Big Brother Taking Another Step

Creep Press ^ | 10/9/07 | Mike Wedland

[School of Rational Thought]

OnStar technology can stop fleeing vehicle October 9, 2007

BY MIKE WENDLAND

Convergence Editor and Technology Columnist

OnStar has announced a bold new technology that can activate at the request of law enforcement and bring a high speed chase to a rapid halt by disconnecting the accelerator of a stolen vehicle.

OnStar’s new Stolen Vehicle Slowdown is being hailed by police and emergency responders as a major safety tool that will help save lives. There are more than 30,000 high speed chases in the U.S. each year, resulting in some 300 fatalities. The technology will be introduced on 1.7 million GM models starting next year. I got a sneak peek at how it works at the General Motors Proving Grounds in Milford. Here’s a special edition of the Techcast that shows you how it works:

[Wolfie]

Give it time. Freedom is always lost bit by bit, never in one fell swoop.

[M. Dodge Thomas]

A better description of the system:

http://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/GM+and+OnStar+Create+Technology+to+Help+Save+Lives/3011537.html

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

No, it is what you want law enforcement to do.

Big Brother is not law enforcement, it is tyrannical oppression of the law-abiding.

For a few criminals, they are employing a technology that can be used against everyone.

That’s the same argument the gun-grabbers use to try to take firearms away from the law-abiding.

Never get into bed with Big Brother, even if he smiles and promises you flowers in the morning.

[IronJack]

I foresaw this when I first heard about LoJack. I suspect there's a fortune waiting out there for anyone who can bypass this abomination and reprogram the engine management chip to keep the car running.

I also think citizens should be working on a disrupter "for the Rest of Us" so that we have the same weaponry against the police that they have against us.

Nothing will turn America into a totalitarian state faster than an overwhelming police presence, and a vast differential between the powers of the governed and the powers of the governors.

[Brilliant]

If you see Black Helicopters everywhere, then I suppose you want to ban helicopters. Personally, I do not. Maybe we should ban cop cars, or take away their guns. Maybe we should simply eliminate the police altogether.

Personally, I am less concerned about the cops coming after me than I am about the thugs.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Sounds like you missed my point.

I’m not against law enforcement as long as it is within the purview of our system of jurisprudence and that it abides by our constitution.

Big Brother supersedes (stomps) all of these aspects of law and order that I support, not for our protection, but to control us.

[School of Rational Thought]

What about your grandkids?

The is a question of the principle of freedom. It is shortsighted to limit it to your immediate perspective.

[suijuris]

Putting criminals in jail is precisely the kind of thing I want Big Brother to do.

Yea, now all we have to do is make of few changes to the definition of criminal (e.g. hate speach; political disenters, whatever) and we will have a safe utopian society.

[bikerman]

Edwards and others are waiting in the Shadow's for someone to hit the wrong number and turn off the wrong car hope its not you.

[darkangel82]

Just wait till Hillary takes office.

[Brilliant]

I did not miss your point. I’m just saying that not everything the cops do is a suppression of your rights. I don’t mind if the cops are able to disable a fleeing vehicle using Northstar. I can’t see how this technology would hurt law abiding citizens. Law abiding citizens pull over when the cop flashes his lights anyway.

[BohDaThone]

But if this is by contract between you and OnStar, where is big brother? If some tech genius put this on his own car, who could possibly complain?

Here is the quote from the OnStart promo that someone posted above:

OnStar subscribers have the choice to opt-out of the Stolen Vehicle Slowdown service at any time by contacting OnStar if they prefer not to have this capability on their vehicle. This will not affect the rest of their OnStar services.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

I agree with your last point, which is why I don’t think we need this technology in the general population.

The overwhelming majority of gun owners are responsible and safe. That’s why we don’t need more restrictive gun laws. We need to keep the bad guys in cages and give the citizenry the right to defend themselves so as to deter potential criminals.

[Ghost of Philip Marlowe]

Indeed. You’re absolutely correct. And I’d never by OnStar knowing that they were implementing such technology.

I was extrapolating for the sake of argument and to analyze the potential ramifications of such technology, much of which usually branches out of the “voluntarily contracted” realm into the regulatory realm.

Case in point, satellite technology was never meant to keep an eye on the citizenry. We’ve found out that it does. It was also never meant to produce traffic tickets remotely. WA and OR states are using or are planning to use satellite technology to issue speeding tickets to the owners of vehicles if their vehicles are clocked speeding.

[meyer]

If the time comes that they do then it will mean we have lost our freedoms anyway.

With all due respect, we've lost a great deal of freedom over the last two decades. Unfortunately, I expect this trend to continue.

[Robert DeLong]

List the freedoms you perceive we have lost over the last 2 decades. While there have been several attempts to strip Americans of freedoms, usually always by the left, I can think of no freedoms I have lost.