I see you – you see me – EPautos

Now every new (and recently made) vehicle has a series cameras built-in – as well as the ability to send and receive facts – the time has come to put both to use usageBut not for the supposed purposes for which people have been told these things are installed in vehicles.

Yes, they let you see what’s behind you, which you can’t see very well anymore because of the way vehicles are designed today, to meet federal regulations that people are told make their vehicles “safe.”

Yes, they allow the “adaptive” cruise control to “see” what is happening in front of you and whether your vehicle is coming too close or too fast. They also allow you to automatically slow down your vehicle to avoid hitting the vehicle in front of you.

And they can also be used to spot ‘speeders’ – and that includes you, if another vehicle equipped with this . . . equipment also sees you ‘speeding’. It’s a kind of mobile See something Say something system – and Ford is apparently working on exactly that.

More precisely, it has already been worked out – and patented.

A few weeks ago, the US Patent and Trade Office published the official document “Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations”.

Ford applied for the patent back in January 2023.

The most important thing to know is that the “systems and methods” already embedded in most new and recently built vehicles.

They all have the built-in ability to know whether she “speeding” – by comparing the speed at which they are driving with the speed limit on the road they are on. Which vehicle know.

If you have been driving a new/recently made vehicle, you may have noticed that little icon in your dashboard that looks like a speed limit sign. It lets you know that the vehicle knows what the speed limit is; if you are driving faster, the vehicle will let you know by changing the appearance of the icon, which goes from a white background with black letters to a red background.

You’ve probably also read that this facts can be recorded and transmitted in real time to the insurance mafia, via data aggregators who collect the data that many people have no idea their vehicle is transmitting. It’s essentially the same as agreeing to stick one of those little “dongle” things into your vehicle’s OnBoard Diagnostics (OBD) port to get a “discount” on your insurance for “safe” driving, only without agreeing.

And good luck getting that discount.

What Ford’s patent elaborates on is an elaboration of this narcing-out. Instead of using your vehicle to narcissize only you, your vehicle would also be used to narcissize drivers of other cars that your vehicle catches “speeding.”

Welcome to East Germany II – where everyone had their eyes on everyone else. Only this time it’s worse because the eyes electronic and they are almost literally everywhere.

In East Germany at least, if the lights were off in your apartment and you whispered something softly in your wife’s ear, you could trust that your neighbor – who was probably an informant – could neither see nor hear you.

Don’t assume that if you’re driving a new or recently built vehicle. Many of these vehicles have cameras pointed at you – inside the vehicle – as well as microphones, which can hear everything you say and (at least potentially) record and transmit it. I tried to record myself talking in the ’24 VW GTI I tested last week. When I started talking, the car picked up on it. You can hear It talk back (and you can hear my irritation when I get drowned out).

The point is, we can safely assume that everything you say and do in your vehicle is being recorded.

Angela Merkel was sitting next to her, so to speak.

Ford denies that its “Speeding Detection Systems and Methods” are being installed in “civilian” vehicles. A statement from Ford reads as follows:

“The patent explicitly states that this idea is specific to application in law enforcement vehicles, such as the Ford Police Interceptor, and that it is a system that would automate a capability that law enforcement already has in use today, except that it would use the built-in system and sensors in the vehicle. This patent does not state that driving data from customers’ vehicles would be shared with law enforcement, as some media outlets have incorrectly reported. And please note, patent applications are intended to protect new ideas, but are not necessarily indicative of new business or product plans.”

Well, that’s nice.

But the fact remains that the fundamental technology is already embedded in new/recently made vehicles – and not just Ford’s. So the only thing preventing the technology from becoming widely used is the hope and prayer that Ford and everyone else won’t use it in exactly the way it can be used.

That would be weird. Why design something you don’t plan on using?

A good analogy here might be the way the government worked with the telecoms to tap everyone’s phone – to protect us from “terrorists”, of course. If you are not And have nothing to hidewhat are you worried about?

Well – how about being labeled a “terrorist” – or someone who helps them – because you question the government’s rationale for tapping everyone’s ever-personal conversations and correspondence to track them down?

After all, “speeding” is illegalHow could everyone object to reporting – and punishing – illegal behavior?

There is only one practical way to thwart this emerging panopticon and that is to not be part of it. Avoid new/recently made vehicles with built-in snitch technology – and tell the dealer that you may be buying a vehicle from Why You’ve decided never to buy a new car again – unless it doesn’t come standard with snitch technology.

As Frederick Douglas said, we get just as much tyranny as we are willing to endure.

And agree to it.

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