A Boring Dystopia

If people drive despite not having a license then they should get their car taken away.

Yeah I mean it’s simple and it’s complicated. Like in theory if you senselessly endanger people’s lives, we keep you off the roads. Easy peasy.

But in the US driving is simply not optional in many places. It may be the only way you can get to work or medical appointments, and most places don’t have public transit set up to handle that reliably.

In fact most (all?) US states have a system in place that allows unlicensed people to drive when they absolutely need to, in some cases even young teenagers below normal driving age. It’s often personally tailored: for example, a repeat OUI offender may get documents stating they are only allowed to drive at certain times of day, to certain predefined locations, and only in a specific car that requires a breathalyzer to start.

But even in that most extreme and egregious case, after everything and even after jail time and a permanent license suspension, they still end up on the roads regularly. So in the current legal framework there really isn’t a viable mechanism to take away their car

Re: remote tracking; Based on quickly looking up the actual devices being used they do appear to collect and report telemetry, but it’s a bit muddy as they appear to be more commonly used in commercial fleets. So sure, there may be room for some doubt on the matter. Modern cars in general are more likely than not actively equipped to report your information directly to the police, so who knows, maybe the personal ISA systems themselves are designed not to bother with it after all