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I'm coming in late with this because I genuinely found out about it only this morning.

Make your own picture.

Well. Not entirely true. I sort of knew about parts of it. I just didn't connect the dots to make the big picture.

What did I know and when did I know it?

Damfino. My memory is not that good.

"Get to the point or tell us a story, Baker," you say.

http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-05/new-federal-rules-could-require-cars-black-boxes-record-driver-activityhttp://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2011-05/new-federal-rules-could-require-cars-black-boxes-record-driver-activity

Lemme just point out this is ANOTHER instance of a federal agency creating a de facto law. So much for representation in Washington, eh?

No. 15 on the Google Image search for "black box"

Anyway, the idea of these "black boxes" in vehicles dates back to the late 90s when GM was putting them in some vehicles. The "black box" concept comes from airplanes. The box is a device which records what is going on in the vehicle. When recovered after a crash, the box helps investigators determine what happened, when and why.

The black boxes have become far more advanced for wheeled vehicles over the years. The new boxes the federal jackboots are proposing are almost exactly the same as in the planes, sans the actual audio recording.

Pull the box, hook up the reader and you'll be able to tell pretty much exactly what the driver was doing up to the time the box was yanked. On cell phone? It's in the box. Speeding? Ditto. Pick something.

Yer not paranoid if you have proof.

Wanna bet government is gonna use these things to track people?

But as I said, the BB tech has been around for more'n a decade. It's just getting fancier and better.

But that kind of surveillance has been around for a while and some people are actually paying for it.

OnStar.

If you have this, you are actually paying a private corporation to keep tabs on you, to keep records on where you go, how long you stay and so forth.

And some people accuse me of being crazy.

Married folks don't need to hire private detectives to see if their mate is running around. All they have to do is subpoena the OnStar records.

You may think if you cancel yer OnStar service, it will be cut off. Those giant corporations are not going to let the major information haul OnStar represents get away from them just because you don't wanna pay for the service. They'll keep collecting information, but won't tell you about it.


I expect the same thing to soon happen with the black boxes.

Some states do not allow information taken from these BBs to be used in court. But with a federal regulation coming down to require 'em, it's only a matter 'O time until the sinators and reprehensibles in Washington pass a law allowing the use in all courts in the land.

Ah. Big Brother is not only being welcomed into our lives, but we are demanding he speed up the surveillance.

What does this have to do with 1981 you ask?

I drive a 1981 Ford F100. No black box. No computerized stuff. Old technology. I have rewired parts of it, rebuilt some and given time, could rebuild the entire myself.

If you intend to find out where and when I'm driving you will have to follow me in person.