I don't mind them being installed in new vehicles as long as I have a choice of whether to buy one or not. When the day comes that my vehicle is not street legal because it has no data recorder, or I am penalized in some way for not having one, this will no longer be "the land of the free".
In theory they are a good idea. In practice we seem to have a way of taking good ideas and using them for bad purposes. I recently read an article about GPS in cell phones. I recall a comment in that article that, when you drive by the mall your phone will start ringing with advertisements and coupons from the stores in the mall. That would P me O. It's an invasion of my privacy.
As far as letting the cops know where I am, I don't do anything they would care about anyway. Being a law abider, I wish there was a way of getting people to slow down to something close to the speed limit. It scares me sometimes to drive the speed limit on the interstate through this small city and watch the traffic in the rear view mirror parting like the red sea for Moses. It can be hard to change lanes when people are roaring up behind you 10 or 15 mph over the limit.
I don't favor policing so much as I do education. Get people to understand the reasons for rules, then police those who just don't care.
I really believe that someday we will have cars that do the driving for us and all human occupants will be passengers. That's the only way that we will be able to get traffic violations under control. I'm not looking forward to it. (Unless I'm such an old geezer that it's the only way I can get around.)
