Bruce in West Oz
New member
'Big Brother' to control speed from the skies
Daily Telegraph, London, 4 January
Compulsory electronic speed governors that would prevent drivers exceeding legal limits could be fitted in all cars in Britain within 10 years if ministers accept the findings of government-funded research.
... the technology enables road speed to be controlled via satellites.
The system uses the universal satellite navigation system, a computer loaded with a digital road map encoded with the speed limits for each street and a device to allocate the engine only enough fuel for the legal speed.
Safety campaigners maintain that fitting this as a standard feature on private cars would cut road accidents by two thirds, leading to enormous financial savings.
Ministers ... were told that the technological advances promised to make a variety of vehicle control, identification and location measures feasible and cost effective.
The report claims that positive benefits would start to flow from the system once 60 per cent of vehicles were fitted with it, since that would have the effect of slowing the overall speed of traffic.
Dr Oliver Carsten, head of the Leeds University team, defended the external imposition of speed restrictions as a way to enforce the law.
"The roads are risky enough as they are, and the idea that people should have the freedom to flout the law is an odd concept when it is a legal requirement that you comply with the speed limit," he said.
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Coming soon to a motor vehicle near you!
B
Daily Telegraph, London, 4 January
Compulsory electronic speed governors that would prevent drivers exceeding legal limits could be fitted in all cars in Britain within 10 years if ministers accept the findings of government-funded research.
... the technology enables road speed to be controlled via satellites.
The system uses the universal satellite navigation system, a computer loaded with a digital road map encoded with the speed limits for each street and a device to allocate the engine only enough fuel for the legal speed.
Safety campaigners maintain that fitting this as a standard feature on private cars would cut road accidents by two thirds, leading to enormous financial savings.
Ministers ... were told that the technological advances promised to make a variety of vehicle control, identification and location measures feasible and cost effective.
The report claims that positive benefits would start to flow from the system once 60 per cent of vehicles were fitted with it, since that would have the effect of slowing the overall speed of traffic.
Dr Oliver Carsten, head of the Leeds University team, defended the external imposition of speed restrictions as a way to enforce the law.
"The roads are risky enough as they are, and the idea that people should have the freedom to flout the law is an odd concept when it is a legal requirement that you comply with the speed limit," he said.
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Coming soon to a motor vehicle near you!
B