Etrex Speed

[+M-T-P]

On another thread, someone mentioned that they got out of a speeding ticket by using the GPSr to prove they weren't speeding.

 

How does one go about getting speed information out of the track history for a specific date and time on a yellow eTrex?

[+Markwell]

Use a software like G7ToWin to download the tracklogs.

 

If it were me, I'd turn my GPS over to a notary public or someone unbiased. Then, under the watchful eye of someone who knows how they work, hook up the GPS to the computer and download the tracklogs. Then I'd have someone ELSE do the calculations to determine the speed I was going at the location I was clocked.

 

Problems:

• What if someone were not speeding at THAT location, but the GPS Tracklogs showed you going 85 on the interstate the day before? (I would presume that legalities would prevent them from using that information, but still...)
  
• GPS devices are not 100% reliable. Right now, mine says that my maximum speed since last reset was 416 mph. See this post from Feb 2005.
  

[+New England n00b]

Most new cars have black boxes that are constantly recording your speed, and can be theoretically used as evidence against you (right now in cases of accidents). I wouldn't be suprised if they started making them wireless and allowing you automagically 'confess' your speeding ticket to a cop with a wireless receiver.

 

Anyway, I don't know how you would physically access the data, but that could serve just as well - probably more so, since it would be 'harder' (I assume) to fudge that data.

[+Prime Suspect]

Most new cars have black boxes that are constantly recording your speed, and can be theoretically used as evidence against you (right now in cases of accidents). I wouldn't be suprised if they started making them wireless and allowing you automagically 'confess' your speeding ticket to a cop with a wireless receiver.

 

Anyway, I don't know how you would physically access the data, but that could serve just as well - probably more so, since it would be 'harder' (I assume) to fudge that data.

Most of these devices only retain a few seconds of data, only "locking it in" when an accident occurs. By the time you've been pulled over by the police, any evidence of your speeding (or not) is probably already gone.

[+Team Cotati]

Just when I thought that it couldn't posibly get any better.

[+Bob Blaylock]

Most new cars have black boxes that are constantly recording your speed, and can be theoretically used as evidence against you (right now in cases of accidents).  I wouldn't be suprised if they started making them wireless and allowing you automagically 'confess' your speeding ticket to a cop with a wireless receiver.

  In the United States, at least, that would be rather blatantly unconstitutional.  In fact, it could very well be construed as a direct violation of three different Amendments in the Bill of Rights.

 

  Very definitely, it would violate the Fifth Amendment's protection against self-incrimination.

 

  Unless the law-enforcement officer had a warrant specifically identifying you by name, and your vehicle, it would be a violation of the Fourth Amendment for him to obtain access to data generated and stored by something owned by you without your consent.

 

  And although this is a bit tricky, it would seem to violate the spirit and intent, albeit not the literal letter, of the Third Amendment.

[+M-T-P]

Sorry Bob. Although this thread has gone in a totally different direction than what I intended or originally asked, the whole in-car black box thing has already been going on for years. So it doesn't really do much good talking about how it will never be allowed for X reason in the US. Its there, its been there, and it is probably in YOUR car right now.

 

USATODAY Article on Car Black Boxes from Dec 2004

 

Here is an excerpt:

 

Already, drivers have had data from their own cars used to convict them. Last month, Danny Hopkins of New York was sentenced to 5 to 15 years in prison for killing Lindsay Kyle after the black box in his Cadillac CTS indicated the car was going 106 miles per hour five seconds before the crash. Investigators originally thought the car was going only 65 to 70 miles per hour. In St. Louis, Clifton McIntire of Phippsburg, Me., pleaded guilty to manslaughter last month after the black box in his GMC pickup revealed that he was going 85 miles an hour before he slammed into the back of a Toyota.

 

Today an estimated 30 million cars contain these "black boxes" — they're actually silver — known as event data recorders (EDRs). Most record simple data such as whether airbags deployed or if passengers wore seatbelts. But most cars from General Motors and Ford, as well as some Toyotas and Hondas, track even more information, including vehicle and engine speed, and whether the driver was accelerating or braking.

 

 

*** Note to moderators, can this topic be moved to the Off Topic area for the remainder of the discussion instead of being left here and locked? ***

[+M-T-P]

Here is another article in USAToday from 2 years ago about how the data is already being used by police and courts from a 2002 year model car. If it were used that much in 2002, do you think there exists a late model car out there without this type of device by now... or by next year?

 

USAToday Article from May 2003

 

Big brother is ALREADY watching you! And his name is Ford, GM, Honda, Toyata, etc.

 

Just imaging what is next, incorporate this into the same RFID sensor technology like toll tags and place them along all major highways. Oh wait, wasn't there a CSI like this?