'03 owners check out this

[Matt NEMO]

It is kind of an eye opener!


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[bonnich]

I can't find what the post is talking about

 

[Robb]

The person who wrote that article is a over paranoid idiot IMHO. Yea, your life is going to be ruined by your truck supposedly recording some data. And the t-bone example is just stupid, if you are in a t-bone accident, noone would expect you to hit the brakes.

Robb

and who cares, the aliens are recording all our information anyways!

 

[tbomb]

theyre just gonna hold **** against you now. like all of us who take our chips out before the trucks go in the shop, forget about it. and theyre gonna try to say this and that about stuff when it comes time for them to replace something thats covered under warranty.

they can already track your location relatively accurately if you have EZ Pass, and EZ Pass can also do the math to find out if youre speeding and theyll send you a ticket in the mail - its already happening. all this stuff is ridiculous. i mean, im all for living in a little bit of a more inconvenienced society for the sake of national security, but you gotta draw the line somewhere. i dont mind being searched at an airport, or being made to wait at an airport longer before takeoff (id mention other stuff, but it doesnt seem like theyve done much else), but i dont really see the point to the other stuff - its all about big business and money. hell, NYC basically only recycles half of what they used to because the new mayor says itll save 40 million dollars a year, meanwhile the population is exploding, the environment is suffering greatly, and peoples health is going to be greatly impacted in future years, but who cares, right?...cuz the national debt is more important, right?...i really cant wait to have kids and raise them in this new "harmful environment, debt free" society we're creating. and this new "data gathering system" in new fords is just to save money for repairs and to try to con people out of warranty work. but im sure theyre just looking out for our well being geez, ya know, i really cant wait till i drop off my truck for state inspection one day, and when i go to pick it up, they tell me that i didnt wear my seat belt 3 times last year and theyll have the tickets waiting for me with my keys at the end of the day.

ya know, anyone in the computer/technology industry will tell ya that someone somewhere will come up with a way around this - for every "act" of technological security, theres an "act" to get around it - if someone can think this up, someone else can think up a way around it; its just a shame that most of the population will be screwed by this new system.

i guess thats enough of me being annoyed for now sorry if i ruined anyones day.

 

[dogfriend]

GM has been doing this for awhile. I think that it is an obscure feature of the ONSTAR system. I read something about this a least a year ago. The justification they used was that they were gathering data about the vehicle prior to a crash to improve the design of the vehicle. The difference between Ford and GM is that GM was doing it without disclosing it to anyone.

A cynical person (like myself) would speculate that they are gathering data to protect themselves in cases involving product liability.

Also, I would suspect that the government will get involved in gathering data on emission system performance using similar techniques. I have read some articles that California wants to obtain the technology to monitor vehicle emissions remotely and at random. I have not seen any evidence that they have this capability yet however.

 

[zensius]

I couldn't find the info on the power hour thing to so I can't comment. But I do know regarding GM and there 'big brother' thing. I just read that GM used information gathered by a woman's Camaro (on board computer) to defend themselves in a wrongful death case. Big brother is here. Who's surprised? When an On Star operator knows where you are and can unlock your car (shown in commercial) you gotta think that their able to use this info for other reasons.

 

[Lemondrop]

At the Caterpillar Dealer I work at ,
Cat requires us to pull every ounce of info from the engines ECM (Electronic Control Module) for ANY repair we do . This is kinda stupid for repairs like a oil leak . I can see the use for a electronics based failure but not external . I know they use it to verify the engine is withon hours/ miles limits for warranty though . Of course that can all be found on the "Current Totals" segment . We have to print out something called a "Histogram" which tells them at what speeds the truck has been running and what RPM , both in percentage . This tells them what speed / rpm you operate at on a regular basis . We can also tell what the max engine RPM has been and Max Vehicle Speed .

Those are the scary ones ....... Diesel's arent designed for real high RPM . Ive seen engines designed for 2100 RPM max with recordings of 3400 RPM

Of course Ive seen trucks that have been to 128 (Which is where our ECM stops recording so who knows the actual speed the truck reached )

 

[bates]

tbomb: you mean EZ pass at esso? how could that thing possibly tell if youre speeding?

btw heres the link for those of you who cant find it
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[rvitek]

In Illinois we have I-Pass. In the I-Pass lanes, you'll notice two speed-bump looking things that are very close to the ground (so they sit up about 1/2" over the normal pavement). If you notice futher, they're about 100ft apart. So, they clock how quickly you go over bump one and bump two, and boom - there's your speed. There's some electronic sensors in them that detect when you cross them.

Other than that, I-Pass locations in Illinois are every 13 miles on the tollway. Same thing, how fast does it take you to get from toll booth to toll booth?

As far as big brother watching, oh well - there's really nothing we can do. As our lives become more and more digital, more and more things get hidden in them. So, just be good, and you should be fine. Right?

Ry.