Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  The policeman on your dashboard (27 Sep 2005) The prospect of having a policeman on the dashboard might seem a little Big Brotherish to some people. But the UAE project may merely offer a glimpse of what regulators in other countries are also planning. Switzerland and Germany have already introduced automatic road-toll systems for freight vehicles. These are widely seen as a prelude to extending similar measures to cars. The British government has suggested replacing its current road-tax scheme with a satellite-based “pay as you drive” system for all vehicles. The UAE system will also be used for road-taxing and for car-insurance purposes, says Tayeb Kamali, the chief executive of CERT. But it has not yet been decided whether charges and insurance premiums will be based on distance, time of travel or route taken. Article URL: http://www.economist.com/science/tq/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4368084 Read 80 more articles from Economist sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Watch this space          Books about Usability | Information Architecture | Information Visualisation | Technology History This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy