zzzing

Ok so all this hype over the GTR, I place my order that should be here on election day, and now with all the talk of the "black box" and how the older brother mentality (which btw is inevitably coming to all cars in 2012), I feel like today's "gen Z PS3 GT5 playing teenager" who cannot have any fun as the parent's GPS device is tracking every move.

I can see why nissan is doing it to deny warranty claims... but this is getting scarry!!!

http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/24/florida-man-cancels-nissan-gt-r-order-due-to-black-box/<ul><li><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/24/florida-man-cancels-nissan-gt-r-order-due-to-black-box/">http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/24/florida-man-cancels-nissan-gt-r-order-due-to-black-box/</a</li></ul>

AuditudeRS4

up a 911 Turbo.

Vijay

By 2015, a cop will be able to pull you over for no reason at all, plug his computer into your car's diagnostic port and see if you've exceeded the speed limit in the past few days. You can bet insurance companies are going to push this technology big-time.

Epiplatys

GT-R is more desirable to many than a 911 Turbo...

But the black box sucks

John Stahmann

The system will just upload the speed data to the municipality and you'll get the ticket in the mail!

zzzing

objections won't grow until tiny RFIDs--radio frequency identification devices--are more prevalent and are used by private or public entities to monitor individual travel. RFIDs could theoretically allow a parent to track a teen, an insurer to watch for high-risk driving or law-enforcement officials to track a person driving from point A to point B, compute the speed and issue a speeding ticket without so much as starting a patrol car or turning on a radar gun.

Shoe

It's their Onstar system. I've heard of this Z06 guy blowing his engine on the track and tried to claim that the engine blew under street conditions. The dealer checked the Onstar system on his time and location when the engine blew and called his bluff. You can pull the fuse though...

Mickf29

RFID chips don't have power to them, and require passing a high power (1 watt) source of RF energy to energize the RFID circuit to broadcast its data, which is static, cannot broadcast dynamic data. I think you may be referring to general wireless technology,and the one to worry about in this instance is WiMAX. It is a long range high broadband system, 30miles + of range. RFID has a range of a few feet. WiFi (802.11ABGN) has a range of a few hundred yards with FCC imposed 370mW broadcast power restrictions.

The cheapest model is to setup a wifi broadcaster in your car and actively link as you pass a fixed Police scanning station, or a mobile cruiser based device. Basically a router that can read your broadcasting ID and speed, seatbelt status, etc. However these are very localized, and linking can take a few seconds or more at which point you may be out of reliable link range if you drive fast enough (i like that!). It could function like those fixed cameras they use today, except this model has the problem of people tampering with the system, which I definitely would do.

WiMAX has such a large range that it could be embedded in the car pretty securely and broadcast your postion, status, all kinds of info, and any subscribing agency can view it. Say Audi to see if there is a problem with the car, or the NSA to track the car in case you like AK47's, or the police to watch you speed and where. It would also allow the police to profile areas where speeding is prevalent on the whole by many drivers, or where you like to drive fast. Lots of data, lots of implications. I myself prefer the method of making the police actually work for that ticket revenue. Wireless makes it a tax.

riegerman

First off if you are racing or going really fast and you hit something the police will know it with or without the EDR.
Secondly Nissan can't cancel the warranty because you were going to fast etc. Only if you don't do the required maintenance can the manufacturer cancel the warranty. Everything else is either wear and tear or it will be covered. For the performance and price compared to german equals I think a few thousand even 10-20 thousand in repairs will still make this a cheap fast great handling car.

Nicht ein A4

and I am a New Yorker (currently in PA). I abhor Big Brother influence in my life - I truly do. Technology of this nature has been in cars for years, although perhaps not to this degree. It can be used to deny warranty claims if there is evidence of abuse. I recall BMW tried that tactic several years ago, when the 3.2liter M3 was introduced, with over-revving of the engine and failures and attempt to deny warranty due to abuse. Their data could not prove when it occurred, as it was rather primitive. It just recorded the highest RPM and their tactic to deny warranty ultimately failed. Owners claimed the rev limiter should have caught it and also that the over rev could have occurred prior to delivery or during service visits as there was no date time stamp.

As for RFID, many of us have it in our cars now with EZ Pass (an RFID tag used for Tolls in the East). Although designed to pay for tolls, it can (and was) used to track vehicles for Law Enforcement. In the People's Republic of New Jersey, speeding tickets were being issued by mail, taking the entrance toll time, exit toll time, distance traveled and calculated average speed. They set the enforcement limit rather high at first. As they got greedier and lowered the threshold for enforcement and issued more tickets, there was a public backlash. In NYC there are tracking points other than tolls used to "monitor traffic flow". That data can be used for other purposes.

Big Brother is here. It is getting more intrusive every day. yes, the EZ Pass thing is voluntary, not mandated, which I guess is a bit different. You have to be pretty hard core privacy minded to wait 15 minutes at a toll everyday just to not be tracked.