Re: [projectvrm] Who owns data generated by 'connected cars' sensors?. ...Businessweek Article

[Dan Lyke < >]

On Wed, Feb 19, 2014 at 12:11 AM, Graham Hill 
<
 >
 wrote:
> The article raises another way that driver data may be used; by the taxman
> as individual states experiment with car taxation by miles driven rather
> than by at the pump fuel taxes.

I have a friend whose consulting company was involved in some of the
V2I and V2V DSRC feasibility studies, so have spent more than a few
coffees musing over the silliness of implementing, or even continuing
to throw dollars down the rathole of studying, any such technologies
right now. And yet NHTSA recently announced a push to get
implementation in place by 2015.

Much of this seems to be about "make sure the FCC keeps the spectrum
reserved",  but a non-transportation oriented friend on my blog
observed that

    You do realize this is about implementing a car usage tax and
    only indirectly about safety and traffic management. Right?

and though I haven't heard anyone involved come right out and say that
(in fact there's lots of handwaving about identity, but there's lots
of handwaving about most of the benefits of V2V and V2I), I can't
dispute that pushing such a thing will lead to VMT capabilities.

And the big win with a Vehicle Mileage Tax isn't that it's actually
billing the miles travelled, but billing  based on when those miles
are travelled; implementing congestion pricing.

Because that's where we have the big cost/benefit disconnect: When we
build extra lanes and extra capacity for the two commute hours (at
1800 vehicles/lane/hour) every day, and pay for it out of the general
fund with a little subsidy from the pittance that is the gas tax.

Dan