"No more speeding?"

[Kojak]

Check this link out. Our neighbors to the north are trying to eliminate speeding....

http://autos.aol.com/article/_a/star-wars-speed-trap/20060126172809990001

[Mac]

Looks well-intentioned, and maybe could be successful in areas without highly concentrated roadways.....but it would be difficult to implement (and probably real buggy) in major metro areas with a lot of roadways close together. The GPS system, as it currently stands, is accurate to around 3-5 meters (9-15 ft.) about 95% of the time - but multipath, areas of poor signal reception (urban canyons, tunnels, narrow mountain roads and/or tree-covered roads with a minimal view of the sky) and other problems can really play havoc with the accuracy. If you go into an area where you only have 2D reception, the position error can be in the hundreds of feet. What happens if you're driving in the #1 lane of a 70 mph freeway and the GPS suddenly "decides" that you're really driving on the 35 mph frontage road which is 80 ft. off to your side?

There's also an issue in the accuracy of the maps used. Most georeferenced street-level maps are derived from aerial and/or satellite photos, and there's an inherent degree of inaccuracy in them - not huge, but it's there. Not a big problem in rural areas, but when you get into tightly gridded cities, it could create some issues...not to mention the Herculean task of keeping the maps continuously upgraded in areas which are experiencing rapid growth! Until all the streets are surveyed using sub-meter accuracy equipment and a consumer-level GPS receiver is capable of producing sub-meter geolocation, I think this system will remain "vaporware". Sub-meter accuracy IS currently available - but the equipment is prohibitively expensive, very bulky, and requires that it be left stationary in relation to a fixed reference point for long periods of time to produce those results. This system might work well in a place like Ottawa, or maybe Montana/Idaho/Wyoming here in the U.S. - but for high-concentration places like L.A., San Diego, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, etc. - fuggedaboutit.

[dw]

Lets just assume for a minute something like this gets adopted.

Anyone care to take wagers on how long before the system is hacked/chipped?

[uoplax13]

No kidding....wouldn't be long before someone hacked it, and had the power to wreck just about every car out there, create a huge mess, etc....

[Mac]

I wouldn't so much picture some "3L337 h4XX0R" sitting at a keyboard bringing the whole nation to a halt as I would just a lot of general frustration and intermittent, regionalized problems with the system.

[ace553]

good point mac... my nav unit does that to me in a non-congested environment without trees, etc. It just considers me on the frontage road. As far as the system goes, big business with pull in washington that would lose big money (tires,gas, etc.) wouldn't allow it in my opinion

[junebughunter]

A little off Topic but the first line of the article is "Like tearing off that sticker on mattresses that warns us not to "under penalty of law"

Are people really so lazy that they don't read the second line that says "except by the consumer" or maybe people don't understand what an exception is.

It just gets on my nerves that it is so common to quote those tags yet nobody seems to have actually read one entirely...