Teen Creates Device to Track Speeding

An anonymous reader writes "A teen in Massachusetts has created a device that he hopes will help prevent traffic fatalities among teenagers. The unit plugs into a car and uses GPS to track and report on speeding — but only while the car exceeds a limit set by parents, so as to minimize invasion of the teen's privacy."

I wonder...

[no.17]

So the device plugs into the electrical outlet...surely any teen that's going to go off speeding would simply reverse slowly out of the driveway of their parents house, wave goodbye, drive cautiously round the corner- unplug the thing and dump it in a hedge- speed like mad for the next five hours then pick it up on the way back...

Or am I just too much of a miscreant?

Re:Off button?

[Erwos]

First off, this is a trust _verification_ mechanism. If you've got such issues with your kid that you think they're going to start pulling stuff like you just described, the obvious answer is to just not hand them the car.

Making the assumption that all you can do is disable the GPS antenna, and not actually tamper with the logs or the device physically, don't you think the parent might notice something when the device points out that they didn't have a GPS lock (or even PRN sighting) at any time during their little trip? In other words, your scenario wouldn't work against an even-somewhat well designed device.

It surprises me how Slashdotters give teenagers the brilliance and skills of MacGyver, where no security measure could possibly work against them. Of course, it also makes me think there's a decent percentage of them who hated their parents, and considered themselves much, much smarter than them, which could be correlated with their apparent revulsion to just telling a kid "no, you can't".

It's sad and pathetic, honestly. My parents and I had an excellent relationship - I knew what they would say no to, so I didn't ask to do that stuff, and more importantly, I didn't actually do it, either. They trusted me because of that, so the sphere of "no" was relatively inconsquential anyways. It's a lesson many of my peers never really figured out.

-Erwos

Not always speed

[Trailwalker]

I work for a large cemetery. Every year, we have two periods when teens are killed in automobile accidents. The few weeks after school starts and the few weeks after school is out.

These accidents seldom involve speeding. They usually happen in the teens own neighborhood. Losing control of the vehicle and hiting something solid or rolling over cause the fatalities.

Better driver education, more emphasis on seatbelt use, etc. would save more lives than any speed recorder.

Re:Speed limit of the Road

[rolfwind]

Plus the speed limit is painfully slow in some areas. Everybody goes 65-75 on my local "55"mph highway. How will the teen react if the device is set to 55mph, will s/he follow it out of obligation and get themselves killed*

I'd much rather have a built in car device that detects the blood-alcohol level of the driver (any driver, not just teens) and not start the car. Once the car is started, I think any dumb device like this is dangerous for all involved. I mean, by the time your kids start driving, they will be going out of the house to college in 2 years, where you have no control. Give them some measure of freedom or don't let them drive at all.

*Statistically, it's safer to go 10mph faster than the speed limit than at the speed limit or 10mph below it. Speed alone doesn't kill, not going along with the normal traffic patterns does, go with the flow. Some experienced drivers still are unaware of this, to the detriment of all around them.

Re:not perfect

[hotdiggitydawg]

look at the difference in injuries between a child hit at 30mph (usually survivable if we're to believe the literature) and one hit at, say 60mph (usually fatal, IIRC).

There's an ad campaign [thinkroadsafety.gov.uk] running over here in the UK that quotes an 80% survival rate for children hit at 30mph, and an 80% fatality rate for children hit at 40mph.

Re:You learn through mistakes

[plague3106]

How is it off topic? The goal of this device is to stop speeding, which is violating the posted limit. How that posted limit is set is the issue here.

You're a liar. One ticket and you never did it again? Ya, ok.

Its funny, because in PA near Philadelphia, the limit on the interstates is 55. Yet traffic flows quite nicely around 75 mph. Yet there was not carnage everywhere, as you claim to think. And yes, in that case the ass going 55 while everyone around is doing 75 IS MORE DANGEROUS. But you probably don't even realize that some states have a MINIMUM limit on interstates as well. Gee, why would they do that? Forcing people to go AT LEAST a speed!? So dangerous!!

I never said to abolish speed limits, I said most are set to generate revenue, and set unsafely LOW. The safe speed for a road can be determined through a scientific study.

This device is attempting to solve the wrong problem; careless teens cause accidents and this device (like modern speed limit enforcement) does nothing to solve the problem.

The problem with speed limits is that you just assume that going X when the limit is Y means its more dangerous, which is not the case. It'd be kinda like punishing someone for being a sex offender, if the only thing you need to do to become one would be to buy a Playboy.

The law is not infallible; the state doesn't always have OUR best intrests at heart. A state setting limits lower than an engineering study is doing so to generate money because its PROVEN that setting anything lower than the study says is unsafe. You are free to ignore 40 years of traffic engineering studies. Do you still believe the sun revolves around the earth too? Oh no, someone's breaking an unjust law! The horror!

Its people like you that are sliding our country closer and closer to facism.

Re:Have you raised a teenager?

[rhaig]

look jackass... he said that your perspective changes on this as you raise a child.

how about trying to refute that? (since you're apparently all about the point by point, but skip the points you cant refute) Get back to us when your oldest child is say... 15.

"your perspective changes" is all he said. he didn't say you're full of shit.

Re:Have you raised a teenager?

[shaneh0]

This was originally posted by an A.C. as a reply to one of your other posts, but I'm going to repost it here. I agree totally.

---

You're a moron. You think you're all grown up at 22? The biggest mistakes of your life still lie ahead of you.

What's arrogance is a 22 year old who thinks he's all grown up. What's arrogance is a 22 year old who thinks he knows better for someones child then the person who RAISED the child. What's arrogance is opening your mouth and offering opinions about things you've never experienced.

When you're a student, you see a lot of teachers. You can describe their job. You can explain their responsibilities. A student can emulate his teacher. A student can occassionally even teach his teacher. But that doesn't prepare a student to *be* a teacher. That isn't an insult to the student, it's just a fact of life.

Someday you'll be a teacher. That day is not today.

---

Wait for your day, son.

Re:Have you raised a teenager?

[Cthefuture]

I wouldn't say they are a moron. This is typical of that age group. From 18-25 or so you think you have grown up and know what you are doing. You realize there are things you don't know about but at the same time you think you know what they are and can handle them. It's the age of what I would call adult arrogance (versus teen-age arrogance). You think you are humble but really you have no idea what it means.

It's only once you get past 25 or so (depending on experience) you realize what it means to be humble. As the OP stated, there are a lot of humbling experiences to be had in the 18-25 ages and these change you. You realize that you truly don't know anything and will experience many more humbling moments. It's at that point you become what I consider an adult.