Here’s some “interesting” news about driving in the Eeeew and Britishland:
UK drivers have been issued a four-week warning of motoring laws being tightened in an attempt to crackdown on the number of speeding fines and accidents.
From July, the UK could see EU speed limiters being installed in cars. All showroom vehicles will be required to come equipped with Intelligent Speed Assist (ISA) technology. Cars that have already been manufactured but have yet to be sold will also have to adhere to the new rules.
“The new rules,” a spokesperson for Motor Match said, “introduce ‘mandatory’ speed limiters, changing how we drive on roads.”
Question: when is Brexit not Brexit? When the BritGov slavishly follows an EU diktat. And note that the foul ISA thing is labeled (Orwellian style) as “Assist” and not “Control” (which is its true function).
Of course, that could never happen in Murka, you might say. Well, technically, Kalifornia isn’t really part of the republic, so:
California could soon join the European Union in requiring all new cars to alert drivers when they break the speed limit, a proposal aimed at reducing traffic deaths that would likely impact drivers across the country should it become law.
The federal government sets safety standards for vehicles nationwide, which is why most cars now beep at drivers if their seat belt isn’t fastened. A bill in the California Legislature — which passed its first vote in the state Senate on Tuesday — would go further by requiring all new cars sold in the state by 2032 to beep at drivers when they exceed the speed limit by at least 10 mph.
Of course, the Golden Shower state’s little exercise in statist nannyism is just an “advisory” device…
I leave the rest to your imagination.
Just my opinion.
If one has been aware of newer vehicles, particularly EVs, are equipped with sound generator software mimicking internal combustion engines either in cabin or externally, I think some bright spark will come up with a “defeat device” a’la VW/Audi Dieselgate to fool this “controller”. At least, for those who can afford it.
And I do hope that happens, but unfortunately I also believe that Plebes need not apply. Can’t have the riff-raff enjoying a little speed now and then, it’s for their own good, dontcha know.
Curse CARB/California (some overlap). This makes me want to escape to the “real” United States even more : (
….sound generator software mimicking internal combustion engines….
…this was a “feature” of the future in Kornbluth’s The Marching Morons, which is daily becoming less fictional.
.
We already have that here.
Tired of expensive repair bills and being left stranded, I recently traded in my 11 year old Bimmer for a 2024 Ford Mustang convertible. It comes with an Intelligent Speed Limiter that nudges back at you when you try to exceed the speed limit. It reads the speed limit signs and uses GPS data to determine the local speeding limit.
I set it for 5 over (the max) and was tempted to turn it off completely, but I kinda like the “nudge” to keep me from getting too aggressive. If I keep giving it some gas the limiter gives up and lets me go balls to the wall if I want.
However, I can see that it would only take an over the air software update to completely neuter the car.
If we’re going to be this intrusive, I’d much rather see something that categorically precluded the use of phones in cars. Or, hell, if we’re going to step on our liberties this much, why not install alcohol interlocks on all cars?
I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket in so long I honestly can’t remember, and this still disgusts me.
The car will “beep” at me if I exceed the speed limit by 10 mph? That’ll be about as fucking effective as a Gun-Free Campus sign in front of a high school.
And please, I live in the Houston metro area. Traffic is either moving at 30 over the limit or at a complete stand-still. Absolutely no in-between. Full throttle or full brakes, and God help you if you’re driving a tiny little mouse car in the land of 600 hp V8 pickup trucks. Hell, I was running 90+ on my bike the other day, in a 55 zone, and had 3/4 ton trucks passing me. A fucking “beep” ain’t gonna change that.
They’ve had these sorts of things on Australian cars for decades (IDK if they were mandated, and you could manually set/disable them) and it didn’t do a damn thing to slow people down.
It’s been amply proven that speed by itself isn’t dangerous; it’s when there are significant differences in speed between the vehicles that things get dangerous. Think of how screwed up things get when Aunt Myrtle, who’s never driven above 50 mph in her life and isn’t about to start now, gets on the highway where the average speed is 70 with not-infrequent examples of 85+. THAT’S dangerous.
People who are over the limit but travelling at the same speed as surrounding traffic aren’t a problem and beeping at them will be (yet another) distraction. People who are going significantly faster than traffic know exactly what they’re doing and beeping at them won’t make them change their minds.
Now adding a feature that tells Aunt Myrtle to get her ass in gear and stop being a bottleneck is something I might support. Especially if I get to record the message, “You’re being passed by frigging ox carts, you stupid cow! Speed up or get the hell out of the way!”
Brits and Euros are governed by complete cucks
I’m assuming that everyone in the UK Government old enough to remember how well the 55 MPH speed limit worked in the US has long since moved on to collect their pensions. Maybe they are counting on the Brit populace to be too polite or too poof to object.
… but I’m counting on a small cottage industry to spring up offering ways to defeat or remove these devices.
The reaction to these rules in Germany and Italy and maybe even Franc will be entertaining.
Pass the popcorn.
we need Box O’ Truth or some other enterprising folks to do a penetration tests on various air rifles or 22lr rifles and pistols versus traffic cameras
We also need a device to locate these nefarious machines.
We tell the meth heads that there is 5lbs of copper in each one but so far they have been delinquent in their assignment