[felsokning]

> Observe, for comparison, the FAA requirements for flight plans and running a broadcasting transponder to safely operate an airplane.

If you're talking about ADS-B, the only parallel to a database that is owned/operated by manufactures of the vehicles is that they broadcast a signal -- but that's where any form of parallel stops/ends, because the signal from vehicles is not intended not to be broadcasted in such way as to be publicly consumable; which is precisely why the car manufacturers control a monopoly on that data and why law enforcement goes to them for the data.

Planes could arguably operate just as safely before those transponders -- they just couldn't be tracked publicly by anyone (or each other) in real time. Being able to track something doesn't - automatically - infer any upsides, whatsoever, just that we know where the plane is and/or went.

[aftbit]

I agree with the first point but not the second. Transponders enable TCAS and TCAS has saved many lives.

[felsokning]

Those were radar-based (before ADS-B), I thought?

[aftbit]

Nope, TCAS has always been based on secondary surveillance (i.e. transponders). Before ADS-B, it was based on Mode S. Air traffic control has used primary radar and even more primitive methods (position/speed/bearing reports over radio) to maintain separation since long before transponders. The in-cockpit automated "traffic traffic" advisory and "climb climb" or "descend descend" resolution advisory come from TCAS, which relies on transponders.