Saturday, January 03, 2009

Should cars have automatic speed limiters?

BBC News

For the last couple years, the State of Oregon has been researching a new method of collecting road taxes by adding a GPS device to your car to track the miles traveled between fill ups and thereby making the tax payable at the pump.

Well, in addition to tracking your mileage, what is the next step for vehicle GPS Systems?

How about an automated speed limiter preventing you from exceeding the posted speed limit?

They're working on it!

Research on this type of car is currently being done overseas, and according to new report, a speed limiting devise could help save lives, cut carbon emissions[and reduce your carbon tax]. The System Works by comparing the current GPS location of a vehicle with an onboard map of the area. If the system determines that the current speed of the car is in excess of the posted speed limit, the system will override drivers control and reduce the throttle and apply brakes if necessary. The operator or driver of the car does have the option [currently] to override the system if necessary.

Speed limit in devices are nothing new and are becoming more common in commercial vehicles.
in my opinion, having a system that takes away control from the driver is dangerous. For example, how many times during a normal road trip do you have to speed up to avoid a collision? The other issue, is freedom and control.

As technology advances… How much "control" how we're going to give up for the illusion of safety?

1 comment:

Bobkatt said...

More BS from Sleepy Ted. He doesn't seem satisfied with just screwing up the economy. Not only is this just plain wrong but it also would penalize those of us that can afford all this modern technology.