Ferrari Mailing List: Re: NFC: Car GPS monitoring Chips & Mileage Tax coming soon

[Michael James (cavallino_rapante]

Since your not from MA, Rich, I'll take it that you're not-exactly familiar 
with EasyPass.  There are different EasyPass gizmos for different classes of 
machines - Big Rigs are charged different toll rates than regular automobiles, 
so I would expect that under the proposed system that Truckers would pay a 
higher per-mileage tax as well.
 
Most every new vehicle equipped with OnStar or other Nav system already has a 
GPS on-board - yet nobody knows, exactly, how/when that data is accessed, or by 
whom.  If OnStar can determine when and where you've been in an accident, and 
attempt to communicate with you via the car's electronics, then you 
have everything "Big Brother" ever needs already - two-way comms and the 
transmission of in-car telemetry/position data. Best of all, OnStar even 
charges YOU money to provide THEM with the data!  Clever marketing has 
convinced you that a private company can spy on you, and call it a 'service'!  
That data from the car is also available to 'whomever'.....and I'm sure the 
Patriot Act and the Outgoing Justice Dept. has already made such information 
available to the Federal Govt. whenever they want, without your consent.  
 
M

--- On Tue, 2/17/09, Rich <Rich355 [at] comcast.net> wrote:


From: Rich <Rich355 [at] comcast.net>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] NFC: Car GPS monitoring Chips & Mileage Tax coming soon
To: "Michael" <Cavallino_Rapante [at] yahoo.com>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 17, 2009, 11:33 PM


The purpose is to  get revenues to cover state highway expenses right? Well 
what happens to all the vehicles that are "out of state " licensed and are 
just passing through Oregon , but  buy gas in the same state, but dont have 
the Big Brother chip  installed? They usually pay the tax with  the built in 
state gas tax , but under this system, they escape tax but still put wear & 
tear on the local roads. Am i missing something ? Truckers cause the most 
damage to the roads due to their weight. They would buy lots of deisel fuel 
in the state, but end up not paying any mileage tax. So the rest of the 
state's resideent  drivers would have to make up the difference somehow.Am i 
missing something?


Rich
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Fleischer" <themightytoe [at] gmail.com>
To: "Rich" <Rich355 [at] comcast.net>
Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 10:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] NFC: Car GPS monitoring Chips & Mileage Tax coming 
soon


> Rich,
>
> I can see why the program was a success in Oregon...
>
> They propose a charge of 1/4 a cent per mile traveled, and to use that 
> instead of the gas tax.  See this is not in addition, this is in reaction 
> to the fact that people are buying less gas, and cars with better fuel 
> economy.  Here in IL we pay 19 cents per gallon state gas tax...
> If my car gets 25 mpg (my GTI gets about this city), then I drive 25 miles 
> on 1 gallon and pay 6.25 cents in tax on that gallon.  I save 12.75 cents 
> per gallon.
>
> If my car gets 10 mpg (OK my Vette gets that at WOT at Road America) I 
> drive 10 miles on that gallon and pay 2.5 cents in tax on that gallon.  I 
> save 16.5 cents per gallon.
>
> If you live in Alaska, you can drive on that bridge to nowhere, and if 
> your car makes less than 32 mpg you still get a tax break since they 
> charge 8 cents a gallon in gas tax there.  Lowest in the nation.
>
> Granted I am an engineer so I am pretty handy with a calculator when I 
> need to be...  :)
> Since I tend to drive a gas guzzling sports car and my wife has an SUV, I 
> love this idea.  I hope the fed's do this also...  Its like an incentive 
> to drive something with terrible mileage (if the base cost of gas wasn't 
> the overriding factor and sticking it to the man was...).
>
> The other aspects I agree sound a bit ignorant.  I don't see why they 
> would need to use GPS chips to measure this unless one of the state's 
> officials is holding a large number of shares in SiRF?  That is just 
> crazy, and would get very expensive.  What do you do for out of state 
> driving?  Do those miles count in your state or the state you are in or 
> the state where you bought the gas?  Its a bit of a mess...
> I can think of many ways to accomplish the same thing better:
>
> 1.  Have mileage read at an inspection site every year, like when the 
> vehicle is registered again.  This may be slightly inaccurate, most Euro 
> cars read high on the speedo, and therefore show higher mileage than 
> actual (so the GPS would be cheaper).  American cars are usually dead on 
> accurate, Japanese somewhere in between.  I hear you can just drive your 
> Ferrari backwards when you go home and it undoes all the mileage, think of 
> the huge savings!
>
> 2.  Put in a Smart pass reader at the gas station that pulls mileage data 
> from the car.
> The GPS seems intrusive but I can see where the devices can be rendered 
> simple odometers rather than a way to track someone's location or prior 
> locations.  A 3 axis accelerometer would work just as well, and GPS is LOS 
> so it can cut in and out.  I can see where the notion of that might be 
> scary to someone who did not understand the electronics underneath, or the 
> content in modern electronics in general.  Rendering a GPS chip into a 
> simple pedometer is just a matter of not saving location data anywhere and 
> just keeping a running tally of the distance traveled.  That data is 
> already pretty much completely available in the cell phone in your pocket, 
> and if you have a portable or in car navigation system its likely that 
> information can be pulled out also, and removing the battery in you cell 
> phone will not stop the coin cell in there from working...  So big brother 
> is already tracking you, and listening to you when you think you are all 
> alone, and has been for quite a long time now so use headphones and wear a 
> tin foil hat...
>
> You seriously don't like the idea of paying less taxes on gasoline Rich? 
> Based on the Greenie Weenie comment I assume you are not part of the Prius 
> fan club, but it is they who would end up paying more and subsidizing 
> filling potholes on our highways to a greater extent with this law.
>
> BR,
> Mike
>
>
> Rich wrote:
>> to a liberal Greenie Weenie city near you.
>>
>> Enjoy your "change".
>>
>>
>> Rich
>>   Massachusetts may consider a mileage charge
>> By GLEN JOHNSON - 11 hours ago
>> BOSTON (AP) - A tentative plan to overhaul Massachusetts' transportation 
>> system by using GPS chips to charge motorists a quarter-cent for every 
>> mile behind the wheel has angered some drivers.
>>
>> "It's outrageous, it's kind of Orwellian, Big Brotherish," said Sen. 
>> Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, who drafted legislation last week to prohibit 
>> the practice. "You'd need a whole new department of cronies just to keep 
>> track of it."
>>
>> But a "Vehicle Miles Traveled" program like the one the governor may 
>> unveil this week has already been tested - with positive results - in 
>> Oregon.
>>
>> http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSFVVWawIJRrWzFM1ICyVaVAy93wD96D9QHO0
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