Life-saving emergency eCall system should be mandatory, EU
Discussion
This will most likely sound harsh and get me flamed but it is my opinion on most things like this.
People need to stop trying to save lives, people live for so long now and can survive so many illnesses that the population is completely out of control, people dying is never a nice thing we have all experienced terrible loss in our lives but it is a necessary evil to sustain human life on this planet.
If they keep curing every disease and saving lives in any way possible many of us will see a time in our own lifetimes where the world reaches a point where even the developed countries cannot sustain the population they have with power, food, water etc.
People need to stop trying to save lives, people live for so long now and can survive so many illnesses that the population is completely out of control, people dying is never a nice thing we have all experienced terrible loss in our lives but it is a necessary evil to sustain human life on this planet.
If they keep curing every disease and saving lives in any way possible many of us will see a time in our own lifetimes where the world reaches a point where even the developed countries cannot sustain the population they have with power, food, water etc.
Prof Prolapse said:
I don't see any rational objection to this. As I said I would like to have one of these as a biker, because there's every chance if I bin it I'll have coverage but be alone and unable to call for help. Then I've got the golden 60 minutes before I bleed to death by the roadside. If farmer Giles doesn't make a pass in his tractor then I'm absolutely scunnered.
Have you ever considered giving up biking? Especially in remote locations where help may not be at hand and emergency responses required for the alleged 'Golden Hour' benefits may not be practical?Prof Prolapse said:
They have to make it mandatory because f
king idiots won't have it fitted because they're terrified of "the gubbermint" and manufacturers will take the piss with the price.
Or, likely to be the case for the majority of people, they just don't see the benefit because they already live in a place that is well covered for the risk they perceive they face.king idiots won't have it fitted because they're terrified of "the gubbermint" and manufacturers will take the piss with the price. If you take the BMW example mentioned above - the annual price fo rthe service seems quite low but in some ways I suspect it may be a lure that, once hooked, one wishes to stick with. So think of it as a marketing cost (small but not entirely lacking in value thus still 'meaningful') rather than a service (that one would hope never to use). However if that USP is removed by compulsion the game changes. How the game changes and whet effect it might have on the costs are, of course, subject to speculation unless anyone here has some numbers they can offer.
Prof Prolapse said:
Incidentally I really don't believe the EU are the ones you have to worry about. They take a very dim view on the UK government's repeated infrigement on our privacy.
Really?I can only imagine they would say that if they are not already the authority for that particular occupied field.
The mandatory part is the thing I have a problem with too. It is a great idea and may well save many lives, but it has to be voluntary. The imposition of it would be just another reason to dump the EU in it's current form.
Just so people are aware; if you have a mobile phone with you, which is turned on, the relative signal timings from cell towers are logged and can triangulate your location pretty well. This is used by many current generation mobile phones to augment the GPS location. There are many court cases (most notably the 7/7 bombings) which used these logs to back-track the bombers. It has also been used in court cases here in West Yorkshire to disprove alibis in more mundane incidents. GPS signals are fakeable, but cellular tower logs aren't.
Just so people are aware; if you have a mobile phone with you, which is turned on, the relative signal timings from cell towers are logged and can triangulate your location pretty well. This is used by many current generation mobile phones to augment the GPS location. There are many court cases (most notably the 7/7 bombings) which used these logs to back-track the bombers. It has also been used in court cases here in West Yorkshire to disprove alibis in more mundane incidents. GPS signals are fakeable, but cellular tower logs aren't.
All that jazz said:
Prof Prolapse said:
Incidentally I really don't believe the EU are the ones you have to worry about. They take a very dim view on the UK government's repeated infrigement on our privacy.
LOL. Naive person is naive.. 
They take a dim view of the UK Governments actions because they want to control our privacy themselves.LongQ said:
Why is it good idea? It's been available for a while in the EU with a .4% takeup rate apparently. So no one wants it. If no one wants it, why is it a good idea?
No one - including the car industry - wanted the seatbelt when Government's first said they had to be fitted. They were an awful idea weren't they.martin84 said:
LongQ said:
Why is it good idea? It's been available for a while in the EU with a .4% takeup rate apparently. So no one wants it. If no one wants it, why is it a good idea?
No one - including the car industry - wanted the seatbelt when Government's first said they had to be fitted. They were an awful idea weren't they.So does this mean that every time you have an accident, you will have emergency services coming to your rescue?
What if the accident is fairly minor?
Sounds like a total waste of resources, surely it's taking away the emergency services from people that really need it.
I've pretty much embraced all the safety features introduced to cars, but this smells. Not a nice smell, it smells like bullst.
What if the accident is fairly minor?
Sounds like a total waste of resources, surely it's taking away the emergency services from people that really need it.
I've pretty much embraced all the safety features introduced to cars, but this smells. Not a nice smell, it smells like bulls
t.deltashad said:
So does this mean that every time you have an accident, you will have emergency services coming to your rescue?
What if the accident is fairly minor?
Sounds like a total waste of resources, surely it's taking away the emergency services from people that really need it.
As noted already by others, it's nothing to do with safety. It's simply a back door for their big plans to monitor us all 24/7.What if the accident is fairly minor?
Sounds like a total waste of resources, surely it's taking away the emergency services from people that really need it.
Prof Prolapse said:
I never break the speed limits so have nothing to fear 
Pure, baseless, paranoid, speculation.
Answer me this then matey boy. I assume you own a mobile phone? Whats stopping the government doing that right now? (Or 10 years ago). Granted you could be in someone elses car, but that wouldn't stop a warning letter coming through the post ensuring you dob in your car share buddy.
Several reasons: 1) It needs GPS - which is only in recent/high end phones (admittedly becoming more common). 2) They'd have to install software on your phone to do it (which is your property and most sane people would never agree to it), the ecall system is already designed to do it. 3) They'd have to get all the network operators to agree to it and hand over the data. Pure, baseless, paranoid, speculation.
Answer me this then matey boy. I assume you own a mobile phone? Whats stopping the government doing that right now? (Or 10 years ago). Granted you could be in someone elses car, but that wouldn't stop a warning letter coming through the post ensuring you dob in your car share buddy.
Prof Prolapse said:
You can't just secretly send magic beams into peoples cars to let them spy on you. There would be a massive outcry first. This wouldn't be like flourescent jackets for bikers, it would be a massive infringement on your privacy. It would also be obsurd.
BT already do this on everyone's homehub/business hubs - in the small hours they deploy software updates, 99% of people have no idea that it's happening. Mostly harmless, but they did one that automatically enabled openzone on everyone's router. Very different situation, but it shows exactly what is possible with todays technology. If the EU (or whoever's in charge) decided that they wanted to add it, there's pretty much nothing you could do to stop them.Prof Prolapse said:
Monitoring every motorists speed? I mean honestly. The infrastructure required is astronomical, it's totally unethical and crucially every single person who has driven would be guilty of going over the limit at some point. Even if "they" escaped the expert technologists, media and got it past the (presumably brainwashed) voters... Do you really believe that anybody would be stupid enough to create a system whereby everybody will be accidentally guilty at some point? Its simply not enforcable. At worst it could be used in cases where you've ended up in court then, in all likelihood it's still better than relying on eye witness accounts of speed which are bloody useless and again would most likely be your benefit.
The infrastructure required is already there - built into the ecall system. All it needs is a mobile phone signal to get connected and report back. A very simple (relatively) server could handle that at minimal cost to setup/run. Just look at what they already do with ANPR, digital gatsos, specs etc. This would be easy in comparison.This is the thin end of the wedge, it really is. If you want it and think it will help you, then fine, you go and install one voluntarily. As long as it's voluntary they can't do expand it's scope or everyone would just pull them out.
deltashad said:
So does this mean that every time you have an accident, you will have emergency services coming to your rescue?
What if the accident is fairly minor?
Sounds like a total waste of resources, surely it's taking away the emergency services from people that really need it.
I've pretty much embraced all the safety features introduced to cars, but this smells. Not a nice smell, it smells like bullst.
Only if the airbag is triggered (so they say). Presumably they want to make sure it hasn't killed you. Not likely I know, but not entirely unknown.What if the accident is fairly minor?
Sounds like a total waste of resources, surely it's taking away the emergency services from people that really need it.
I've pretty much embraced all the safety features introduced to cars, but this smells. Not a nice smell, it smells like bulls
t.martin84 said:
LongQ said:
Why is it good idea? It's been available for a while in the EU with a .4% takeup rate apparently. So no one wants it. If no one wants it, why is it a good idea?
No one - including the car industry - wanted the seatbelt when Government's first said they had to be fitted. They were an awful idea weren't they.But they had a single purpose so it was an easy personal decision to make.
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