A man in Connecticut rented a car and was shocked to discover a $450 charge for speeding on his bill when he returned the vehicle. It seems the rental company has GPS devices in their cars so they can track what the driver might do. Now … in general I think this is a pretty good idea. I’m in favor of using technology to do neat-o things like this. And if it was in the contract the guy signed before he rented the car, well, he’s got no one to blame but himself. I rented a car in Louisiana last month and got busted for speeding by an old fashioned police officer with a radar gun. I would have been in much bigger trouble, though, had the company been clocking me the entire time I had the car. I am going to have to remember to read all those little clauses and notes and tiny-print items on contracts in the future.
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That story is way disturbing. But I have a question, how does the GPS know the friking speed limit on a given street? Do they program that kind of information into the GPS? Scary. Or maybe what we don’t know is that this Connecticut gentleman was traveling at 120 mph more than a few times…..
The GPS only reports to the car rental agency how quickly the car moved between two points. The driver didn’t exceed the posted speed limit on a street; he exceeded the speed limit for the rental agency! Their contract states that you cannot take the rental car about 79 mph. He didn’t even break the law! (Well … if he had been driving in Texas or Arizona where the legal limit is 80 on some stretches …)
Or you could just try driving the speed limit for a change…