The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will make a decision before the end of this year as to whether or not to begin a rulemaking process to mandate that all newly manufactured automobiles include “vehicle-to-vehicle” (V2V) communications technology.
NHTSA sees this technology as just the first step leading to fully automated vehicles navigated by internal electronics linked to external infrastructure, communications and database systems. Of course, their argument is that V2V, could at some point in the future be used to totally eliminate the need for a human driver, thus making travel safer while allowing the occupants to have more leisure time to devote to such things as naps or playing with their smart phones.
The Obama administration says the government has ‘no plans’ to track driver’s movements even if NHTSA does decide to make the V2V technology mandatory. But, given the lack of Obama’s credibility, that assurance rings hollow. What Obama didn’t say and hopes you don’t question is why the government wants a V2V system in your car in the first place.
One month after Obama named Ray LaHood as Transportation Secretary, LaHood told the AP that “we should look at the vehicular miles program where people are actually clocked on the number of miles that they travel.” And even as the Obama administration assured us that he had no intention of taxing people on the miles they drove, LaHood announced the DOT’s version of Agenda 21, the “livability initiative” to force people into “sustainable development.” This initiative was, according to LaHood “a way to coerce people out of their cars.”
In October 2011, the Department of Transportation published a plan for researching the “safety” applications of this V2V, along with a summary of the information it could transmit from your vehicle – to include the time, location, heading, speed, acceleration, headlight and turn signal status, number of occupants in the car, etc.
The V2V connectivity will allow an unknown range of parties from automakers, software developers, police, NSA, to the FBI, access to such information. Because few U.S. laws govern these issues, consumers will have little control over who can see this data and how it will be used.
Many cars already have black boxes that record their speed, direction and gear setting, as well as when brakes activate and for how long. Newer systems also can track whether road surfaces are slick or whether the driver is wearing a seat belt, information potentially valuable to police and insurance companies investigating crashes. Some insurance companies like Progressive already monitor driving behavior in exchange for discounted rates.
Just as with the use of license plate scanners, V2V technology could allow the police [and govenrment] to create a “single, high-resolution image of our lives.” According to the ALCU, this constant monitoring “can chill the exercise of our cherished rights to free speech and association,” opening the door to abusive tracking, enabling anyone with access to pry into the lives of his boss, his ex-wife, or his romantic, political, or workplace rivals.”
“Right now we’re in an environment where there are no rules, there are no limits, there are no consequences and there is no transparency,” said Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy advocacy group. “Most people who are operating a motor vehicle have no idea this technology is integrated into their vehicle.”
