llbbl
11-21-2004, 08:08 AM
They track your every move...
You need not be anywhere close to a collision, really. During one road test this summer, it was just a matter of running a routine slalom in a Chevrolet Malibu Maxx — without so much as hitting a rubber cone — when OnStar called to check.
If you're anything like the test drivers, it won't be until after you've explained to the distant helper that you didn't have an accident, the airbags did not deploy and you don't need assistance, that you'll begin to experience an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
How'd they know you were driving like that? What else do they know? And who else knows?
Welcome to Paranoiaville — the driving equivalent of George Orwell's "1984," brought to life in the post-9/11 world of Homeland Security.
http://www.cars.com/news/stories/111604_storyb_an.jhtml
These 4-inch square boxes (actually silver, not black) — known as event data recorders or crash data recorders — collect an array of information every five seconds. Unlike aircraft recorders pulled from plane crash wreckage, these devices don't record ****pit voices or such a wide range of information over such a long period, but they do constantly record everything from seat belt use and airbag deployment to throttle position and braking action — information retained the moment G-forces, called g's, indicate that a crash is imminent.
You need not be anywhere close to a collision, really. During one road test this summer, it was just a matter of running a routine slalom in a Chevrolet Malibu Maxx — without so much as hitting a rubber cone — when OnStar called to check.
If you're anything like the test drivers, it won't be until after you've explained to the distant helper that you didn't have an accident, the airbags did not deploy and you don't need assistance, that you'll begin to experience an uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach.
How'd they know you were driving like that? What else do they know? And who else knows?
Welcome to Paranoiaville — the driving equivalent of George Orwell's "1984," brought to life in the post-9/11 world of Homeland Security.
http://www.cars.com/news/stories/111604_storyb_an.jhtml
These 4-inch square boxes (actually silver, not black) — known as event data recorders or crash data recorders — collect an array of information every five seconds. Unlike aircraft recorders pulled from plane crash wreckage, these devices don't record ****pit voices or such a wide range of information over such a long period, but they do constantly record everything from seat belt use and airbag deployment to throttle position and braking action — information retained the moment G-forces, called g's, indicate that a crash is imminent.