RFID In Cars Update: Texas Senate Approves Bill

from the how-stuff-works dept

Bob Dole writes "Apparently, after news of the plan to mandate RFID chips in all Texas cars hit the net, the state representative who introduced the bill was so swamped with complaints that he decided to drop the RFID provision. Ah, we can relax now, right? Wrong. On Tuesday, the state Senate actually passed the bill that creates an auto insurance verification database unanimously. The Senate version leaves the details of how to enforce it up to the state police and transportation department, as long as the program is 'cost-effective.' I'm sure it's just a coincidence that the House sponsor has one of the biggest RFID chip makers, Texas Instruments, located right next to his district. "
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    sly squirrel, 28 Apr 2005 @ 11:19am

    RFID

    We should worry about GPS in the cars that read out to the nearest passing cop by remote control. I guess one could have enough static sensors to create the same database if RFID cars all drove by, but that is the hard way to do it. A builtin "black box" of the type on airliners for cars probably would have gps feed, like some rental cars have, and a cop would only have to read out your record and issue citations.

    that's really scary to think about, but easily within simple technology right now.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    anonymous, 29 Apr 2005 @ 10:10pm

    Reality Check

    While you have some good point within this thread, you really need to understand what you are talking about. The RFID Industry on whole is filled with half truths and unsupported claims. You do nothing here but promote this type of hype. Take for instance, the thread about the TI fastpass system. Yep, that system was hacked. You can even go to the web site the grad student set up to read his methodology. Even though the encryption system was in place for many years, it was a poor design. Security through obscurity is not the answer. Yes, I do know some of the parties involved on both sides. You don't have all the answers to support either claim in the thread.

    Basically the TI DST system is flawed. It allows someone with specialized computing resource to read and spoof a tag. The current generation of tags will not be used for this type of system. To place a Class-1 Generation 2 tag in a security instance is a poor choice (I say that, but the truth is that you don't need much security if your guarding bubble gum).

    Get a clue, get an education, and write about things you know about. This is a topic better left to informed individuals!

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.