Saturday, December 15, 2007

Study to equip cars with tracking hardware, send testers faux bills

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We've been hearing about these highway use tax trials for years now, but apparently, a new $16.5 million Road User Charge Study will be looking for 2,700 mettlesome individuals that won't mind driving around with a tracking unit riding shotgun. The absurdly expensive initiative is purportedly seeking to figure out whether Americans "would accept the idea of paying by the mile, instead of by the gallon." North Carolina-based Innovation Management -- which will "oversee the study" in the Triangle region of NC -- proclaimed that folks who volunteer to take part in it would have their vehicle fitted with "GPS and computer hardware to track the miles they travel through each state and local government jurisdiction." Best of all, however, is the tidbit noting that these very guinea pigs will also receive "make-believe bills" each month displaying what taxes they would owe if they were indeed being taxed per mile. Anyone want to guess how much revenue they could rake in from accidental payments?

[Via The Wolf Web, image courtesy of WRAL]

 

[via] Engadget

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