Life-saving emergency eCall system should be mandatory, EU

[0000]

Prof Prolapse said:

Monitoring every motorists speed? I mean honestly. The infrastructure required is astronomical

Why are you talking about things you have literally no idea about as if you have any insight? The infrastructure required to monitor every motorist's speed, and location for that matter, across the entire EU let alone the UK on the back of this is pitifully small.

The only barrier to abuse of this is a law requiring you to install and not tamper with the client side kit in your car.

[Prof Prolapse]

Deva Link said:

Robb F said:

Why shouldn't I be allowed to chose?

Same reason you've not been able to buy a new car without ABS for time. Now it's ESP, next it's tyre pressure monitoring.

I.e. Your average person is too fking stupid to be allowed freedom of choice as this thread illustrates.

[Debaser]

I wonder what the response would be if the EU mandated we all have to have a camera recording everything we do, installed in every room of our house, all in the name of safety - if you fall over and hurt yourself they'll be able to send an ambulance over.

Some people would no doubt welcome it and think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't want it despite the obvious safety benefits.

[barker22]

So does anybody know how this works fully. Does it dial out if an airbag is deployed or just when a certain G-force is achieved. What about track days etc if someone has an off.
There needs to be some sort of trigger point where it decides to dial. Is the system protected properly like a black box device. What if you roll the car a few times, will the gps still work?

I can just see a line of emergency services waiting outside scrapyards everytime a new car is crushed.

[Deva Link]

Debaser said:

I wonder what the response would be if the EU mandated we all have to have a camera recording everything we do, installed in every room of our house, all in the name of safety - if you fall over and hurt yourself they'll be able to send an ambulance over.

Some people would no doubt welcome it and think it's a good idea, but I wouldn't want it despite the obvious safety benefits.

Well, they do want to microchip everybody.

It could be quite handy as you wouldn't need to bother with passports etc.

[LongQ]

Prof Prolapse said:

Deva Link said:

Robb F said:

Why shouldn't I be allowed to chose?

Same reason you've not been able to buy a new car without ABS for time. Now it's ESP, next it's tyre pressure monitoring.

I.e. Your average person is too fking stupid to be allowed freedom of choice as this thread illustrates.

For once I think you have hit the reasoning behind the proposed technology squarely on the head. It's a philosophy that seems to be the basis of much that people call 'progress' in our lives in recent years. The lack of choice is why our politicans, from Blair time, started wittering on about giving people 'choices' when clearly there were none to be had that were of any significance. Well, maybe the answer to 'Do you want fries with that?' but not much else and not for long if the EU department for Food and Diet Control gets its way.

[The Black Flash]

Prof Prolapse said:

mjb1 said:

I guess you also won't mind when they update the system so that it reports you every time your bike breaks the speed limit? Because that will be the next step, the hardware is already capable of it, so all it will take is a software update (possibly over the air). Nothing to do with road charging, but I'm sure the EU and the authorities will class this as a safety feature.

I never break the speed limits so have nothing to fear

Pure, baseless, paranoid, speculation.

You've not been paying attention I'm afraid. The EU is very good at playing the long game, and moving towards totalitarianism in baby steps precisely so that people like your good self don't notice.

[LongQ]

An opinion that, from a quick read, seems to cover some of the wider issues in a fairly balanced way.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/05/ecall/