Out in the car world, the conversation about the third on-board diagnostic system (OBD3) has gotten to the next level and talks about how to implement it are ongoing.
All American cars built after approximately 1995 have an on board diagnostic system that can communicate with a mechanics scan tool or their computer.
This system is called OBD2, and even now, on more advanced cars different government agencies can issue warrants without your knowledge, and can ask that your vehicle be tracked, or they can request to have your doors unlocked or locked.
Technology in automobiles has been twofold in that fuel efficiency and safety are important. My first car was a 1962 Ford Falcon and it had a straight six engine and a two-speed automatic transmission. This car probably was one of the most unsafe cars Ford ever built, but it was good on gas and it did that without computers installed in it.
It is not illegal to commit suicide or to cut yourself, consequently I don’t understand why automotive manufactures should to be forced to make their cars more expensive with government-mandated safety features. When I had my Falcon, I knew it was unsafe, my friends knew it was unsafe but we all, being adults, consensually agreed to be driven around in it. Furthermore, parents are responsible for their children and in a free market, cars like my Falcon would still be available to buy, and it would be up to the parents to make the safest choice for their children.
This is the sort of debate got Ralph Nader famous. Nader, during the 1960s, viciously attacked the Chevy Corvair for what he said was a death trap. He was a pioneer in getting car companies under the control of the government. Nader today is a nobody in politics who only succeeded in making cars more expensive and handing George W. Bush Jr. the presidency in 2000 by splitting the left-wing vote.
Nader’s crusade for safer cars was at least noble in his time because having driven classics myself, I know that they will kill you if you get in an accident. However, ODB3 is a great many ideas taken too far.
One of the ideas floated for OBD3 that is gaining popularity is if your engine light turns on and you do not get your car fixed within a certain time frame, your car will not start until you have it towed into a shop for repair.
If your engine light turns on, 80 per cent of the time it is because there is a problem with your emissions control system. That system is, of course, entirely designed to save trees and polar bears.
If your running for re-election and you want the green vote, supporting such an idea for OBD3 would be a great way to get votes. That is the inherent problem with having the government involved with business. A business is objectively motivated by profit; people only give money to a business if they like what the business does or is selling. The government is motivated by power, which only makes considerations for the whims of the masses, which change ever year.
Since the automotive market is not free and the government has had control of it for some time, the future of automobile purchases will consistent of one type of car that no one wants. That car will be the one that costs you $1,000 every time your engine light turns on, it will be the one that the police can track or shutdown at a whim, it will be the one that immobilizes itself when you try to do your own electrical work on it, and finally, long story short, it will be the one that burns a hole in your wallet while depriving you of all the freedoms having your own car can bring.
The only real defence is in most provinces a car safety only happens a few times in a cars life. Because of that I’d happily rip the entire heart and drive-train out of a 2020-something Big Brother car, and replace it with something fun. Should the car safety laws in the rest of Canada become the same as the Maritimes I would honestly suggest buying a horse; it will be more fun and cost you less money.
