It’s being touted as “parental control” technology – a way for worried parents to keep tabs on their teenaged drivers. But what’s good for the proverbial goose (the 17-year-old) is just as good for the gander (his parents). And if recent precedents – and trends – are any guide, will be exactly that.
People never seem to see this coming.
Well, here it comes… again.
Both Ford and GM are in the process of fitting their latest models with technology that enables Mom or and Dad to track son and daughter’s movements, as well as how they move – and how fast they’re allowed to move. The car not only narcs them out, it supervises them in real time, limiting how fast they can drive, whether they’ve been wearing their saaaaaaaaafety belts and even how loud they’re allowed to crank the radio (Ford’s MyKey system).
GM’s system (TeenDriver) even spits out telemetry – a downloadable log of how fast the car was driven, how “aggressively” the driver accelerated (and braked) for the delectation (and, one assumes, discipline) of the parental units.
Even better, it detects – and record and transmits – “events” such as the engagement of the (increasingly de facto standard equipment in more and more new cars) “active” safety systems, such as Forward Collision Warning. Which – if you’ve had the chance to drive a new car so equipped – is so myopically and old lady-ish programmed that it become hysterical (flashing lights, loud buzzers) if you do not begin to brake frantically at least one astronomical unit prior to actually coming within physical range of (as an example) a car ahead of you turning off the road. Who will be long gone and off the road by the time you get there.
I am not exaggerating. Try a new car so equipped yourself and see.
There is more such good stuff on deck, too.
Some of it is already here – and may be in the car you’ve got right now.
How about Lane Departure Warning? Which hits you with annoying (and yep, potentially distracting) beeps whenever the system thinks you’ve wandered into the opposing lane, via cameras that – supposedly – read and recognize the yellow and white lines painted on the road. Problem is, these systems aren’t as smart as advertised – and will beep just as annoyingly (and distractingly) when you make a perfectly legal pass or turn-off the road, which often entails entails crossing over a painted line.
I’ve also discovered that many new cars – which all have “drive by wire” controls which put the engine and transmission completely under the sway of the computer rather than you – will force-engage Park or Neutral if you try backing the car up with the door open (as to rely on your own eyes rather than the fish-eyed view of the now-mandatory back-up camera. Instead of being able to park right up against the garage door, you are forced to park a foot away.
Because safety.
Who out there can see the dots? Or maybe connect them?
One such is the real-time monitoring of the parental units by the insurance mafia, which I’ve written about several times previously. Progressive Insurance (see here) has been the chief pusher of this, but has been stymied – so far – by the fact that it requires the “client” (who is in much the same position as a “customer” of the DMV’s) to opt in. People may not have much choice about buying insurance, but they still have the option of choosing not to plug in the little tattler Progressive (and the other insurance “families”) really, really, want to make us all plug into our car’s OBD diagnostic port – so that every instance of what they define as “unsafe” driving will be used as the basis for jacking up the rates we have no real choice but to pay. (Even if we have never so much as scuffed a fender over decades of driving, it must be added.)
Keep in mind that this entails much more than dunning us for mere “speeding” – that is, driving faster than almost uniformly ridiculous posted maximums that everyone – even cops charged with enforcing them – ignores (like the Prohibition idiocy of the 1920s) without the sky falling down. If you accelerate quickly to merge with traffic or pass a dawdler – that will be taken as evidence of “aggressive” driving (rather than the safe/skillful driving it actually is).
And forget about spirited driving. This includes not only driving at a faster-than-Cloverific pace (see here for more on that) but also such things as attempting to make it up your driveway after a snowstorm. The traction control/ABS will register “wheel slip” as you use throttle and momentum to ascend the grade – which will be taken as indicative of an “aggressive event” and – ding! – up go your premiums. Execute a necessary evasive maneuver, such as swerving to avoid a deer or a Clover that just pulled out in front of you…accelerating (or braking) rapidly for the same purposes… anything that triggers an ABS or TCS “event” – and … ding!
Or rather, ka-ching!
Anything other than the most passive, slow-motion, herd-style “driving” – if it can be called that – is what they’re after. They want to extirpate initiative, drown any impulse to ever do anything other than get in line and – mooooo! – follow the bumper of the car ahead to wherever you’re headed.
And here’s the thing about systems like MyKey and TeenDriver: You will not be able to opt out.
MyKey is already standard in all new Fords. TeenDriver will be standard in “select” new GM vehicles, beginning with the 2016 Malibu. If you doubt this will be expanded to include all GM vehicles, god bless your innocence.
Hyundai-Kia includes “geo fencing” as part of the technology suite built into all its new cars. It does what it sounds like it does. It imposes an electronically limited radius of action; if the teen – and soon, perhaps, you – drive beyond that radius… well, don’t you want to be kept safe?
If there’s any upside to being middle aged today, it’s that it was so much better to have been a teenager yesterday. When driving meant freedom – the first real taste of it in a typical young person’s life. You got in the car and you were finally off the leash; could go where you wanted, how you wanted. Unsupervised,on your own; an adult – or something close to it, if only for a little while. Burnouts, beer – freedom. When we were out, we were no longer under anyone’s thumb.
Wasn’t it “dangerous”? Potentially, sure.
But life is to be lived – and learned from. To be restrained a priori from experiencing life, learning to exercise judgment and initiative – to earn wisdom from one’s mistakes – is to be kept in a kind of perpetual childhood state. Which implies, when you think about it, perpetual parenting.
No wonder a record high percentage of today’s teenagers and young twentysomethings don’t even want a driver’s license. I suspect a growing number of adults will be turning theirs in, too.
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well i think its a good thing because young and irresponsible kids need to be controlled. As do reckless speed demons like yourself erick.
You could at least get the spelling of my name right!
Petty rants of spoiled whining aging post 40 murKKKins indeed. Pardon me if I’m not of much use after surrendering my most precious possessions to the Borg collective.
yo, Mister Eric, the clover hater,
ever hear about the 10 and 2 hand positions on a steering wheel?
it’s great training to watch your vid, left hand at the 12 position, sometimes no hand at all, and you filming the back seats and doors. but you are a libertarian, and with not a scratch in 30 years, you are SAFE. excuse me, safer than a clover.
if you want to, eric, accept it. you ‘re gonna lose most of your toys, the extra cars, the bikes and all, just like the rest of us.
a few years back, when the site was about automobiles and mechanics, and fixing things, your site was of value. now? it’s the petty rants of an aging, post 40, spoiled, whining, murKKKin.
might be of value to plant yourself a garden and some trees.
have a happy day.
gizzard
Hi Pancho,
The “10 and 2” thing is obsolete, just FYI. Thanks to air bags!
PS: If you’re worried about my hand position, you ought to go for a drive with Bob Bondurant sometime!
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a scenario in which people are provided with unique identifiers. There is the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and the Internet.
A thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low – it’s any natural or man-made object that has been assigned an IP address and given the ability to transfer data over a network.
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things
By 2017, there will be 7 trillion wireless devices serving 7 billion people, which is equivalent to 1,000 sensors per living person.
Today’s personal communication device will no longer be a single entity; it will be a collection of devices aggregated in true swarm fashion in an organic and opportunistic way.
Some components will be carried on the person, while others will be provided by the augmented environment around us. Given the broad diversity of sensory and actuation interfaces offered by this advanced technology, these devices and sensors will offer an experience that’s substantially richer than what our five natural senses and traditional motor functions can offer. We will be empowered humans in an enhanced world.
A Human Intranet will be realized as an open, scalable platform that seamlessly integrates an ever-increasing number of sensor, actuation, computation, storage, communication, and energy nodes located on, in, or around the human body and acting in symbiosis with the functions provided by the body itself.
This emerging system of Human Intranet applications will be:
• distributed over the entire body.
• integrating a collection of diverse devices including sensing, actuation,
processing, and storage.
• exploiting a broad range of communication strategies (both wired and
wireless), not only for information but also for energy delivery.
• providing high-capacity, low-latency connectivity to the surrounding augmented environment.
• continuously operational
The evolved smartphone plays an essential role in this scenario as a hub
node. It serves as a bridge to the surrounding world with a diverse set of
broadband communication capabilities (5G and beyond). While providing
major computation and data storage capacity, it also serves as an energy
reservoir for the rest of the Intranet.
Being transformational, the Human Intranet paradigm will raise a broad range of issues that transcend technology and relate to all aspects of human behavior including sociology, psychology, privacy and security, and legality.
If this automobile technology trend isn’t a slippery slope, I don’t know what is. First, we must protect the children from themselves. Then we must protect every driver from all other drivers. This is irrespective of whether the tech actually works. Then, law enforcement, for “public safety” reasons, will gain access to these systems in real-time. No more OJ slow pursuits. The car will just come to a stop (maybe while you are in a railroad crossing).
The last thing government wants is individuals making their own choices, except when those choices are not really choices at all. Only different flavors of your favorite govt. sponsored beverage. And they realize that the automobile can be controlled like almost nothing else in everyday life. There are still a few quasi restrictions on what govt. can do to you when you are in your home, but your car is fair game for any draconian program they can dream up. And absolutely, the insurance and car industry cartels are joined at the hip with govt.
I just wish I knew what could be done to reverse this, but I don’t.
Hi Wind,
For openers, we can disabuse people of the idea that there is this thing called “government” out there – god-like, powerful. It is just other people – most of them mediocrities (or worse). They have no more right to tell you how to live your life than… well… any other random person you encounter. How is it that they’ve assumed this cloak of awesomeness? This power to make so many people intellectually (and so, actually) genuflect before them?
That, friend, is the question… and, a start!
“Collectives” are just groups of individuals who have decided they have some common interest. And often that common interest is how ‘best’ to spend MY money.
People work for gov’t when they can’t find work in private industry. Or they are psychopathic bullies who can abuse people at will and without consequence.
What if I have to drive through a fence or run over someone in an effort to protect myself and family say during an urban combat event? Like a mass riot??
Auto braking you wouldn’t want to be a racist like someone who knows the name Reginald Denny.
BANG! Spot on! I just might need the ability to send my car through a garage door or a plate glass window or smash down an oncoming member of the Zombie army. If my d@mn car won’t let ME make the decision that could very well SAVE MY LIFE, I want a codicil to my purchase contract stating I or my surviving heirs will paid oh, let’s say $10,000,000 should such automatic computer driven intervention cause me injury or death…
I see the safety issue hitting the point where it becomes totally impossible to actually drive anymore for the average person. I work in a machine shop and it is getting to the same safety issue there. I have vintage vehicles now but it is getting increasingly hard to keep them legally on the road. I predict we will beg for the robot cars to take over because of the expense and liability that will become the norm.
1972, Korat Thailand, a 105 pilot was riding his motorcycle up and down the runway one night. He was traveling 100 miles per hour. He was naked. He was protesting mandatory helmet rule.
Too much safety can push people over the edge.
The auto industry’s motto: We shall meet in a place where there is no darkness.
The modern consumer’s motto: Durrr, more digital goodies–hot dog!
The government’s motto: Don’t be a slave, just behave.
As a liberterian why don’t you applaud replacing the nanny police state with mommy and daddy robot parenting?
I wonder if this means that speed limits could be varied according to the capability of the individual car and driver? Why not allow 13 yr olds to drive with sufficient robot monitoring?
So where you see enhanced state control, I see robots replacing cops. Robots that I have some control over since I still can chose between auto makers.
Hi George,
Libertarian morality rejects coercion as a general principle, whether exerted by government or by individuals. In this case, what’s happening is a collusive effort between cartel capitalism (the big automakers, the insurance mafia) and the government – for the purpose of controlling and fleecing the individual.
I’ve discussed in interviews I’ve given the sad fact that the cart companies have learned to love Big Brother and no longer fight him. This has been the case at least since the mid-1990s and the air bag mandate. The came to realize it was easier – and more profitable – to jump on the “safety” bandwagon and began actively out-doing the government’s mandates. Anticipating and facilitating them. This is an example.
These “controls” will be like DRLs… not overtly mandated, but de facto mandates by dint of every automaker (or most of them) installing them as standard equipment. At some point, the government will formalize this by mandating the equipment – and will then exploit the technology to control more than just teenagers.
Wait and see….
Massachusetts just put a law on the books for running head lights whenever you run the wipers.
They even admitted on the news, the big cost isn’t the ticket ($5, not a typo, only $5) – but the “safe driver discount” you’ll lose if they ticket you for it… It’s 2 points on your license… and the DRLs are NOT acceptable, MUST be headlights.
Let’s assemble a few things:
1. Smedley Butler, “War is a racket.”
2. “Economics is the continuation of war through other means.” (I don’t know who said this.)
The ONLY conclusion from these concepts is, the “war” is against US, the citizens, and we’re being forced to pay for our own enslavement – and most shmucks are DEMANDING this situation. Prison State USA.
Prices have skyrocketed across the board. Milk, meat, fish, eggs, poultry – the prices are going insane. And while you might make the connection to price increases and the gasoline price (transport cost) increases – you notice the prices didn’t come back DOWN, even though the gas costs went down?
Insurance being mandatory is another good example – make it mandatory, the price goes UP. Make the costs prohibitive, take the FUN away… Limit mobility of the average citizen.
We need to put a STOP to this assault on our rights (including the obvious ones: freedom of speech is essentially DEAD, and now with the FCC takeover of the web, it might well become fully censored – even given the “dark web” sites, it’s not going to be possible to find these sites shortly, I’m certain…; additionally, it is open season on Christianity, and the (HNIC)OTUS is openly supporting Islam, while bakers, florists, pizzerias are prosecuted for declining to do business with events they feel are immoral, E.G. “gay weddings” – while AT THE SAME TIME, there is an example of asking a Muslim bakery to provide said cake for a gay wedding – and there’s no complaint there though the bakery refused service – violating “equal protection” clause of the 14th amendment, most obviously; Preachers are being told they must “accept” all ways of life, and their sermons must be submitted for censorship by the State…; Right to keep and bear arms, besides the obvious assault on the Second Amendment, there are many attacks underway – economic, with the costs of the weapons going up; legal, with the ammunition bans, and buys by DHS; permitting, which is de facto registration – they’ll know EXACTLY which doors to knock on…; Fourth Amendment is a dead letter, the Terry Frisk and DUI checkpoints are considered “Constitutional” due to an ‘overriding public interest’, and “they” can forcibly take your blood without consent or even suspicion; the Fifth Amendment has ceased to be, as now your SILENCE is used as evidence of guilt!; States Rights / Citizens’ rights are a joke, the Ninth and Tenth amendment are null and void. )
Seriously, at what point do we admit that this is the logical end-game of the original document, and that we are being aggressed against, and it’s “open season” on every agent of the state?
Because ultimately, the isolation and centralization will result in the worst-possible mash-up of Minority Report, Elysium, Judge Dredd, 1984, Brave New world, and The Matrix…
Autonomous robot cops: In the works.
Retinal scanning & 24/7 surveillance: In progress (Retinal scanning from 10 meters away; tailored advertising; metadata analysis / “Big Data” aggregations; UK suggesting people should have surveillance cameras IN THEIR HOME WITH A POLICE FEED!)
Elysium/Utopia for the (truly) wealthy, while the rest of us scramble in a wasteland: Well, pollution, degradation of ground water, pollution of same water and foods with GMOs, hormones, antibiotics that are creating “superbugs”, Prozac, ADD/ADHD meds in the water…. Not to mention the mess of vaccination, which has stuff in the vaccines that we can’t spill on our counter without requiring a HazMat cleaning team…
Judge Dredd: “I AM THE LAW” is only the start; summary execution will become the norm, while people will ONLY be permitted to live in “megacities” and the only employment will be low-end service jobs (one wonders where the computer programmers and businessmen wnet to in Judge Dredd’s world…?)
The Matrix & Surrogates: continued breakdown of interperson socialization, lack of communication, increasingly artificial world where people are insulated from the costs of their actions – at the cost of actually LIVING, of course.
Brave New World: Feminisation of men, with masculinization of women, and “celebration of differences” – EXCEPT where they matter. E.G., males can be women, females can be women – NO ONE will be allowed to be a MAN, except Daddy gunverment. Those goons will be Judges (Dredd)…
And soon enough,l we’ll be getting chipped like dogs…
Why will NO ONE do what’s necessary?
Because they don’t want to pay the price. Don’t want to get their hands dirty. Want the “moral high ground” (As if there is a moral high ground in a war?)
Let someone else handle it…. Someone else can be the target, we’ll just hang to the back and wait until it’s resolved…
Not particularly “American,” is it…?
Jean – “Why will NO ONE do what’s necessary?”
From my perspective,
because I have no interest in saving those too stupid to recognize their own enslavement.
because even if it were possible to eliminate our jailors, the masses would crucify us for removing their ‘mommy and daddy’ security blanket and handouts.
because should I come to power, I would possibly be even worse than the current crop of tyrants. I can have no respect for those who are willfully ignorant so I would feel no guilt over farming them like the herd animals they are. (absolute power and all)
because the leader of any movement is usually the first against the wall when the ‘supporters’ chicken out and sell you out to save their own worthless hides.
‘overriding public interest’ – the legal phrase as I remember it is “Compelling public interest” – as in, they compel you to submit. See Becky Akers’ post today on LRC.
Jean – Maryland has a similar law, but my DRLs *ARE* my headlights. Headlight switch only turns the taillights and dash lights on and off (and allows use of high beams).
“economics is the continuation of war by other means” – the original quote is “war is the continuation of politics by other means” von Clausewitz, Prussian general from the late 18th-early 19th centuries. I’m sure many have made their own variations on that.
“And soon enough,l we’ll be getting chipped like dogs…” – or worse yet, like dead tree branches.
Fred Reed post today posits that the US will end, not by violent secession but by atttrition. https://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/fred-reed/the-coming-breakup-of-the-united-states/
As the population continues to divide along racial/social/cultural lines, more FedGov laws will NOT be enforced by the States, and the Feds don’t have the manpower to do it themselves. Not that this would rid us of all gunvermin, but it would be 1 less thick layer of oppression.
That assumes white flight without section 8 following it. If all whites and Asians moved into an active volcano the vibrants would follow.
Hmmm…. Could we have an evac plan, be on the outskirts (volcano suburbia) while they reisde near the core caldera…?
We could escape the eruption….
And then you get to choose, Dark meat, or Darker? 😀
Yes, there’s that special place in hell for me…
I’m not that hungry!
What, no Hawaii Fried Chicken?
We could attract volunteers, “Kilauea wants YOU!”, like the old Uncle Sam pictures, only I see more of an “Aunt Jemima” image…. 😉
Or to REALLY rile ’em up, a Black man, wearing overalls, wisened eyes looking out under a “straw katy” (hat), chewing a piece of grass….
Call it “Unka Tom” brand! 😀
[“Unka”: Mispronunciation of “Uncle” I picked up from ancient Disney comics, applied to UNCLE Donald Duck and UNCLE Scrooge McDuck, by their “nephews,” the adopted triplets of Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Who knew those ducks was from da’ hood?]
The anti-circumvention prohibition in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act restricts vehicle inspection, repair, and modification.
Most of the automakers operating in the US warn that owners with the freedom to inspect and modify code will be capable of violating a wide range of laws and harming themselves and others. They say you shouldn’t be allowed to repair your own car because you might not do it right. They say you shouldn’t be allowed to modify the code in your car because you might defraud a used car purchaser by changing the mileage.
They say no one should be allowed to even look at the code without the manufacturer’s permission because letting the public learn how cars work could help malicious hackers, third-party software developers and competitors.
John Deere argued that letting people modify car computer systems will result in them pirating music through the on-board entertainment system.
It is an extraordinary stretch to apply the DMCA to the code that runs vehicles. The vast majority of manufacturers’ concerns have absolutely nothing to do with copyright law. And, as the automakers repeatedly point out, vehicles are subject to regulation by other government agencies with subject matter expertise, which issue rules about what vehicles are and are not lawful to operate on public roadways.
The DMCA essentially blundered into this space and called all tinkering and code inspection into question, even acts that are otherwise lawful like repairing your car, making it work better at high altitude, inspecting the code to find security and safety issues, or even souping it up for use in races on a private course.
The opponents of the vehicle exemptions say that no one really cares about the restrictions they place on access to vehicle code. If you have had problems with vehicle repair or tinkering because you were locked out of your vehicle’s computers, if you would have engaged in a vehicle-related project but didn’t because of the legal risk posed by the DMCA, or if you or your mechanic had to deal with obstacles in getting access to diagnostic information, then the EFF wants to hear from you.
Automakers Say You Don’t Really Own Your Car
EFF to Librarian of Congress: Let Car Owners Look Under the Hood
Perpetual childhood has been part of the design for over a century. It’s part of the scientific management of society. It starts with the “public” schools on the Prussian model. Same themes over and over again.
Today maturity is obedience and servitude, being like a good child, preferably a girl. Obeying all the rules, getting the chores done, and answering the questions asked of her. Just like the schools reward.
Limit male children to one per family. If they exhibit more than a certain proclivity for aggression or thinking outside the box, send them back to the factory, re-training to euthanasia, whichever finally works. Chemicals such as glyphosate and the dearth of psych drugs in ground water have now reached a level fish and aquatic creatures are rapidly becoming almost total female.
Drugs for ADD have already been singled out for causing boys to lactate. There is a class action suit because of it. Don’t include yourself in this suit since it’s a Trojan Horse designed to take away your real right to sue should your name be on the class action suit.
I shudder to consider where society will be in 20 years. I won’t be here to see it…..what a friggin relief.
Eight – I sadly agree that I too am relieved I won’t be around to see society in 20 years, I’m about to turn 70 and though I’m still in decent shape I despair of seeing any improvement in my remaining years. The vast majority have been too well brainwashed by public “education” and the media to realize they live in an open air prison. Most of my acquaintances care more about who won the Stupor Bowl or Amerikan Idol than whether or not they’ll ever get to retire with a decent pension and health care. The 1% are determined to keep us as serfs with just enough to survive on, perhaps realizing that “if you ain’t got nothing, you got nothing to lose” might arouse a few to take action, but even they would most likely be a tiny minority.
Thank God I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s, didn’t realize till now what a golden age it was. Reagan spouted that bullshit about “morning in Amerika” while his minions were busy turning it into the twilight we have today.
The real problems will start when the monitoring systems’ security is compromised. Then it will be open season…
How about we lock down your car to a 2 block radius? Just pay us a few bitcoin and we’ll be happy to let you have it back. Or we just publish your location, so it will be open season on your house? Maybe your boss would like to know that the car didn’t leave the driveway until 8:30 for the last 2 weeks? Don’t you start work at 8:00?
All this Internet of Things (TM) crap sounds great on paper, but if the same old, broken down security models are used (why wouldn’t they), we’re in for a big problem. It’s one thing to get malware on a PC, it’s a totally different thing for some script kiddie to hack your thermostat and set the temperature to 105 “4 the lulz.”
The “Internet of Things” will dumb us down even more than the current abysmal levels of the average Homo iSapiens. Who the heck needs “smart” appliances when the ones we have now work just fine? Do you really need your PC to operate the toaster and the fridge to tell you that the milk is running out?
As Eric_G said, these sensor-loaded devices will open the door to all kinds of criminal hackers, and also strip off the last remaining layer of privacy from the biggest gangster of them all: Big Corporations+Big Government.
The American consensus favors “smart” appliances. Steve Jobs is an American hero. He sold gadgets to geeks. His company sells a “smart” watch that tells your temperature, heart rate, calories burned, global position…….. Wearing this watch will alert similar people to each other; they can then socially bond. I guess that it is better than wearing a ring in your nose.
Hi Ramrod,
Like the obsession with fuuuhhhhhhhtttttttball, I don’t grok the general obsession with electronic gadgets. For me, a $12 wall phone with a keypad is superior to the these $400 iPhones that do all kinds of things really well except make a phone call (without losing the signal, static and so on).
Here’s something we can all do…
That is to vote with our wallets. Just don’t buy cars equipped with nanny systems.
Here’s a link to the currently know data recording vehicles:
http://www.crashforensics.com/files/CDRVehicleList.pdf
Avoid them like the plague.
Some newer cars still allow for driver control. I have a G37S sedan with 6 M/T. I can turn off T/C, no DRLs, etc. And no ‘black box’ according to the list above.
Sadly the new replacement for my car, the Q50, has no M/T option. Ergo I will make this G37 last as long as possible.
Also, in some cars DRLs can be disabled, as in both of my TDIs VWs.
A simple fix.
So in closing, if you don’t like the nanny features then don’t purchase vehicles so equipped.
It’s a sacrifice I guess, but a very small one IMO.
Honestly I see this government collapsing as a result of losing a war or as a result of the USD using its reserve currency status long before our government can turn into North Korea (we’re close but not quite there yet).
2¢
Yet another reason to eschew buying new cars. I fully expect, however, that at some point owning older vehicles will be discouraged and eventually made “illegal”. The precedent for that trend was Cash for Clunkers. Too bad politicians and bureaucrats can’t be similarly retired.
Oh, they CAN be…. But your life expectancy drops dramatically just for trying. 😉
I am beginning to think it’s worth it regardless…. Shake things up, at the very least, make some noise, “retire” the “business as usual” filth. ALL of it…
Some folks have told me that when politicians get COMPLETELY out of hand, it may well be a good idea to inflect the Nicoli Ceausescu fix…
Nah, the old cars will just wear out.
Rebuilding the drivetrain in an old (pre-computer) car is a pretty straightforward process. What kills them in the end is rust.
“What kills them in the end is rust.”
Location, location, location. Rust will eventually consume, but much faster in some areas than others.
I’m in the rust belt but I treat the underside of my decades-old driver with an oil bath before each winter season. The car looks ratty but is still solid underneath.
Location is definitely key, those living on the left coast or in the desert don’t have to worry about this stuff. The state government of California is so batshit crazy though I can’t see living there even if it were feasible to move.
Hey, I grew up in SoCal in the 80’s. I went back 10 years ago and couldn’t beleive how grown up it was.
With 30M people in SoCal alone and annual rainfall amounts akin to a desert, I just don’t see it as a good place to live if there is any sort of disruption there.
Right now I’m thinking of Sam Kennison speaking to the famines in Africa during the 80’s… “YOU LIVE IN A FUCKING DESERT!” AAAAAAHHHH!
So, the best answer is to GTFO while you still can.