GPS Tracking For Cars

The following is an article from newsobserver.com. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, it basically says that they are playing with the idea of taxing everyone for each mile they drive because more and more people will be turning to fuel efficient cars and not buying as much gas and they will be loosing the gas tax money.

What do you think of this?

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Bruce Siceloff, Staff Writer
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Two hundred Triangle drivers will be recruited this fall to road-test a satellite-technology system that might be used one day to collect highway taxes on every mile we drive — replacing the gas tax on every gallon we buy.
Computers mounted in volunteers’ cars will use global positioning system tracking to count the miles — even across state lines.

Participants will receive make-believe state and federal tax bills for their miles. For their time and their opinions, they’ll be paid $895 in real money.

The $16.5 million Road User Charge Study will enlist drivers in six states to determine whether the technology works, and whether Americans would accept a new mileage tax. Volunteers will be asked how they feel about technology that collects information about their driving.

The federal government and 15 states, including North Carolina, are paying for the study to find a fair, reliable revenue source that can keep pace with growing transportation needs.

“The gas tax is not going to be a viable way of funding our highways in the future,” Jon Kuhl, a University of Iowa professor who is directing the study, said in an interview. “The national Highway Trust Fund is already going broke, and the situation is going to get worse.”

Gas tax collections are slowing as cars get more miles on each gallon, and as $4 pump prices force Americans to reduce their driving. A few years from now, many Americans might be driving plug-in electric and fuel-cell cars that don’t use gas at all.

Michael Walden, an economist at N.C. State University, said the study will help Americans answer hard questions about how to pay for the nation’s transportation infrastructure. He agreed with Kuhl that the nation needs to find a replacement for the gas tax.

“Perhaps a better way in terms of assessing someone’s use of the roads is not how many gallons they use but how many miles they actually drive,” said Walden, who is not involved in the study. “A mileage tax could be adjusted over time, as the cost of road construction goes up.”

With the $895 bounty and an advertising campaign that will start next week, Kuhl and his team hope to enlist a diverse mix of car owners from the six-county Triangle area. Details are available by phone at 866-363-1975 (toll-free) or online at www.roaduserstudy.org.

After the participants are chosen and trained, their cars will be outfitted with GPS computers — the satellite technology that drives popular dashboard navigation gadgets. Over eight months, starting in December, the car’s computer will record the number of miles driven in each state, then upload the information to a central billing system.

Make-believe taxes

Cars will have make-believe per-mile tax rates based on their EPA-estimated fuel economy.

The tax rates are intended to generate about the same taxes on miles that the car pays in taxes on gallons of gas. The mileage tax would be higher for a heavy truck that burns a lot of gas, and lower for a fuel-thrifty hybrid.

A typical car rated at 24 miles per gallon will have a make-believe federal tax rate of 0.8 cents per mile, plus 1.3 cents per mile for the North Carolina tax, Kuhl said. For 24 miles, that’s 31.2 cents state and 19.2 cents federal tax — about a penny more than the current taxes on a gallon.

If the technology works, it could give federal, state and even local governments the option to set different tax rates for different vehicles.

Volunteers also will test of public attitudes about a new type of tax — and about technology that gathers information about where people drive.

“Privacy is a hot-button issue,” Kuhl said. “People rightly have a knee-jerk reaction about being tracked.”

The system will only count the number of miles driven each month in a given state, he said.

“There’s no way these units could be used to track people or determine they were in a particular place at a particular time,” Kuhl said.

Some drivers will worry about government snooping, Walden said, and that could make it even harder to sell the idea of a new tax.

“I don’t know if the mileage tax is going to be any better accepted than the gas tax, but I know we have a problem finding money for our roads,” Walden said.

bruce.siceloff@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4527

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/growth/…

Best Answer: It is easier to raise fuel taxes. Do you really want the government tracking all your movements?

• Taxing fuel achieves the same end and is much easier for them to do.

I’ve retraced my steps and I know that I lost it somewhere between my apartment and my car about this time yesterday. No one has turned it into the main office so either someone’s nicked it or I’ve left it somewhere on silent. I know it’s still on though because it rings whenever I call it.

Either way, it’s driving me crazy. Can I track it somehow using GPS?

Best Answer: Sorry to hear that you lost your phone. There is no way to trace the phone. The best thing is do it just keep calling it. If it leads to just no ring,then call your service provider and report the phone lost/stolen.

• If your phone has GPS, you left it on, and the battery hasn’t gone dead, your service provider can track it for you. Just call them and they can run a trace. They won’t be able to tell you exactly where it is, but they should be able to get you within 50 feet of it (or less).
• What sarge saaid, but also if you end up not able to find it you can all your provider and ask them to disable the phone so noone can use the phone.
• go to your company and see where it is

I need to find a small, efficient and cost effective device, that can store up to 500 addresses. This device would be used not so much as a GPS tracking system, but a physcal address locator while in the feild. It would let me know if I reached a desired address using LED or noise technology. For example, using a small box like item in my car while delivering a product, this item will let me know if the address I’m looking for is on the left or right as I pass. The answer back that I received is great but it doies not solve my problem. I am not looking for a GPS tracking system. I am looking for an address locator that can be loaded with addresses in a designated area and identified as I pass by them.

Best Answer: GPS hooked up to a laptop is your only option.

Also if you move out of state will they still be able to shut your car off….I was told that they don’t have GPS tracking

Best Answer: If I understand your question correctly, you want to disable this device, and make sure your lender won’t be able to find it when you stop making the payments…

You know you would essentially be stealing the car, right?

• They don’t need to track it to turn off your car. All they need is to send a radio signal from a satellite. I guess it can be turned off, by an electrical genius.
• just make your payment…..best way to keep the car running.
• I wouldn’t be too sure about not having GPS.

If my GPS is stolen is there a way it can be tracked?

Best Answer: No, because it doesn’t transmit, only receives. It has no way of transmitting its position to something that could relay its location to the owner. Your best bet is to copy down the serial number and etch it in somewhere on the unit itself and hope that it ends up in a pawn shop that will check the database if it gets stolen. I had one stolen out of my car (where they did damage to the car which cost 5x as much to fix than the GPS was worth) and I had the serial number written down. 5 years later I still haven’t got it back and I probably never will. Hide it real good! There are some not nice people out there…

• Unfortunately, no. Your GPS is only a receiver, not a transmitter. The best thing you can do at this point would be to call GARMIN product support and tell them you have a stolen unit, and give them your serial number. You would also want to register it in your name at their website. Also, when you call them you should get a police report so they can register it as a stolen unit so if whoever has your unit calls in and gives the serial number, GARMIN will know it is a stolen unit and will take the appropriate action.