The latest issue of Popular Science described a prototype car being tested somewhere in Europe which had a couple of rather interesting safety features:
It had a system which used a GPS reciever and a satellite link to some central computer to determine the speed limit where you are and prevented the driver from speeding(though it could be overridden by pushing extra hard on the accelerator).
There was a sensor which could detect the presence of alcohol and if it did, the driver would have to breathe into a breathalyser to start the car.
What do you think? I don’t see any problems with #2, but #1 seems kind of suspicious. In order to determine the speed limit, the car must transmit its coordinates, which would allow the government to track it wherever it goes if they felt like it. Do you think the increased safety is worth it?
Well, I have issues with #2. As a consumer, the next time I buy a car, I don’t want to have to pay for the research that’s gone into this sensor. I don’t want to have to breathe into a blow-gun every time I want to start my car. I don’t want to pay the extra money it will cost when these are standard equipment.
Let people figure it out for themselves whether or not they’re good to drive.
The more we strip the onus of responsibility from the average person, the less responsible the average person will be.
They already have this option in automobiles in the United States. Though the only place I’ve seen them is in automobiles belonging to people convicted of drunk driving.
Do the car manufacturers offer it built into the car, or does it have to be retrofitted?
The problem is that alcohol can suppress one’s inhibitions to the point of being unable to realize that one shouldn’t be driving.
Although now that I think about it, I’m not exactly sure I’d want to pay extra for a feature that would only be of use to people who are in the habit of getting drunk.
The late Peter McWilliams, in his book Consensual Crimes, has a similar suggestion:
Put a 6-digit easy-to-read electronic display in every car. When the user tries to start the car, display a random sequence of 6 digits, and require the user to enter them on a keypad exactly as they appear. 3 failiures in a row, and the car will lock up and not allow its user to start the engine for another hour.
This would prevent a user who was under the influence of ANY intoxicants from driving.
tracer, the 6 digits method is a bad idea because suppose someone was trying to escape a stalker or attacker & was so nervous they couldn’t get the digits correct. It’s bad enough just fumbling with keys.
As far as limiting my speed, again, if I want to escape some lunatic, gimme speed!
Sigh, the more I hate my job, the more it seems like its putting me on the bleeding edge of the future. (We sell versions of this crap at work.) Hate to tell you this, guys, but variants of this box are already in many cars. Rental car companies use them to keep track of their cars and know if someone’s driving recklessly or to find the car if its been stolen. Chevy puts them into their new Corvette’s (though that one’s a “passive” unit and they can only access it when you take the car to the dealer). There’s also a push to put them into cars by insurance companies. One of the reasons for this is so that when you have a wreck, they can tell if you were speeding or doing other “dangerous” things when you had your accident. Car manufacturers want to put them in there because then they can tell if you’ve violated your warranty (by speeding, by not changing the oil when you’re supposed to, etc.) and thus not have to pay for any repairs.
Its a bad idea. I don’t care what they promise, its an invasion of my privacy (What? You think they won’t be able to tell you’re stopping off at a porn shop? Ha!) and no matter how they configure the system, it’ll never be “open” enough for real world conditions. If they raise the speedlimit on a road, my car could prevent me from reaching that speed, or they could lower the speedlimit and the box in my car wouldn’t know that and I could speed to my heart’s content. Finally, its just more crap to go wrong with the car. (Anybody ever have the diagnostic computer go out on their car? It’ll rarely ever tell you that its broken, instead it’ll tell you everything else is broken. Not good at all.)