Black box in your car? Some see source of tax revenue

It's not bad enough that when you buy a vehicle you are taxed, when you purchase license tabs, gasoline, items for the vehicle and more you are again repeatedly taxed. Now congress and the states want or are considering requiring a black box to rat you out on the miles you drive as well with an eye on taxing that. Give me a break.

A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue

The devices would track every mile you drive —possibly including your location — and the government would use the data to draw up a tax bill.

WASHINGTON — As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.

The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads.

The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.

Libertarians support this? I don't think so. This is just another nanny state grab at your pocketbook.

reply to post by Bassago


Insurance companies here in the UK are offering a discount, if you install their device, more spying, more surveillance, and as you say, it will lead to more tax, when does the human body chip arrive?

reply to post by biggm


Isn't that how it always starts? First it's "voluntary" you get a discount, etc.

Then it becomes mandatory. All new vehicles eventually have these built right in pre-programmed for the state. Freedom of unencumbered travel will also become a thing of the past.

You're right though, maybe just jam a chip in our heads to track us everywhere and they can just calculate the time and distance spent on the roads and send us a bill. I'm sure it will also be voluntary at first.

reply to post by biggm


Your human chip has already arrived. You just don't know it's in you already Do a search on ats for nano particles in food and water. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

reply to post by Bassago


Think of our corrupt government officials at ALL levels (local, state and federal) as drug addicts.

They have taxed, taxed and taxed, to support their habit.

Now that their habit of spending has become and issue, because they are spending more than they are taking in, they have to resort to stealing. The problem lies with the fact that their habits have created many victims that they never considered their behavior to effect.

I say it is time for an INTERVENTION.......

seeker1963
reply to post by Bassago

 

Think of our corrupt government officials at ALL levels (local, state and federal) as drug addicts.

They have taxed, taxed and taxed, to support their habit.

Now that their habit of spending has become and issue, because they are spending more than they are taking in, they have to resort to stealing. The problem lies with the fact that their habits have created many victims that they never considered their behavior to effect.

I say it is time for an INTERVENTION.......

The overlords of our dear chicago gangster like President have discovered that they can steal as much as they want and no one does anything about it. hence this new income source to finance their outrageous lifestyle with hundred million dollar mansions and billion dollar yachts.

So caugh up the doe and bend over for the thank you for letting you keep a small scrap of money to feed your children...

These black boxes are already in your newer cars, and with a non tamper odometer, most of this data is readily available. With more memory, they can look at average throttle position, cornering g- forces, braking, etc, etc, with gps overlay the data will be used against you in ways that you have not even thought of.on star, and others do even more. This is right in line with cell phones and tablet tracking and data logging. Our government wants complete control, little by little they are getting it......

reply to post by Bassago


Yeah the Libertarian part had me stumped as well.

Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.

Bullspit. This articles looks more like a propaganda piece to help sway hearts and minds that this would somehow be a good idea.

GEICO is the company offering a discount to drivers using their little black boxes. Remember that GEICO stands for Government Employees Insurance Company. Hmmmm....coincidence?
It's inevitably going to happen. Too easily exploited as a source of tax revenue.
You can add that to your gas tax, your tire tax, highway tolls, construction bonds and hybrid tax.
I just bought a new Prius and had to pay a $400 tax because it gets 90 mpg.
Almost makes it a moot point to drive an electric car.

reply to post by Asktheanimals


Progressive also has one ATA.....

Can I just sign up for a daily anal probing instead?











PS: How many months after mandatory instillation does every alphabet agency ask for unfettered access to the database. Or do they just ask for the data from n s a?

reply to post by Asktheanimals


That is precisely the point of why the next truck I buy will be a pre-1990 version with a straight 6 engine and a 2 bbl carburetor. Anyone comes near it with a black box is gonna get smacked. No smart phones, tablets or body chips allowed either.

Toll booths are going to be a problem though.

boncho
Can I just sign up for a daily anal probing instead?

Nice! You can if they ever get the web site fixed.
2nd - black box

reply to post by Bassago


The more taxes we spend, the less money we have for necessities, the more we require government assistance. How people cannot understand this boggles my mind.

as two members have already mentioned it is already here.

the technology is already in the cars, how do think that Progressive can do what they claim with their snapshot.
hell they don't even hide the name. just like taking a snapshot of your hard drive they take one of your car's ECM through the odb port.

How Snapshot® Works
Plug a little device into your car and within 30 days, you could save big!

The better you drive, the more you save with Snapshot, our revolutionary usage-based insurance program. Sign up today during your auto quote, and we'll send you everything you need to start saving.
Plug in.

The Snapshot device plugs easily into your car's diagnostic port (usually below the steering column) and automatically keeps track of your good driving.
Drive.

Drive like you usually do for 30 days and go online to see your projected savings, as well as:

how often you slam on the brakes;
how many miles you drive;
and how often you drive between midnight and 4 a.m.

Get a personalized rate.

Any Snapshot discount you earn kicks in immediately. So, you can start saving right away! Then, you'll stay plugged in for five more months to set your ongoing renewal discount.
Why not try it?

Switch to Progressive today and start Snapshot as a customer. Or, take a 30-day test drive first; then, decide if you want to switch. Either way, signing up for Snapshot is free.
How Snapshot® Works

all they have to do is add wifi and all those call boxes on the side of the roads, can track you most any where you drive.

reply to post by Bassago


The ability to drive the car remotely is totally feasible. It only requires a backdoor into the car computer/controller.

You have to assume US intelligence has this. The only question is when the start lending it to local law enforcement.

The only real reason that insurance companies want black boxes in vehicles is to get out of paying for any claims whatsoever. It used to be called"cop in the cab". Just imagine if you had one fitted it would tell the insurances how well you drive but it would also give them and the police sure fire evidence if you were not driving correctly. Now how many of you drive perfectly 100% of the time? Eg. a couple of miles over the speed limit, maybe erratic steering and breaking heavy could be construed as unsafe driving. Any like these could be used against you to negate your insurance or help to prove your guilt in any traffic incident. This leads to a very, very deep rabbit hole.

InverseLookingGlass
reply to post by Bassago

 

The ability to drive the car remotely is totally feasible. It only requires a backdoor into the car computer/controller.

You have to assume US intelligence has this. The only question is when the start lending it to local law enforcement.

you are 100% correct and i think that they are probably already there. there are two car makers that i know of that have cars that can park themselves. ford and lexus, you see more and more advertisements for car with collision avoidance systems. both of these systems involve steering and braking and i would assume throttle control for the parking mode.

like i said with the addition of wifi, which some already have, to to hard to take over a car at all.

Bassago
It's not bad enough that when you buy a vehicle you are taxed, when you purchase license tabs, gasoline, items for the vehicle and more you are again repeatedly taxed. Now congress and the states want or are considering requiring a black box to rat you out on the miles you drive as well with an eye on taxing that. Give me a break.

A black box in your car? Some see a source of tax revenue

The devices would track every mile you drive —possibly including your location — and the government would use the data to draw up a tax bill.

WASHINGTON — As America's road planners struggle to find the cash to mend a crumbling highway system, many are beginning to see a solution in a little black box that fits neatly by the dashboard of your car.

The devices, which track every mile a motorist drives and transmit that information to bureaucrats, are at the center of a controversial attempt in Washington and state planning offices to overhaul the outdated system for funding America's major roads.

The usually dull arena of highway planning has suddenly spawned intense debate and colorful alliances. Libertarians have joined environmental groups in lobbying to allow government to use the little boxes to keep track of the miles you drive, and possibly where you drive them — then use the information to draw up a tax bill.

Libertarians support this? I don't think so. This is just another nanny state grab at your pocketbook.

They talked about this in the UK the plan was to drop fuel tax and tax you for your mileage that way people who wear out the road Ie drive more miles pay more than people who don't.

The main problem with remotely taking over one car is that you have to factor in the other vehicles around you so if the car you want is in the middle of a pack all doing 60 mph in the middle lane you cant suddenly just tell the car to swing over and slow down without causing potentially serious loss of life (unless thats the aim)

but GPS tracking and other stuff is already here and must be easy as whenever they need to trace a cars location on NCIS guess what McGee spends 2 mins and can trace everything from the factory to the crime scene