Brake, or the Government Will Do It For You

You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried. More Big Bother tactics in not-so-merry old England:

Motorists face having their cars fitted with a “spy” device that stops speeding. The satellite-based system will monitor the speed limit and apply the brakes or cut out the accelerator if the driver tries to exceed it. A government-funded trial has concluded that the scheme promotes safer driving.

Comments

[Phil]

Of couse, what happens when the cheaply built and poorly conceived government device fails and cripples the brakes system of your car? Oh, nothing, of course.

[wade]

this doesn't seem much different from the speed limiters they already have on trucks. Whats the big deal? if you own your own road on your own land then i can see that you could have a problem with government saying how you should and shouldn't drive.
If you drive on public roads, don't be surprised to be told how to drive. There would be no need for this kind of thing if there were no accidents or traffic jams, but anyone who has driven regularly in england knows that there are.
I commute about 15 miles to work, down the M62 This should take me no more than 30 minutes. It regularly takes 50 minutes, and can take 2hours if there has been a crash because idiots fly along at 80 miles an hour about one nanosecond behind the car in front. The record for getting home on a friday is 3 hours 15 minutes. I would gladly trade some control over my vehicle for a guaranteed 30 minute commute. If i want to drive like a maniac i can pay to drive round oulton park racetrack, as fast as i like

[carpundit]

Comments like Wade's neatly demonstrate why your colonies decided to break away from your king a couple centuries ago. That stuff might fly in Britain, but tens of millions of Americans would rather throw their cars in the harbor than accept such interference.

[wade]

well, hopefully millions of brits will throw their cars away too, freeing up the roads for me.
There was another crash last night, a lorry jack knifed and it's load of steel shot through the cab. It took me half an hour to get past the crash site, and it was on the other friggin carriageway, because my idiot fellow drivers all slowed right down to have a look.
You have to accept that you lose some of your status as an autonomous individual when you get on any transport system. It's a trade off you see - you accept that you have to follow certain rules because by doing so you can get where you want to go more quickly, giving you more freedom to do what you want with the time you have saved.
One of the downsides of cars is that they give you the illusion of individualism because it's your car and often it's only you in it, but you are still subject to whatever rules are imposed by the systems designers just as if on a plane or subway train.
The test of whether such an idea as a "spy" device (an emotive way of putting it to say the least) is worthwhile is not whether or not it infringes on some spurious notion of individual freedom that does not apply, but whether it gets more vehicles to where they want to go more quickly, giving out a great big dollop of freedom, in the form of less wasted time stuck in traffic.

[Martin Owens Jr]

If the driver cannot be trusted to control the car, what's the point in issuing drivers' licenses? If they're so dangerous that instantaneous, real time government supervision is needed, why allow cars at all?

No this is just meddling for meddling's sake, a ruling class with nothing real to do.

Just shows what happens when you give up your guns

[Martin Owens Jr]

If the driver cannot be trusted to control the car, what's the point in issuing drivers' licenses? If they're so dangerous that instantaneous, real time government supervision is needed, why allow cars at all?

No this is just meddling for meddling's sake, a ruling class with nothing real to do.

Just shows what happens when you give up your guns