A phone in every car gains hard-won GSMA support

It baffles me.....

....that the UK is holding out on cost / value / effectiveness grounds, but is pressing ahead with ID cards.

Would it be because UK MP's have no holdings in the firms required to produce the technology - so there's nothing for them to trouser?

Where's the "clammy hand grasping after a bundle of bank notes" icon?

What about my bicycle?

If I'm hit by some witless texting driver, I'll be in more urgent need of medical attention than a car driver encased in airbags and several tons of steel. Can I have a GSM-GPS notifier-tracker-nanny installed?

As other have pointed out ...

... a recipe for services overload.

A couple of weeks ago, someone ran into the building - I suspect a classic "hit the throttle instead of brake" automatic accident. Very quickly we had two police vans and a paramedic out in the street looking for the vehicle - it was in out car park, and due to the location, they couldn't see the smashed front end of it. Shortly after that, the fire engine and ambulance arrived, plus another police van, and a fire officer in a car.

SEVEN emergency vehicles for a low speed impact causing only minor injuries to one person (she'd just taken her belt off and got a bloody nose and slight whiplash from impact with the exploding airbag).

And I'm with the other sceptics above - how long before the tracking begins.

Dont be fooled..

By thinking you will get away with removing or breaking said tracking device. Any miles travelled that cannot be accounted for via the GPS system will be charged at a slightly higher rate. They will incorporate your mileometer reading which is much more difficult to tamper with.

Also, I'd really like to know who exactly are the individuals that think this stuff up? Statements such as "The UK is holding out" Who in the UK? and who exactly is proposing this in the first place?

Cost / benefit.

"....or a shade over £14m for each one of the 2500 lives saved."

I'm sorry, but this a debate that needs to be had. The 'elf 'n safety nazis have had all the low-hanging fruit and are now off on a kick to achieve the (patently impossible) target of zero accidental deaths.

The Truth That Dare Not Speak Its Name here is that the various pieces of legislation gradually chipping away at our liberties (and wallets) need to be subjected to rigorous cost (both monetary and in terms of inconvenience/privacy/personal freedom issues) to benefit analysis. This would, however, entail effectively putting a price on human life and the sort of dickheads that work in this business all have in common that they genuinely believe that no price is too high to pay, so we're f***ed as things stand.

@Whoever said that ABS and NCAP stars should be mandated: If you ever feel like complaining about the "nanny state", look in the sodding mirror first.