big brother or ??

I remember reading somewhere that some rental car companies are using GPS to monitor car speed and charge extra if you exceed the limits. Thought that was a bit much.

But then there'* this: Rented a car from Enterprise (Central Texas area) last week and there was a sign behind the counter that said "Cars not to be taken out of state". I jokingly asked the agent if they had a spotter at the border. He said no, that the on board tracking system (a 'very advanced Enterprise GPS development similar to, but not based on, Onstar') was programmed such that it set a flag when it decided the state line was crossed. It then waited till the first time speed fell below 15MPH ('for safety reasons') shut the engine down and called Enterprise to tell them where their car was. The car would not restart until directed from their operations center. He stated that the system was initially installed on the higher end rentals but it was working so well that it would be on everything within the next year or so. He seemed very proud of the system and how, in addition to all advertised Onstar type functions (including hands free cell phone ('On a per minute basis added to your rental')), it would be used to track mileage, 'driving habits', vehicle location and performance, 'any other pertinant data' (?), etc. All fed back in real time to a central computer and cross indexed to driver data.

Life used to be a lot simpler

So much for the rental beater. One of these nights when I get drunk (maybe later) I'll tell the story of what we did to the rental car in Guam. Or maybe Hawaii. Both were pretty cool, but Guam was better.

Always pay for the insurance so they can't bitch