Ready To Pay Road Tolls Based On Miles Driven? Ready For .gov To Have All Your Travel Data?

[BJHay]

Privacy in travel is already gone. IPD alone has 250+ stationary license plate readers and several vehicle-mounted ones. Who knows how many are mounted statewide? If you carry your cell phone with you then forget it. Go to Google Maps (whether you were actively using it or not) and find "your timeline". You might be surprised. It tracks you everywhere and displays how long you were at each location. But I'm sure it's not information accessed by the government.

I don't like the privacy loss but I'm all for use-based road funding. In fact, there is a long list of government services I think should be user based.

Curbing crime with technology: 200+ license plate readers coming to Indianapolis streets

Indianapolis police announced more than 200 license plate readers will be up and running by the end of the week, with more to come.

www.indystar.com

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Go to Google Maps (whether you were actively using it or not) and find "your timeline".

I didn't know about this, but I just went and looked and my History is turned off.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I didn't know about this, but I just went and looked and my History is turned off.

Yeah, it’s on by default but astute users disable it.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Yeah, it’s on by default but astute users disable it.

I never disabled it. I didn't even know it existed until now. Maybe it's an Android vs. iphone thing? (Mine is a Samsung Android.)

 

[jcj54]

I cannot remember seeing any taxes eliminated, just more taxes added.

The US government instituted a federal tax on telephone service to offset the bonds taken out to pay for the Spanish-American war. The bonds are long paid off but land line telephones still have to pay the tax...

 

[Ingomike]

Privacy in travel is already gone. IPD alone has 250+ stationary license plate readers and several vehicle-mounted ones. Who knows how many are mounted statewide? If you carry your cell phone with you then forget it. Go to Google Maps (whether you were actively using it or not) and find "your timeline". You might be surprised. It tracks you everywhere and displays how long you were at each location. But I'm sure it's not information accessed by the government.

I don't like the privacy loss but I'm all for use-based road funding. In fact, there is a long list of government services I think should be user based.

Curbing crime with technology: 200+ license plate readers coming to Indianapolis streets

Indianapolis police announced more than 200 license plate readers will be up and running by the end of the week, with more to come.

www.indystar.com

Computers are our demise…

 

[BJHay]

Yeah, it’s on by default but astute users disable it.

This lawsuit was settled in 2022
If Google has it the government can subpoena it.

"Google has agreed to pay nearly $392 million in a settlement with 40 states over allegations that the company tracked people through their devices after location tracking had been turned off, a coalition of state prosecutors announced on Monday."

https://www.npr.org/2022/11/14/1136521305/google-settlement-location-tracking-data-privacy

 

[BehindBlueI's]

The US government instituted a federal tax on telephone service to offset the bonds taken out to pay for the Spanish-American war. The bonds are long paid off but land line telephones still have to pay the tax...

While not completely negating your point, that tax was actually repealed in 2006. I remember the media hooplah that attended it.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

So just to be clear, an article about an article that contains very few specifics and seems pretty well designed to rile you up...worked?

What actual proposed legislation is being referred to and where?

The original Fox article does say it would be instead of a gas tax. How it would be implemented is wild guesses since there's no actual proposals put forth anywhere. I would suppose the easiest way would simply be to tie it to your registration taxes. Read your odometer when you renew your plates, pay the fee. I strongly doubt that occurs, though, as it makes the tax much more visible instead of just being invisibly included in the purchase of gas.

Higher gas prices also create higher sales tax income on gas, since the percentage is the same but the total purchase is higher, so I'm kind of doubting we see any large scale overhaul any time soon.

 

[BugI02]

And of course in that scenario the insurance companies are now going to FORCE the current "good driver discount" tech to charge us based on how much we drive. And NOBODYs rates will go down.

I'd be more worried about an insurer getting information on HOW I drive more than how much. It is easy to envision capture of mph over speed limit, g-loading and braking force being used to charge higher premiums whether or not actual safety is compromised and despite how accident free such driving style actually is

Analagous to companies that use BMI calculations to determine health care premium surcharges/discounts, and allowing no alternate tests of fitness such as timed runs etc, thus ignoring true fitness levels and penalizing those who pursue weight training by a one size fits all approach to determining physical fitness

I'm sure they would see an excuse to charge higher premiums to low/no users of the service as a win-win for them

 

[BugI02]

So they’ll eliminate gas taxes, right?

What if most of your driving is out of state? GPS tracking to determine who gets the mileage revenue?

Sounds like a great idea.

Probably both home state and state driven in would charge you and you would have to file something like a tax return to get the overpayment back

Expect something like E-Z-pass where you have to keep an account topped up and the system deducts funds as it wishes

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[BugI02]

What next? Implanted computer chips so they can tax us for use of public sidewalks and hiking trails?

Yep, in the right hand or forehead with data-processing outsourced to China

 

[Cameramonkey]

I'd be more worried about an insurer getting information on HOW I drive more than how much. It is easy to envision capture of mph over speed limit, g-loading and braking force being used to charge higher premiums whether or not actual safety is compromised and despite how accident free such driving style actually is

Analagous to companies that use BMI calculations to determine health care premium surcharges/discounts, and allowing no alternate tests of fitness such as timed runs etc, thus ignoring true fitness levels and penalizing those who pursue weight training by a one size fits all approach to determining physical fitness

I'm sure they would see an excuse to charge higher premiums to low/no users of the service as a win-win for them

I hear that. I drove a company car last week. Its got an Azuga GPS monitor on it. When you do anything egregious it beeps at you to let you know you screwed up and it sent an alert to corporate. Thank God I am not subject to the penalties our techs are. Why?
I got a beep for flooring it because a guy ignored the red light and I had to floor it to keep him from rear ending me. (I had just turned right when my light turned green and he didnt stop for the red, seconds after it turned. He apparently wasnt paying attention.)
I got two beeps in rush hour because I had to brake hard due to traffic suddenly stopping. Taken without context, I'm an awful driver according to that thing.

 

[Hkindiana]

What about taxing the Amish buggies that pollute the roads and give off emissions? Well, not the buggies themselves, but the horses that pull them.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Dont forget runners and cyclists.

 

[printcraft]

I hear that. I drove a company car last week. Its got an Azuga GPS monitor on it. When you do anything egregious it beeps at you to let you know you screwed up and it sent an alert to corporate. Thank God I am not subject to the penalties our techs are. Why?
I got a beep for flooring it because a guy ignored the red light and I had to floor it to keep him from rear ending me. (I had just turned right when my light turned green and he didnt stop for the red, seconds after it turned. He apparently wasnt paying attention.)
I got two beeps in rush hour because I had to brake hard due to traffic suddenly stopping. Taken without context, I'm an awful driver according to that thing.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I'd be more worried about an insurer getting information on HOW I drive more than how much. It is easy to envision capture of mph over speed limit, g-loading and braking force being used to charge higher premiums whether or not actual safety is compromised and despite how accident free such driving style actually is

USAA uses a phone app. They won't charge you more than your premium, but the will discount if you drive within their parameters. If you're a passenger you have to remember to tell it that. I asked if there was any way for it to differentiate between me driving my police car, in which I relatively frequently disregard traffic laws, vs my private car. Nope, no way to turn it off or have it recognize it's hooked to Ford Sync vs Ram Uconnect or GM ancient bluetooth thingy.

Not sure what keeps you from putting it on a burner phone and not putting it in the car except when you want to drive it like Mrs. Daisy around the block a few times.

I stayed with Geico.

 

[Leadeye]

I wonder how the electronic trackers count off road travel?

 

[bgcatty]

Big Brother is Watching at its worst incarnation. Didn’t we as taxpayers already pay for these roads once upon a time?

 

[foszoe]

There will be voices on INGO that will swear that since it is the insurance companies that require it to get insurance it is free market based not “FORCE” just like they did when companies forced vaccines…

Yeah. Just like when an HOA tells you what to do with your property