[vox_mundi]

Seems OK now

[beamofthewave]

so who do I sue from my hospital bed when I run into the citizen whose car was disabled by the banker in Walmart who is getting his freak on by turning off the car on the freeway. After a few deaths I predict this will end.

[C8]

This cold be dangerous for repo men. If a car shuts off automatically then I know they are coming for it. What if someone is mentally unstable and ambushes the repo man? In the past, once the repo man got into the car he got out as fast as possible with it.

[ROCKMAN]

"After a few deaths I predict this will end.". Obviously no moving vehicle would be shut down. As far as repo men being at risk: if they were going to go after the car the would do it before it's shut down. I suspect just the opposite: repo men cut out of the process. A non tech and minimum wage worker can put eyes on the car, shut it down and wait for the debtor to make things right with the lender. The big risk would be the debtor damaging the vehicles. Which wouldn't help the out with the lender...and THE LAW.

[onlooker]

All this reeks of more control by Big Brother and private companies. Cameras which seem ubiquitous. Background checks for a variety of reasons. NSA spying on everyone. We seem now to live in a world whereby all trust is lost. I certainly side with Libertarians who I am sure are very bothered by increased surveillance and control by the government. Makes me think of the rumors of chip implants which allow authorities to monitor you 24/7. Much too Orwellian for me.

[evilgenius]

The real crime is that people aren't taught to handle money, nor to understand it, in a society that hinges upon the device. The very idea that money is created out of thin are, that it isn't real because it's been received as a loan, is ludicrous. If you take that position, then you don't realize that all money receives its value from the faith of the people. Even the paper bills in your pocket receive their value from the faith of the people. Even gold receives its value from the faith of the people.

Because there is such a dearth of financial education, further, it becomes impossible to sort out ethical scoundrels from ignorant ones. Both kinds of delinquents are thrown in together and efforts to do anything about the poor practices work for one group but not the other, and vice versa. This new starter lock out, which presumably only keeps your car from starting - as the name implies, is just such a one group and not the other tool.

Ideally, what you would want would be legal reforms that forced lenders to go through good faith hoops before they could take the most drastic action. The law ought to be any person's best defense against those who have more financial or political power in any dispute. Under such a scenario the device might have to warn a person for a specified period of days prior to the shut off that it was going to shut the car off at a certain time.