Rob's Blog

The Telegraph has an article headlined, “Speed of cars ‘will be limited by computer’.”

The Government is examining the results of research into “intelligent speed adaptation technology” carried out by the Institute for Transport Studies at Leeds University.

I think you can see where this is going. Between this, satellite road charging and retention of mobile phone geographical data, they’ll know where you are pretty much all the time. Currently, “there are no plans to make it compulsory.” At least until, say, a small child is killed by a speeding idiot and everyone decides that Something Must Be Done.

I can just imagine the effect this will have on people’s driving too. Merging could be extremely hazardous, not just because drivers won’t be able to control their speed properly but because the expectation of that lack of control will make them more hesitant. And my experiences of satellite navigation do not fill me with confidence that the system will work very well. What happens you find yourself doing 30MPH on the motorway because the system thinks you’re on an adjacent road?

The only good thing about this is that people might start barking up the right tree for once and demand that ridiculous speed limits are corrected or abolished entirely.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2005 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Civil Liberties, Driving, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.