Could pay-per-mile lead to the state automating speeding tickets?

[Unidentified 2,930]

7 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

Why not simply require motorists to report the mileage they drive annually, or quarterly?  No sure I want any form of a government tracking device in my car.  Regardless, I am sure if they actually attempt to move forward with this, they will face legal challenges.

Then how would they be able to see if you were speeding? 

[Unidentified 2,930]

7 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

The main reason for this "tracking" device is to record the mileage driven with respect to assessing road taxes.  The author and others in this thread are only speculating on the slippery slope aspect of any government putting a tracking device in a personal vehicle.  If we want to make driving safer, why not simply restrict all cars to a maximum speed of 15 mph regardless and make that a regulatory requirement for all car makers.  Requiring a vehicle owner to purposefully put a government tracking device in a vehicle is wrong in many ways, but mostly, it is just another invasion of privacy.  If the state of Washington wants to increase their road taxes since revenues are falling because of increased fuel economy, then require the owners to self report the mileage.  This can be done online, would most likely take just a few minutes, and not require a big brother device in anyone's car.

 

As to government recording anyone in their home, I think Amazon is already taking care of that with Alexa.

So we're all going to go at 15mph on the roads and never get to where we're going?

 

Alexa is not monitoring you. It is only checking for the wake-up word. It is recording a few seconds of sounds each time scanning for the wake up word, if the word is not in there the recording is thrown away. It is only sent to Amazon once the wake up word and your command has been recorded. Then it's being sent to Amazon, processed and you'll get a reply to your question/command. If I am not mistaken you can delete this recording from your Alexa app at any time. 

[Unidentified 2,930]

3 hours ago, Umka36 said:

Don't even need that if we go with the path of automated cars. Why the need to drive right?

I am never trusting an automated car. Tesla autopilot? Crashed. Automated cars from both Uber and Google has crashed. 

[Dashinka 25,516]

9 minutes ago, Unidentified said:

Then how would they be able to see if you were speeding? 

The entire point of the OP was that Washington State wants to track mileage to assess a road tax based on miles driven.  The entire discussion regarding using this for traffic enforcement is just speculation.  

[Dashinka 25,516]

7 minutes ago, Unidentified said:

So we're all going to go at 15mph on the roads and never get to where we're going?

 

Alexa is not monitoring you. It is only checking for the wake-up word. It is recording a few seconds of sounds each time scanning for the wake up word, if the word is not in there the recording is thrown away. It is only sent to Amazon once the wake up word and your command has been recorded. Then it's being sent to Amazon, processed and you'll get a reply to your question/command. If I am not mistaken you can delete this recording from your Alexa app at any time. 

I was being farscical regarding the 15mph thing.  As to Alexa, if it is listening for a wake-up word, how do you know anything else said is not recorded, or how do we know it is not hackable technology?  Like anything else done online, it is probably saved somewhere.

[Unidentified 2,930]

3 hours ago, bcking said:

That would be the ultimate and would render all of this moot.

 

If cars communicated with each other they could factor in following distance, automated reaction times (much quicker than humans), weather, road conditions and could change speeds as needed.

 

We'd probably end up with faster average speeds since their reaction times and an adequate following distance would make it safer.

Self driving cars suck just look at Uber and Google. Volvo claims to have a bunch of avoidance systems, they fail. My car has Eyesight which is pretty much a system giving me extra eyes on the road. Great for noticing if the car in front of me suddenly slows down. Sucks when it comes to sensing cars around me and overreacts for nothing. 

 

People are trusting these automated systems way too much. 

[Unidentified 2,930]

7 minutes ago, Bill & Katya said:

I was being farscical regarding the 15mph thing.  As to Alexa, if it is listening for a wake-up word, how do you know anything else said is not recorded, or how do we know it is not hackable technology?  Like anything else done online, it is probably saved somewhere.

It is not saved unless you use the Alexa word. 

[bcking 3,157]

39 minutes ago, Unidentified said:

I am never trusting an automated car. Tesla autopilot? Crashed. Automated cars from both Uber and Google has crashed. 

Yet you trust humans? How often do they crash?

 

Nothing has to be 100% fail proof. Just has to be better than current practices. 

 

Automated cars will also always have more difficulty when there are a mixture of automated and non automated. The shift will be hardest. Once they are all automated on the road they can all communicate and use safer behaviors.

 

Just like good human drivers, automated cars can't fix stupid drivers.

[Unidentified 2,930]

5 minutes ago, bcking said:

Yet you trust humans? How often do they crash?

 

Nothing has to be 100% fail proof. Just has to be better than current practices. 

 

Automated cars will also always have more difficulty when there are a mixture of automated and non automated. The shift will be hardest. Once they are all automated on the road they can all communicate and use safer behaviors.

 

Just like good human drivers, automated cars can't fix stupid drivers.

Even in testing with not even surrounded by stupid drivers they crash. Just look at Volvo and their testing of their automated pedestrian breaking.... I think humans are better if they were better educated and that there were stronger penalties for driving like an idiot.  Right now people get away with some really stupid . Even the DUI limits are a joke here. 

[TBoneTX 47,048]

Driving Instructor:  "So when you need to stop, you put on the brakes."

Student:  "What?!  The brakes weren't already installed on the car?"

Edited April 7, 2018 by TBoneTX

[Dashinka 25,516]

12 hours ago, bcking said:

Yet you trust humans? How often do they crash?

 

Nothing has to be 100% fail proof. Just has to be better than current practices. 

 

Automated cars will also always have more difficulty when there are a mixture of automated and non automated. The shift will be hardest. Once they are all automated on the road they can all communicate and use safer behaviors.

 

Just like good human drivers, automated cars can't fix stupid drivers.

You realize the shift may take anywhere from 20-50 years.

[bcking 3,157]

2 hours ago, Bill & Katya said:

You realize the shift may take anywhere from 20-50 years.

And? That's not very long in the grand scheme of things.

 

A system for human driving cars to transmit their driving speed would not only make enforcement of laws easier, but the automated cars could also receive local speed information from cars in front of and behind them, and could help their decision making trees regarding speed and following distance.

[Dashinka 25,516]

1 hour ago, bcking said:

And? That's not very long in the grand scheme of things.

 

A system for human driving cars to transmit their driving speed would not only make enforcement of laws easier, but the automated cars could also receive local speed information from cars in front of and behind them, and could help their decision making trees regarding speed and following distance.

While I agree that some autonomous features can be very beneficial, I am still skeptical the human programmers will be able to comprehend every situation that may be encountered for a level 5 vehicle.  I understand that they still have tough times with inclement weather, and unpaved roads, and as we have already seen, they sometimes have a tough time distinguishing pedestrians in the roadway.  Beyond that, there will be a lot of people that simply will not accept them, so unless there are government requirements that all cars are level 4 or 5 autonomous, there will still be a lot of human driven cars on the road.