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LeBron still has at least one fan in Cleveland
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Arizona Immigration Law Blocked, Drug Cartels Rejoice
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Is BP Cornering the Market on Oil Spill Research?
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Sunday – or Anyday Drives
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Brangelina to Buy in Santorini?
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Ohio alt-rock stars weigh in on Lebron….John Mayer too..
HRLite House:
From the White House – New Federal Approach to Hiring
By Bob Dyer
Beacon Journal columnist
POSTED: 07:24 a.m. EDT, Jul 11, 2008
The long arm of the law just got longer.
OnStar, a safety and navigational system available in General Motors vehicles, is introducing a wrinkle that will allow law-enforcement agencies to slow down a stolen car by remote control.
When police have established visual contact with the vehicle, they tell OnStar to hit a button that sends a signal to the powertrain to reduce the flow of gasoline to the engine.
''Stolen Vehicle Slowdown'' will debut on ''select'' (read: pricey) 2009 models.
This is more than simply a way to improve the odds that the victim of a car theft will get his vehicle back intact. It also could reduce the number of police chases, which endanger everyone on the road.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the nation's law enforcers get into more than 30,000 pursuits each year, and 40 percent end in crashes. Even worse, 20 percent end in injury.
''Anything that enhances the safety of the community, we're all for it,'' said Akron Police Lt. S.G. Phillips, who took part in a demonstration Thursday in a huge parking lot on the west bank of the Flats in Cleveland.
OnStar's basic system operates by interacting with global positioning satellites that can pinpoint a location in real time. People who subscribe can get such things as directions to their destination, diagnostic reports and the alerting of safety forces in case of an accident.
The OnStar system isn't cheap — $200 to $400 a year, depending on the age of the vehicle and the bells and whistles — but about 5 million drivers subscribe to the service, according to GM.
The remote slowdown feature will be available with even the basic OnStar package.
It's hard not to see this as a thumbs-up development — at least when it works.
The system is dependent on cell-hone signals and, as you may have noticed, even the biggest providers struggle in some geographical areas.
Other things can go wrong, too: My Verizon phone had four bars when I climbed into a 2008 Chevy Tahoe that was retrofitted with the new equipment. But the first two times I ''stole'' the SUV and raced through the parking lot, the system didn't work.
I was finally nailed on my third heist. The car sputtered to slow coast.
OnStar is starting to face some significant competition. Ford has entered the fray, as has a major startup operation called CarShield, which is expected to debut in Northeast Ohio in November.
Unlike OnStar, the CarShield folks are selling an aftermarket product that will work in any car built after 1995 because it plugs into the standard diagnostic port (the thing the E-check people use).
Their units will cost $300, with an annual subscription of $140.
CarShield won't have the stolen car slowdown, but it will have the added benefit of enabling the car to signal the owner — via the Internet, hand-held computer or mobile phone — that the car is about to encounter a technical problem, such as the battery draining because you've left your lights on.
Something to consider: If a company can pinpoint the location of your car at any time — well, a company could pinpoint the location of your car at any time.
But both OnStar and CarShield say there is nothing at all Big Brotherish about their services. They say they know your location only when you initiate a service request or the air bag deploys.
Or, soon, when some punk hops in for a joy ride.
Bob Dyer's Streets column appears each Friday. He can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
The long arm of the law just got longer.
OnStar, a safety and navigational system available in General Motors vehicles, is introducing a wrinkle that will allow law-enforcement agencies to slow down a stolen car by remote control.
When police have established visual contact with the vehicle, they tell OnStar to hit a button that sends a signal to the powertrain to reduce the flow of gasoline to the engine.
''Stolen Vehicle Slowdown'' will debut on ''select'' (read: pricey) 2009 models.
This is more than simply a way to improve the odds that the victim of a car theft will get his vehicle back intact. It also could reduce the number of police chases, which endanger everyone on the road.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the nation's law enforcers get into more than 30,000 pursuits each year, and 40 percent end in crashes. Even worse, 20 percent end in injury.
''Anything that enhances the safety of the community, we're all for it,'' said Akron Police Lt. S.G. Phillips, who took part in a demonstration Thursday in a huge parking lot on the west bank of the Flats in Cleveland.
OnStar's basic system operates by interacting with global positioning satellites that can pinpoint a location in real time. People who subscribe can get such things as directions to their destination, diagnostic reports and the alerting of safety forces in case of an accident.
The OnStar system isn't cheap — $200 to $400 a year, depending on the age of the vehicle and the bells and whistles — but about 5 million drivers subscribe to the service, according to GM.
The remote slowdown feature will be available with even the basic OnStar package.
It's hard not to see this as a thumbs-up development — at least when it works.
The system is dependent on cell-hone signals and, as you may have noticed, even the biggest providers struggle in some geographical areas.
Other things can go wrong, too: My Verizon phone had four bars when I climbed into a 2008 Chevy Tahoe that was retrofitted with the new equipment. But the first two times I ''stole'' the SUV and raced through the parking lot, the system didn't work.
I was finally nailed on my third heist. The car sputtered to slow coast.
OnStar is starting to face some significant competition. Ford has entered the fray, as has a major startup operation called CarShield, which is expected to debut in Northeast Ohio in November.
Unlike OnStar, the CarShield folks are selling an aftermarket product that will work in any car built after 1995 because it plugs into the standard diagnostic port (the thing the E-check people use).
Their units will cost $300, with an annual subscription of $140.
CarShield won't have the stolen car slowdown, but it will have the added benefit of enabling the car to signal the owner — via the Internet, hand-held computer or mobile phone — that the car is about to encounter a technical problem, such as the battery draining because you've left your lights on.
Something to consider: If a company can pinpoint the location of your car at any time — well, a company could pinpoint the location of your car at any time.
But both OnStar and CarShield say there is nothing at all Big Brotherish about their services. They say they know your location only when you initiate a service request or the air bag deploys.
Or, soon, when some punk hops in for a joy ride.
Bob Dyer's Streets column appears each Friday. He can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com.
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