Quote Originally Posted by Wraith View Post
Compared to the checking the odometer anually thing, I'd say they're more intrusive. The odometer only tells you how far you've gone, tolls would tell you where you've gone to. A huge toll infrastructure would seem to be more expensive to implement, and counter-productive to your goal of fighting traffic congestion. Post gas tax, I think your goal of fighting congestion would be better served by on-board tracking. Not sure if it's worth the added cost, though, so maybe tolls are a better solution.
I guess we have different definitions of 'intrusive' and 'expensive'. The point is that tolls already exist and are largely accepted by the US public. Expanding the infrastructure is a lot easier than starting up a whole new one, and it will not get as much resistance from privacy advocates. Also, tolls normally have a cash option which completely eliminates concerns about tracking.

As for congestion, tolls don't actually add much if any when implemented properly. This is greatly aided by electronic tolling.

There was some work done before that could be used to turn electric cars into batteries for the energy grid. The idea is that during the day, you can have plugged-in vehicles to feed into the grid instead of drawing from it, and then they charge at night when other consumption is lower. There's a financial incentive to do this for anyone in a place with a smart grid. This isn't very viable right now with current electric vehicles, but maybe in the future it could work out.
Yeah, I've seen that argument. It would be challenging to implement, but might work.

Both possibilities were floated. Tracking would be done to do something like your toll idea, where the rates vary with time/place travelled, to add the benefit of helping with traffic congestion.
Nah, tolls could just have 'gatekeepers' at various high-use regions rather than a comprehensive tracking system. I think it's clear we want to eliminate any need to have real-time GPS tracking of cars.