Big Brother Is Watching Your Vehicle—in Real Time

Government narcotics agents have secretly built a database of “hundreds of millions of records” on the movement of in-vehicle pc in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reports. The information, originally meant to help steer police toward suspects in drug-smuggling cases, is now used in kidnapping cases and other crimes.

An important point of the program is to confiscate cars and other assets of people suspected of crimes. Such civil forfeiture, as it is called, is controversial in part because it has far fewer safeguards against abuse than punishments made in criminal cases. Whether the car-tracking intelligence program is supervised by the courts remains unclear, the Journal says.

It had already been known that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) tracked the license plates of cars coming in from Mexico. The news is that the agency, together with state and local authorities, is also conducting surveillance  on major highways elsewhere in the country.

According to the Journal, highway in-vehicle pc cameras not only note the time, direction and location of vehicles but also record “visual images of drivers and passengers, which are sometimes clear enough for network security investigators to confirm identities, according to DEA documents and people familiar with the program.” Earlier, the agency had held on to such embedded computer data for two years, but it says it now deletes it after three months.

The newspaper says it bases its account on interviews with government network security officials and on government documents, some supplied by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had obtained them under the Freedom of Information Act.

In scope and intent the embedded computer program resembles another recently uncovered surveillance program of the U.S. Marshalls Service, one that uses airplanes to scoop up information on cell phones across the country. Both the DEA and the Marshalls Service are part of the U.S. Justice Department.

refer to:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/telecom/security/big-brother-is-watching-your-car-and-noting-down-the-license-number

Stay Alert, Act Agile – Municipal Vehicle Management

Municipal Vehicle Management

‧Municipal Vehicle, such as police car and fire truck. (Canada)‧Canada government use AR-V6002FL in their municipal vehicle to be a control center. With built-in wireless communication module, operator can locate their position and feedback the information for dispatcher immediately. There is also a dashboard with more than 70 gauges in the vehicle, Acrosser platform help monitor data and trigger the events following their rules.

Municipal vehicles facilitate public services that are deeply connected to providing safety and security in our daily lives; however, accidents can still occur. It is extremely important that civil officers are able to react instantly to accidents and crime. Municipal vehicles require steady and reliable solutions because of their harsh working environments. One of the problems that these municipal vehicles must handle is adaptability to battery voltage changes. Thanks to the smart power management subsystem incorporated in its in-vehicle system, Acrosser’s vehicle PC provides a wide DC input range, even in mobile operating environments.


Reasons why Acrosser’s vehicle PC is good for law enforcement deployment include:
‧x86-based system for easy integration
‧customized mechanical design
‧design specialized for vehicular environments
‧long-term support and service capability
‧compatibility with integrated solutions

Optimized Traffic Management in Airports

Airport Vehicle Traffic Management‧Airport in France

‧AR-V6002FL works as a control computer on airport vehicle. Airport control center can do traffic
management by locating and route planning through each vehicle computer.
‧A-GPS is used for faster and more precisely position locating.
‧Improve traffic safety especially in winter foggy morning and at night.

Ground traffic at airports may be just as busy as that in the skies. During rush hour, frequent arrival and departure flights result in passenger overflow between airport terminals. As a result, flight information should be synchronized with ground service centers, enabling fleet managers to dispatch the right bus between gates and terminals to facilitate smooth and safe passenger transportation.

On the other hand, airport service trucks should be able to reach any location and respond to any emergency technical failures within airports and terminals. With Acrosser’s vehicle PC installed on each service truck, dispatch managers can locate and alert the nearest idle truck for rapid repair services. By documenting mileage and fuel consumption information from shuttle buses and service trucks,

airport managers can improve resource utilization to enhance safety measures and provide a more pleasurable travel experience.

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