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ON THE ROAD TO NOSINESS? THE SAME GEAR THAT WOULD SMOOTH OUT TRAFFIC JAMS
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 20:40:11 -0400
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 1993 16:44:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Dan Gillmor <dgillmor () det-freepress com DETROIT FREE PRESS DATE: MONDAY October 18, 1993 ED: METRO FINAL PAGE: 10F SECTION: BIZ LENGTH: MEDIUM ILLUST: Photo BYLINE: DAN*GILLMOR* DATELINE: MEMO: BUSINESS MONDAY: TECHNOLOGY ON THE ROAD TO NOSINESS? THE SAME GEAR THAT WOULD SMOOTH OUT TRAFFIC JAMS COULD BE USED TO SNOOP ON YOU The next time you're stuck in stop-and-go traffic, steaming because you're late, consider the promise of smarter cars and highways. Then consider the possible impact on your privacy. The idea behind intelligent vehicle highway systems --IVHS, the in-crowd acronym for smart cars and highways -- is alluring. By using computers and other electronic gear, we could squeeze many more cars, trucks and buses onto existing highways and help everyone get where he or she is going more quickly and reliably. IVHS is just one of the advances in communications and information technology that are transforming our lives. But it also could let government and private snoops peer into our lives in new and scary ways. "There is a lot of good that can come from IVHS if it's done right, but there's also a need to assure that privacy and individual rights are maintained," says U.S. Rep. Bob Carr, D- Mich., a strong advocate of IVHS. IVHS isn't a single technology. It's an expanding grab-bag of gadgets, computers and brains. Among them: * An experiment now under way in Oakland County. Cameras keep track of traffic on major streets. They relay information to a computer that tells the traffic lights when to turn green, yellow and red. The result, according to road officials, is smoother-flowing traffic. * Projects in Europe and Japan. One is Prometheus, a European system designed to help cars avoid collisions, plus in-car computers that give information on how to steer around congestion. * Pathfinder, a California-based car-to-computer communication system that includes dashboard displays about upcoming traffic jams. * Proposals for electronic tolls -- which economists and traffic planners generally agree would be an efficient way to reduce congestion and pay for upkeep. The reasoning, which makes sense, is that you should pay more to use the highway at rush hour than at 2 a.m. How would that be done? Highway and vehicle sensors, which wouldn't slow traffic like old-fashioned toll booths, would know when you use the road and bill you accordingly. Those and other emerging IVHS technologies hold out the long-range promise of fully automatic highways and cars: You'd get into your car, tell it where you're going, and the car and the roads would do the rest. Backers of IVHS include the Big Three automakers, Michigan's state government and its major universities. They see a potential mother lode -- much of it likely to be mined from taxpayer's pocketbooks -- as well as public benefits. Let's think about this. Assume for the moment that IVHS actually will work and be affordable. What worries me, and ought to worry you, is how IVHS could be used to pry into your life. A rule of thumb: The smarter the system, the more Big-Brotherish it could be. Specifically, the smarter the system, the more easily it'll be able to track your every move. Oakland County's relatively primitive traffic-control system uses cameras, but officials with the county road commission say the cameras only sense motion. They don't monitor license plate numbers or take pictures of drivers. Spy on motorists? "We're opposed to it and have no intention of getting into it," insists Brent Bair, managing director of the Road Commission for Oakland County. "We can't afford to get involved in stuff like that." I believe him. But questions I'm raising aren't about what's here today, but what's coming tomorrow. Bair thinks I'm being alarmist. I hope he's right. But suppose some future road officials decide to install new cameras and higher-capacity transmission lines, allowing the system to scan locations, license-plate numbers and drivers' faces into the computer. And what about other IVHS systems that include communications devices in vehicles that talk with a central computer and get instructions on the best route. Will the computer keep records of where the car has been, and when? These concerns apply to electronic tolls and just about all other IVHS technologies. Will the information be used solely for traffic control and billing? If not, who should have access to it, and for what purposes? We need to answer all of these questions now, not after the fact. "Most people are honest and wouldn't misuse the information, but we do need protections, just in case," says Dale Rubin, professor of law at Willamette College of Law in Salem, Ore., and the author of several papers on IVHS issues. I'm no Luddite who fears anything new; IVHS undoubtedly can make our lives better. Still, before we spend a few bazillion dollars on this brave new world of transportation, we should consider just how much liberty we're willing to trade for mobility and convenience. ****** Dan Gillmor Internet: dgillmor () det-freepress com Detroit Free Press CompuServe: 73240,334 306 S. Washington 313-691-2400 Voice Royal Oak, MI 48067 313-691-2420 Fax (Standard disclaimer: Neither the Free Press nor I speaks for the other.)
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- ON THE ROAD TO NOSINESS? THE SAME GEAR THAT WOULD SMOOTH OUT TRAFFIC JAMS David Farber (Oct 28)