Autoblog

Have teenagers gone nuts? The Federal Highway Administration is reporting that the percentage of teenagers with driver's licenses is going down. Yeah, decreasing! What is up with that?

When I was growing up, my teenage years focused on just one objective... driving. All I wanted was to get my driver's license. That little card with your picture on it was the golden ticket. You could borrow your parent's car, fill the tank (and grab a candy bar) for $20, and nobody could reach you until you returned. We didn't have cell phones, text messaging or GPS tracking. A driver's license represented freedom.

So, what happened? Experts aren't blaming unmotivated teenagers. Instead, they point the finger at the environment in which we are raising our kids. In today's world, parents are much more likely to chauffeur their teenagers from place to place. Tighter state laws govern when kids can drive, and in many cases legislation has pushed the driving age limit higher. Fewer high schools are offering driver's education classes, forcing parents to pay for more expensive private instruction, and steeper rates are making insurance cost-prohibitive for the high-risk teen-age category. Top it all off with gasoline at more than three-dollars per gallon, and maybe a driver's license just doesn't represent what it used to.

[Source: New York Times]

So they're not out to break a speeder's bank like Indiana, but Virginia has created a host of civil fines for speeders that will pay for the state's new annual $1 billion transportation package. That means that after July 1, not only will you get a bill from the judge for speeding, you will then get a much larger bill from the state. Fr'instance, drive without a license, pay $75 to the court and $900 to VA. Do 20 mph over the limit, pay $200 to the court, pay $1,050 to VA. We really love this one: if you have eight points on your license and get a speeding ticket, you'll pay an additional $75 for every point above eight, and another $100 for simply having more than eight points. That smacks of double jeopardy to us, but what do we know?

For the record, almost no one -- and not just speeders -- likes it. Court clerks are expecting to face the anger when people find out about the new fees at the courthouse window. Defense attorneys are getting ready for legal challenges. Judges are expecting people to start pleading not guilty to avoid paying the fees. Which means prosecutors will face more trials.

The "abuser fees" are only for "major" infractions, and only paid by Virginia residents. The new revenue will pay for building roads, snow removal, pothole repair, and grass mowing. David Albo, one of the legislative sponsors of the bill, took New Jersey's similar fee system as a template, and called it "a voluntary tax." After all, "if you don't commit a crime ... you don't pay anything."

Thanks for the tip, Josh

[Source: Washington Post]

We're sure that policemen in Holland have seen plenty of strange things. The tiny country gets people from all over the world who can't wait to do all kinds of stuff that they'd never do at home. And we suspect that the Dutch wish they wouldn't do them in Holland, either. This time, though, the noteworthy behavior came from one of their own: at a random police check, an 84-year-old Dutchman admitted that his car was uninsured, that it had never had a vehicle safety test, and that he hadn't had a license for 67 years. The reason he'd never been caught: even though he's been driving since before Pearl Harbor, he's never had an accident or a ticket. So maybe he shouldn't get an honorary license, but perhaps some kind of award is in order...

[Source: Reuters]

Even Porsche lovers will readily acknowledge that the Cayenne is far from being the most beautiful creations ever penned by Stuttgart, so why on earth would anyone want to mimic the shape in any form? Someone in Hong Kong evidently thought otherwise and produced this (hopefully) limited-edition Porsche Cayenne mobile phone.

In addition to its unfortunate and ridiculous appearance, this handset packs in dual-band GSM, a micro-SD card slot, and support for video and music playback. It'll cost you less than $200, plus any shred of good taste you might have retained if showing this unfortunate device off to your friends strikes you as a good idea.

This is why automakers license products and have input into their designs. Porsche is reportedly taking legal action against the manufacturer for copyright infringement, and we hope the automaker wins.

[Source: Engadget]

Bad guys beware, there is new technology that will hunt you down and have you singing the jailhouse blues faster than ever before. Harnessing the power of computers, the ALPR (Automatic License Plate Recognition System) allows police to be far more efficient, by no longer relying on just their sharp set of human eyes to spot suspect vehicles.

There are three cameras fitted to a police vehicle -- marked or unmarked. In the video after the jump, the vehicle is unmarked, and by just driving down the road, every plate from oncoming traffic, and cars on the side of the road (or the next lane), is logged and analyzed. There's also a side-facing camera which comes into play when cruising parking lots. The system can handle up to 3,000 plates a day, and by making it a passive activity, it turns nabbing bad guys into something akin to playing the lottery.

The system can be anywhere and everywhere, from stationary systems to car-mounted mobile units, there is no hiding from the long arm of the law. All an officer needs to do is drive around. With the system keeping an ever-vigilant watch on all the plates and comparing them with a database of suspect plate numbers, police time is freed up, so they can go about protecting and serving. Heck, while on their way to another call, they may just get lucky and pass a vehicle that "hits", turning it into a bonus score for the day.

Thanks for the tip, Dave!

Video after the jump

[Source: mobilemag]

Yesterday, the European Parliament made way for a new law that would standardize all 110 licenses currently employed by the 200 million inhabitants of the European Union.

The move to issue one license throughout the EU came at the behest of both legislators and safety advocates alike, in an attempt to curtail confusion and eliminate abuses in the current system. A number of problems have arose over the last several years, including the phenomenon of "Driving license tourism", where a person who's had their driving privilege revoked in one country for drunk driving offenses or a medical condition, would then travel to another country to secure a valid license.

This new law would also make staged licensing of motorcyclists mandatory across the EU, where beginners would only be permitted to ride small displacement machines until their competence behind the handlebars was established. The addition of a small microchip inside licenses was also addressed in the new legislation, however such a device would not be mandatory.

As with any bureaucratic endeavor, the status quo will continue for some time, as the law will only go into effect in 2013, with all drivers forced to give up their old licenses by 2033.

[Source: EU Observer, Channel4]