, as needed.
Sod off GM!No more Big Brother Mobiles for me,
Will they be getting warrants to get Onstar to interfere? If not, unconstitutional.
I can see this causing accidents.
“Great. Another reason for some people not to buy GM. /sarc”
And another reason to let GM go bankrupt.
Older cars will become more valuable, as soon it will be impossible to avoid these kinds of privacy-invading gagets on new cars.
One other thing, in addition to the invasion of privacy, what if the system malfunctions, unexpectedly slows the car down, which will result in an accident. You could get killed on a freeway suddenly slowing down — cars could pile into you in seconds, since nobody expects someone in front of them to slow down to 3-5 miles per hour for no visible reason.
I was driving a GM Saturn product from Phoenix to Yuma, AZ. The speed limit on I10 is 75mph. After driving three hours at the speed limit, I passed a truck that was spewing particles from its bin. When I passed 80mph, OnStar phoned me to tell me I was speeding. LOL, safety first. Driver’s good move, second.
Most high speed chases result in accidents. This can control the high speed factor.
“Will they be getting warrants to get Onstar to interfere? If not, unconstitutional.”
The current plan, as described, is that they will use it only AFTER the car is reported stolen, so whoever has it, is in process of committing a crime, so the police has the right to stop them.
BUT... the implications for other uses is obvious.
Also, I bet most car chases do not involve stolen cars.
I disconnected mine, wired in a out of the blue circuit that any attempt to steal my Silverado it will die immediately when you apply the brake.
At the very I would have a discrete switch for the Onstar microphone, it has been used to listen in on a drug deal once.
Did you tell onstar mind their own damn business?
OnStar cannot stop my car at all.
“When I passed 80mph, OnStar phoned me to tell me I was speeding. LOL, safety first. Driver’s good move, second.”
Is this for real? It really happened to you?
If so, it’s awful. I suppose you should be glad OnStar didn’t call the police on you.
“Why don’t the forces of the dark side just get on with the brain implants , that allow not only for tracking , but behavior control and if needed , Ctrl-Alt-Delete of non- conforming subjects .”
How did you know? It’s part of Obama’s “change”. (/sarc — but not as far in the future, as one would think.)
I saw they are already using chips to track people, they aren’t putting them into the brain...YET.
FoxNews had a special, I only caugh part of it, that they have chips that can be implanted, then used as “badges” for entry/exit, AND can have your personal data, including medical history, which can be read by a device within a certain distance and it will all pop up on a computer.
+1. I’ll just hang on to my 17-year-old import until it rusts in half.
I did.
...except for super-nerds, who will be effectively invincible in the future.
Along that same line...
I’m a member of Sports Car Club of America. In one of the regular columns in our regional newsletter, the author gets one of the latest and greatest new cars and takes it for a few laps around a road course. One month they had a Cadillac CTS-V for testing.
There is a turn on the track that has pretty severe elevation changes; cars get really light going past the apex and can bottom out as they exit. The first time they take this turn at speed, OnStar calls asking if they’ve been in an accident.
Over the course of several laps, they got about three or four more calls.
Nothing can go wrong. Nothing can go wrong.Nothing can go wrong, especially at highway speeds while passing an 18 wheeler.
I assure you it's true. It was the only time I exceeded the 75mph speed limit in the 6 or so hours of interstate driving from Phoenix to Yuma and back.
Rather than wasting money on such technology, I vote for Hell Fire missiles for every police heliopter. Don’t stop for the police become a moving target! I predict that after these are deployed there will be a large reduction in the number of stolen car police chases and no repeat offenders.
“I assure you it’s true. It was the only time I exceeded the 75mph speed limit in the 6 or so hours of interstate driving from Phoenix to Yuma and back.”
It is absolutely amazing!
“Most high speed chases result in accidents.”
Huh?
I outrun them all the time. Never had an accident.
It’s great fun!
“Rather than wasting money on such technology, I vote for Hell Fire missiles for every police heliopter. Don’t stop for the police become a moving target! I predict that after these are deployed there will be a large reduction in the number of stolen car police chases and no repeat offenders.”
Exactly. After a couple of such incidents, shown on TV, there would be no more need for this, as criminals would think twice, before trying to outrun the police.
But the current society is more concerned with the rights of criminals, than the rights of innocents.
That's ridiculous. They'd have to have a dedicated line for me. Besides that, on the interstate, if you aren't at minimum 5 MPH over, you are impeding the flow of traffic.
“Great. Another reason for some people not to buy GM...”
Unless this encroachment on our rights can be defeated electronically on the vehicle, or controlled by the vehicle owner, I would not/will not buy a GM vehicle equipped with OnStar.
I have been considering a luxury car purchase - not Cadillac w/OnStar - likely a Mercedes, Jaguar or BMW. No Japanese cars on general principle.
Law enforcement can listen remotely to your conversations via OnStar without your knowledge or approval.
Wait till some municipalities try to get access to OnStar and use that data for revenue enhancement. Sort of the ultimate speed-trap with a ticket in the mail. I bet that's coming.
You want to argue with my life experiences? That's refreshing.
You really need to read up on the law and the Constitution. There is such a thing as exigent circumstances. A criminal using deadly force against the public (Attempting to outrun the police with a 2000 lb vehicle is deadly force) then officers have a right to stop the vehicle.
What I meant was what OnStar did was ridiculous.
I believe you.
“Law enforcement can listen remotely to your conversations via OnStar without your knowledge or approval.”
Many people don’t realize that if you cell phone has a battery in it (even if it is off) it can also be used as an intercom by the cops. Also, every cell phone made in the last few years has a GPS locator in it. (for 911 of course) - so they already know where you are and can hear you talking. oh, and don’t worry, it takes a warrant for them to listen to the recording the phone service provider makes of all of your calls. /tinfoil
Do they have the right to use a corporation to stop the vehicle?
“Wait till some municipalities try to get access to OnStar and use that data for revenue enhancement. Sort of the ultimate speed-trap with a ticket in the mail. I bet that’s coming. “
it probably IS coming, but the car rental agencies tried it for awhile a few years back and thankfully it was overturned. A couple people got some HUGE speeding fines from the rental agencies themselves.
Freegards,
Z
“That’s ridiculous. They’d have to have a dedicated line for me.”
They are tracking all cars all the time automatically, they probably have settings that alerts them if the car is speeding, or makes a sharp turn ( as someone mentioned further up, in a post), or abrupt stop, etc., then a human looks at it and calls.
“Note to oneself, do not use a vehicle with Onstar if one wishes to defend the Constitution. Or use a handy tool first. “
many of these new “nanny” systems are being built into the ECU and cannot be bypassed. I’m sure eventually people will find a way, such as they did with the ECU programmer chips you can buy from JET etc. but many are no longer a fuse type system. B@stards.
“Law enforcement can listen remotely to your conversations via OnStar without your knowledge or approval.”
I think I read that somewhere too. I think OnStar has basically an open mike in the car, then OnStar can listen in. As for the police, they probably can do it, but it’s illegal.
The aftermarket GPS units don't have tracking ability.
I did read an article the other day, on a device in Britain, which plugs into the cigarette lighter and is a little GPS jammer, with about 20 foot range. something like that with a cell phone jammer as well would solve alot of these issues, and would be portable to rental cars as well. you’d want one you could switch off for when YOU were on the phone, although personally, I’d like to see cell phone jammers activate the moment a car is shifted into “drive”. (but only for the children dontchaknow)
“The aftermarket GPS units don’t have tracking ability. “
I like the “cut the antenna” idea.
I know that they are getting more and more into the “black box” mentality with newer cars. storing the last few minutes worth of driving data (possibly from the ABS systems). I wonder how long until they are storing the last few hours of data, including gps locations ?
That said, I think the Feds used similar legal basis to listen to Blago and his "friends".
Unhook the freaking antenna. Problem solved.
Another problem is that it'll be about 'A New York Minute' before the OnStar GPS tracking is used in ... a Divorce Case. Just like the Tollway pass boxes - in IL its 'I-Pass' - divorce lawyers will be subpoenaing GPS records for evidence.
I recall when the Tollway Boxes first came out in IL, the public was *assured* their tollway records would remain private. It took ONE JUDGE to rule otherwise and then the lid was off.
“I know that they are getting more and more into the “black box” mentality with newer cars.”
One that people don’t know about is the new cars will tell the red light cameras if you aren’t wearing a seat belt.
I know a guy that made a right turn against the red legally and the camera flashed.
He went around the block two times and it did the same thing.\\He got 3 tickets in the mail.
He went to court and explained what had happened to the judge ans said that the cameras had to be wrong that he had made 3 right turns against the red legally.
The judge told him that he wasn;t cited for red light violation but for noy having his seat belt buckeled and that his truck had reported the infeaction to the camera.
Since he had done 3 times within 10 minutes nd that it was his third violation his fine was increased to $1,000.
holy carp! I had NOT heard of that. I wonder what communications model it is using (ex. bluetooth?) and how much more is programmed into it that just isn’t being “reported” yet. sonsabitches.
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