Not hardly. It would be easy. On new cars off the assembly line it would be easy to integrate it with existing electronics. Existing cars bolt on a GPS receiver and ram chip somewhere in the undercarriage with a lock-out/tag-out. Run a USB port to the dash or under the hood. Total size would be smaller than a pack of cigarettes.
In many States when you register your car they give it a quick "safety" inspection already, in my county it's emissions checks every six months. Add in plugging a netbook or handheld mobile PC into that USB port to read the mileage off the GPS.
Track when the GPS was installed, and if you don't get one installed you can't register your car so it's illegal to drive it on public roads. GPS serial number gets tagged with the car's VIN number. Further check by comparing GPS mileage with OD mileage. If they don't match or are outside small margin of error (due to GPS reception) then an exemption is filled and you get to pay more to have a replacement GPS installed.
Give me a month and I could get all that developed in prototype including interface software and database to house the information, using existing off the shelf hardware.
Later on "upgrades" could include routes traveled, travel time, stop time, average speed, stop time, engine running time....all things current GPS will do. Could easily add that to the interface software but development time would go to say six months.
Now I'm not going to do that job no matter how much they pay me, but I'm sure someone will.
Evrything you decribe is currently in use, exacly as you describe it - trucking companies, among others, use it.
In some cases they even monitor engine performance live, and adjust parameters based on terrain, etc.
>>>> Not hardly. It would be easy. <<<<<
An immigration tracking system is also “easy”. That’s why the feds have been trying to build one for 10+ years. Unsuccessfully.
A case management system for the FBI is also “easy”. That’s why the feds have been trying to build one for 15+ years. Unsuccessfully.
When I say impossible I don;t mean “impossible on a small scale” or even “impossible for a competent private company on a large/massive scale”. There are several GPS tracking services out there right now.
What I do mean is “impossible for the feds”.
I wasn’t clear about that before.
>>>> Add in plugging a netbook or handheld mobile PC into that USB port to read the mileage off the GPS. <<<<
I don’t understand why you’d need a GPS for this.
You’re reading mileage from a static vehicle, just as we’ve been doing with odometers for the last 50 years.
What’s the point of having a GPS?