Rental Car Fines

We have all seen and heard the ad's about rental cars having GPS systems "for their customers".
Here is the reality of the issue-from the LA Times 05/05/05-Conn. Supreme Court upheld a ban on rental companies using GPS to track customers and fine them $150 for speeding.

Acme Rent-a-car said they fines were to make up for the wear and tear on their cars driven at excess speeds.

A consumer protection hearing officer determined the cost to be about 37 cents per vehicle.

Customers were not warned of the fines and the "extra money " was automatically debited from consumers bank accounts or credit cards without notice"

Acme's lawyer said," they didn't do this to make money on fee's", they did it to hold speeding down.

The only problem with that is that the customers were never warned about it.

IMO, like so many times before corporations interduce something to their benefit and pretend it is for ours.

Remember the "wonderful" ON-STAR system GM puts in many of their vechiels-that the FBI has used to spy on people with out getting legal warrants................

Another example was blockbuster's "NO LATE FEE" campaign blitz. Well, it seems what they really did was change their policy to if your movie/game was more than ( I believe) 8 days late you bought it. You were not charged the $20 or so dollars you could buy it for, but much, much more. They were sued and the campaign has stopped.

GPS is for the military. They let you use it but civilian GPS has an error introduced. I've used it for "surveying" once and it's kinda funny since you could take one reading and the next reading shows you moved 9 feet underground even though you haven't moved.

My last rental a few months back was a big sedan from Enterprise (can't remember the name, ugly ass car) and when I returned it they checked me out and then sent me to another location since they said they couldn't take it there and forgot to tell me that ahead of time. When I got to that location about 5 miles away (read 30 minutes in L.A. traffic) they complained that the back end was too high. "Back end too high?" I asked flaberghasted that anyone would say something so stupid. The guy then proceded to hold me there so that he could fill out an accident report. I wasn't exactly dressed very nice so I wasn't getting very much respect. The guy handed me off to his manager. He said I probably was sent to their location since the other location didn't want to deal with the accident report. At that point I told him flat out that I sure as hell didn't put a lift kit on a rental sedan and I'd like him to point out a single scratch on the car that would indicate there had been an accident. As far as I was concered the car was a pos with terrible visibility. He said he had to fill out the accident report regardless as it's their policy. I had him call the other location who HAD checked me out and when he did call he said that didn't matter since they didn't recieve the car. I refused to sign the accident report and to avoid a confrontation he said fine and let me go. I was plenty pissed but the girl who drove me to my car said it's not a big deal and I shouldn't worry about it. I found it odd nonetheless.

The next day I get a call from the rental agency (the first location, not the location where I returned the car) saying that my bill wasn't paid in full and that I need to come in to pay the balance. I was about to get very pissed off again. I explained that my insurance paid the whole thing at which point she said, "but not the tax". "WHAT?". I'd told them flat out to get me a car that my insurance would pay for, since I didn't want to pay a penny, so what they did was found me a car that cost $30 a day or whatever my insurance pays and then tried to get me to pay the tax which was somehow over a hundred bucks iirc. I told them they misled me and they quickly waived the tax.

Didn't hear anything from them after that. I had them send me a bill with a zero balance which they did. Very odd rental experience.

<pre><font color=red>A64 3200+ Winchester
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The government has removed the error bit, which is called selective availability quite a few years back.
Now, handheld GPS is accurate to within 15-feet.

Most people think that means you get this accuracy right away, but you need a static observation for about 20 minutes or longer with a clear view of the sky and at least 5 satellites to get within 15-feet range.

And even then, out of 10 points you measure, one or two of them will be outside of the 15-feet tolerance.
I have done this many times myself, recording sessions for 20+ minutes, and invariably, 10 - 20% of my points fall outside of this tolerance.

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In order to have better accuracy, you have to post process. Before selective avalibility was turned off, handhelds (single freguency GPS) were only accurate to within 45-feet +/-

Survey grade (dual frequency) always got centimeter accuracy, as it still does, but still requires post processing.

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What is an IP, is it the odometer?

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