{"id":18717,"date":"2024-12-20T09:00:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T10:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18717"},"modified":"2024-12-20T10:24:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T10:24:25","slug":"your-car-might-be-making-roads-safer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=18717","title":{"rendered":"Your Car Might Be Making Roads Safer"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Researchers say data from long-haul trucks, and cars made by General Motors, is critical for addressing traffic congestion and road safety. Data privacy experts have their concerns.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Darcy Bullock, a civil engineering professor at Purdue University, turns to his computer screen to get information about how fast cars are traveling on Interstate 65, which runs 887 miles from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. It\u2019s midafternoon on a Monday, and his screen is mostly filled with green dots indicating that traffic is moving along nicely. But near an exit on the outskirts of Indianapolis, an angry red streak shows that cars have stopped moving.<\/p>\n

A traffic camera nearby reveals the cause: A car has spun out, causing gridlock.<\/p>\n

In recent years, vehicles that have wireless connectivity have become a critical source of information for transportation departments and for academics who study traffic patterns. The data these vehicles emit \u2014 including speed, how hard they brake and accelerate, and even if their windshield wipers are on \u2014 can offer insights into dangerous road conditions, congestion or poorly timed traffic signals.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cars know more about our roads than agencies do,\u201d said Dr. Bullock, who regularly works with the Indiana Department of Transportation to conduct studies on how to reduce traffic congestion and increase road safety. He credits connected-car data with detecting hazards that would have taken years \u2014 and many accidents \u2014 to find in the past.<\/p>\n

The data comes primarily from commercial trucks and from cars made by General Motors that are enrolled in OnStar, G.M.\u2019s internet-connected service. (Drivers know OnStar as the service that allows them to lock their vehicles from a smartphone app or find them if they have been stolen.) Federal safety guidelines require commercial truck drivers to be routinely monitored, but people driving G.M. vehicles may be surprised to know that their data is being collected, though it is indicated in the fine print of the company\u2019s privacy policy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

For years, G.M. has been selling driving data from its cars to third parties. A New York Times report<\/a> in March described how G.M. sold information about individuals\u2019 driving behavior to the insurance industry.<\/p>\n

After that report, G.M. was sued by drivers<\/a> and by the attorney general of Texas<\/a> for selling consumers\u2019 data without their consent, and the company stopped selling driving data to risk-profiling companies. But it continues to sell anonymous data about where and how its cars are driven, which the company stated was a \u201ccommon business practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers say data from long-haul trucks, and cars made by General Motors, is critical for addressing traffic congestion and road safety. Data privacy experts have their concerns.Darcy Bullock, a civil engineering professor at Purdue University, turns to his computer screen to get information about how fast cars are traveling on Interstate 65, which runs 887 miles from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico. It\u2019s midafternoon on a Monday, and his screen is mostly filled with green dots indicating that traffic is moving along nicely. But near an exit on the outskirts of Indianapolis, an angry red streak shows that cars have stopped moving.A traffic camera nearby reveals the cause: A car has spun out, causing gridlock.In recent years, vehicles that have wireless connectivity have become a critical source of information for transportation departments and for academics who study traffic patterns. The data these vehicles emit \u2014 including speed, how hard they brake and accelerate, and even if their windshield wipers are on \u2014 can offer insights into dangerous road conditions, congestion or poorly timed traffic signals.\u201cOur cars know more about our roads than agencies do,\u201d said Dr. Bullock, who regularly works with the Indiana Department of Transportation to conduct studies on how to reduce traffic congestion and increase road safety. He credits connected-car data with detecting hazards that would have taken years \u2014 and many accidents \u2014 to find in the past.The data comes primarily from commercial trucks and from cars made by General Motors that are enrolled in OnStar, G.M.\u2019s internet-connected service. (Drivers know OnStar as the service that allows them to lock their vehicles from a smartphone app or find them if they have been stolen.) Federal safety guidelines require commercial truck drivers to be routinely monitored, but people driving G.M. vehicles may be surprised to know that their data is being collected, though it is indicated in the fine print of the company\u2019s privacy policy.For years, G.M. has been selling driving data from its cars to third parties. A New York Times report in March described how G.M. sold information about individuals\u2019 driving behavior to the insurance industry.After that report, G.M. was sued by drivers and by the attorney general of Texas for selling consumers\u2019 data without their consent, and the company stopped selling driving data to risk-profiling companies. But it continues to sell anonymous data about where and how its cars are driven, which the company stated was a \u201ccommon business practice.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18719,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18720,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18717\/revisions\/18720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}