California's new DMV director wants mileage tax
By Joshua Fruhlinger 
posted November 18th 2004 10:31AM
posted November 18th 2004 10:31AM
As it stands, Californians pay an 18-cent-per-gallon gasoline tax, but Joan Borucki, the state's new Department of Motor Vehicles director, says that's not enough. Instead, she wants to tax drivers based on the miles they have driven. She hopes to fit cars with GPS devices that calculate the mileage traveled and then send citizens bills. While the gas tax would be lifted, this would level the playing field for less-efficient cars. In other words, Larry David would be charged as much to go 10 miles in his Prius as the Governator would in his Hummer. Of course, this also means that some evil agency would be able to track virtually anyone's car at any time. Add in the Patriot Act, and you've got some distressed Californians.
In response to:
Posted Nov 18, 2004, 11:58 AM ET by Steve
GPS has a random-walk in the coordinate data as a security feature. That means a stopped (or parked) car would still record movement around a 20 meter locus. ie. No one gets a bill for $0.
Sounds like another bill created by someone who doesn't understand technology at all.
GPS's random-walk isn't a security feature. It's an inherent error in the system due to tropospheric, multi-path and other RF receive errors causing the GPS receiver to inaccurately calculate psuedoranges. The only way to counter-act this problem is Differential GPS. DGPS systems have an MF antenna (picture the domes you see on top of big rigs on top of your sedan), an MF receiver unit and Minimum Shift Keying RTCM message decoder, which isn't normally very small. It would be like mounting said antenna and an enclosure box the size of a closed laptop to the inside of your car.
In response to comment 24 by b: 5. We produce most the fruits and veggies you eat outside of corn, soy beans, and oranges. We even produce the corn people eat! Ever been to Sloughouse? Bestest, sweetest corn on earth! And Oranges? Uh, Redlands, San Bernardino, ORANGE COUNTY??? Come on, we got that, too!