If you’d like a look at what’s approaching in the rearview, take a look at this article.
It urges “geofencing” and other forms of electronic throttling of vehicles – so that no matter what you drive, it always goes . . . slow. Or rather, no faster than the sign says.
Or where – and when – the government says.
Thus making what you drive irrelevant. What would be the point of owning a Porsche rather than a Prius when both go just as slow?
And that’s just the point.
People like the one who wrote this thing have been advocating such things for decades. They want homogenous – and centrally controlled – transportation.
Forget driving.
It’s never been much of a worry until recently because the technology wasn’t ready – and neither was the culture.
Most people weren’t like the person who wrote this article – which is to say, people who hate cars and want to throttle them. And the culture didn’t encourage such people. The Safety Cult was until relatively recently a kind of backwoods aberration – its appeal limited to people morbidly obsessed with risk – and allowing freedom – fulminating with anger towards other people not similarly afflicted.
“We have written many posts about how hard it is to control speeding when the roads are designed so that people can drive twice as fast and the cars are designed to go four times as fast,” moans Lloyd Alter, the author of the article referenced above.
But Safetyism is now the national religion – and technology is ready.
To “geo-fence” freedom.
Alter is vengefully anticipatory.
“There was also a similar battle over mandatory seat belt use, where people would complain in 1985 that ‘this is not supposed to be (Soviet) Russia where the government tells you what to do and when to do it. ‘ ”
But that was 1985 – when America was not yet Soviet Russia.
“Who did those interfering busybodies in Washington think they were? They’d be banning smoking in bars, next.”
And now what’s next is here.
What follows – logically.
Face Diapers. Mandatory Jabs. Cars that lock themselves down.
That which Alter pines for isn’t something merely desired but fated – and not just by precedent. The necessary electronics are, to a great extent, already embedded in many new cars – having been required by law (in Europe) in new model cars beginning with the newest new cars – i.e., those just redesigned for the 2022 model year – and by 2024, all new cars.
These must be equipped with what is styled Intelligent Speed Limit Assist (ISA).
It won’t be just Europe, either. Just as it isn’t just Europe that is Diapering, Jabbing and segregating.
It ought, by now, to go without saying than whenever you hear the word “assistance” you ought to assume it means control. And so it does. The ISA system uses the GPS-based navigation almost all new cars have had built in for at least a decade now, to monitor your speed as you drive. The car knows what the posted speed limit is on every mapped road – and the car also knows, of course, how fast it is going. If the car’s speed exceeds what’s allowed, the car slows itself down.
That is how it “assists” you.
This can be overridden – for now – by “pushing through” the electronic speed limiter, by pushing down harder on the accelerator. But it is just a matter of one more update to preclude that.
If the slow-it-down code is transmitted – your car being connected – it will no longer be possible to go faster. You will not be allowed to override the ISA, no matter how furiously you mash the gas.
Because the pedal isn’t connected to anything mechanical.
In the pre-Borg’d past, cars had driver-controlled mechanical throttles. If you pushed down on the accelerator, it opened (via a cable connected to the pedal) the throttle. The car would speed up, no matter what the sign said.
Now speeding up is entirely under the control of the computer that governs the throttle – and the computer is controlled by code, updated at whim – and over which you have no control. If the computer decides to cut the throttle, it will cut the throttle. Just as a programmed automatic transmission cannot be overridden. Even gear selection is an illusion. You don’t engage Drive or Reverse or anything else. The computer does, in response to data received via electronic inputs – via the button you pushed and the signal sent. But it acts according to its programming.
Brakes are not far behind.
Though still – for now – mechanically (hydraulically) connected to your foot, via the pedal, they are also increasingly under electronic control, too. Computers and programming decide it’s time to brake – and the car does, even if you haven’t.
Of course, this is styled Braking Assistance.
Even steering is now partially electronically controlled. Lane Keep Assistance. There it is – again.
All of this assistance will lead to the end of your control of what may still be nominally your car – in the sense that you are expected to pay for it and for the taxes levied upon it.
Alter can’t wait for it.
He notes BMW’s new geofencing tech – part of the standard suite of electronic controls embedded in the company’s new electric scooter, the not-at-all-awkardly named i Vision AMBY – ” . .. know(s) where the bike is , thus allowing it to automatically adjust its top speed. This way you don’t have maniacs riding 37 MPH down the bike lane at your local park.”
Or heathens not wearing “masks” . . . and refusing to be Jabbed.
“If BMW can say that about e-bikes, surely it would recognize the danger of having its car owners driving at 37 mph down Parkside Drive in Toronto, with its 30 mph limit,” Alter writes.
Cue the announcer at Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1937:
Oh, the humanity!
It doesn’t matter that the risks imagined by Safety Cultists such as Alter are mostly just that – imagined. What matters to people like Alter is their fear of risk – and that everyone be presumed a horrendously unacceptable risk.
And throttled, preemptively.
Because you can never to be too safe.
For neurotics – and control freaks.
. . . .
Got a question about cars, Libertarian politics – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in! Or email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com if the @!** “ask Eric” button doesn’t work!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet or sticker or coaster in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a magnet or sticker or coaster – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
My eBook about car buying (new and used) is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. If that fails, email me at EPeters952@yahoo.com and I will send you a copy directly!
Speaking of safetyism, I brought home a new log splitter today. It has a Kohler engine, and in the bag with the owner’s manual was a spark plug wrench. A sticker on it says:
WARNING: Cancer and Reproductive Harm
http://www.P65Warnings.ca.gov
Aside from some sort of ghoulish assault, the only way I can think of that this thing could cause reproductive harm is if you changed spark plugs 24/7 and never took time out for sex.
As a biker, you know you can use acceleration to get out of trouble with other vehicles because on a bike you can’t steer very well and effective stopping can be problematic, especially in the wet. I know we are talking about cars,(I think – it’s the EU ffs and I’m in it.), but that is still an avenue of escape that will be denied to you.
The answer is to buy a mobility scooter and drive like a madman round your local supermarket – no speed limits there.
How about the loss of revenue from unwritten speeding tickets? This fact alone might torpedo the implementation of speed governing technology. Just think about how politicians think.
The older nephew just bought his first car, a Jeep. Unfortunately his parents convinced him to buy new (and overpay even with a friends-and-family discount), he’s already looking at mods to install a wench and other upgrades. Nice thing is that the factory pre-wires several relays for accessories so he should be able to get it going, but he’ll miss out on the fun of figuring out what caused the stains, how to extract broken bolts, and what’s causing that smell? games.
What does a good wench go for these days? 😉
Love those factory pre-wired wenches! 🙂
I made this error once. Told my wife I was looking for new wench. She asked me what was wrong with the old one.
“In addition to providing warnings and insights on potential collisions based on vehicle dynamics, the most advanced predictive safety systems are now able to understand the driver’s state and behaviors such as distraction, drowsiness, cell phone use, holding objects, smoking and more.”
https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-iot-and-ai-are-helping-keep-truck-drivers-safe/
All of a sudden, “might” seems to be the most important word in the English language. You might drive too fast. You might brake too hard. You might take a corner faster than the number on the silly yellow sign says.
https://qz.com/2077193/teslas-wants-safety-scores-to-decide-drivers-insurance-premiums/
And you might be sick.
Natural progression of stranger danger. See that man on the park bench? Might be a child molester! Better not talk to him if he asks for directions to the coffee shop!
Alter is a freaking interior designer. WTF does he know about anything other than gussying up his boyfriends apartment. These are the types that deserve to be included in the coming purge.
How about No Speed Limits? Yes, Montana tested anarchy in 1995. It eliminated daytime speed limits in any form on 4 lane Interstate and rural federal-aid primary two lane highways (outside of city limits). Motorists were expected to drive at ‘Reasonable and Prudent’ speeds considered safe for prevailing conditions.
For 4 years of no numerical or posted daytime speed limits on these highways, Montana recorded its lowest number of fatal accidents on the affected roadways.
By 1999 when the Supreme Court ruled the ‘Reasonable and Prudent law’ unconstitutional, the reported fatal accident rate had declined to a record low. Fixed speed limits were reinstated.
After the new Speed Limits were established, interstates fatal accidents went up 111%. On interstates and federal primary highways combined, fatal accidents went up 41%.
How many more Montanans must die before we reinstitute Anarchy?
By posting speed limits, the state is giving its blessing to driving that fast, and so those who CAN’T safely drive that fast do so anyway. Without that state blessing people have to think. Who would have thought such might save lives?
Taking down all of the stop signs and traffic signals also would have the opposite effect from what “common sense” suggests. When drivers are forced to pay attention and cooperate, they will. Who would go through an intersection at 70 mph if it were common knowledge that cross traffic might not stop?
If you want someone’s head to explode, tell them this: The only signs drivers need are the informational ones. All of the regulatory ones should be scrapped.
Amen, Roland –
I support speed advisory signs as these can be useful to drivers not familiar with a given stretch of road that mnay have a sharp curve ahead, say.
But it’s cut-and-dried wrong, as I see it, to literally stop people at gunpoint (the threat of that being the element of coercion which forces the stop) and “ticket” (i.e., extort) them for having caused harm to no one but solely because they were “speeding.”
What sucks about going slower, is the car tech should be pushing toward HIGHER speed roads! We have better brakes, tires, engines that can take the high speeds. Just because we may no longer have many drivers that have the skills, doesn’t make it that those of us with the skills be denied the freedom to go faster.
There is really no reason why interstate highways at least should have lanes that can be 100mph! And there could be other car only roads with higher speeds as well too.
One thing that’s particularly nonsensical is that when there are crashes on a curvy little road, the safety nannies cry for it to be straightened, widened and flattened, which only encourages people with few car-control skills to go faster. The number of incidents is reduced, but the ones that do occur are more likely to be life-threatening.
It’s the opposite of what’s done in racing. I used to love racing at Road Atlanta, largely because of The Dip. But drivers were getting hurt there, so they added a combination of left/right turns to slow them way down before that section. What AutoWeek magazine once described as “a spectacular flat-out blind right-hander” became boring Turn 11.
https://roadatlanta.com/track-info/about-mrra/track-map
leftists they are the jackboots of the new world order.
written by Brandon Smith:
if you are a leftist and don’t like what he says go argue with him
They are the ONLY group of people that has consistently supported mass surveillance, mass censorship and deplatforming, mass violence, property destruction and looting as well as violations of individual rights through medical mandates and lockdowns.
Leftists are afraid to question anything within their own circles. To dissent on the smallest detail is to be a heretic, a traitor to the cause. They use the word “diversity” all the time, like a battle cry, but when confronted with true diversity (diversity of thought), they panic and react violently.
Leftists don’t actually care about diversity; they only care that you have blind allegiance to the collective. Stray but a little, and the mob will come for your head. They LOVE plantations, they love slavery; as long as they own the plantations and they control the slaves.
A natural consequence of this Animal Farm mentality is that irony and hypocrisy is lost on the followers of such movements. They project all their shortcomings and crimes on others. The devils they see in conservatives are actually the devils they see in the mirror everyday. That said, the higher up you get in the leftist pyramid, the less it becomes hypocritical and the more it becomes malicious and deliberate.
The gaslighting, the word association propaganda, the selective memory hole they use to erase historical facts that contradict their ideology, the people at the top and their lackeys KNOW exactly what they are doing. They don’t care that their claims are hypocritical or outright fraudulent. They know they are lying, they know they are gaslighting. They’re not interested in being right, they are only interested in WINNING.
There is much more going on here than meets the eye. There is a great deal of power and money behind the rise of the hard left ideology and there are certain people that benefit from it’s expansion.
Leftists like to view themselves as the “underdogs” or revolutionaries fighting against “the man”. However, every resource of global power brokers has been offered in support of the political left. The “Man” is the ally of the leftists; in some ways he is even the creator of the leftist movement.
They aren’t revolutionaries at all; they are the jackboots of the new world order.
It was globalist institutions like the Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation that funded different elements of the feminist movement and “gender studies” movements from the late 1960’s onward. This included the Rockefeller Foundation’s large donations to ‘The Feminist Press’ and the Ford Foundation’s programs to indoctrinate university professors into injecting social justice talking points into their curriculum.
That’s right folks, social justice activism was paid for and encouraged by the so-called “patriarchy”. This is reality, and it never stopped.
Even today SJW groups are funded by globalists. For example, as the mainstream media often tries to dismiss or ignore,
Black Lives Matter was initially funded by the Ford Foundation and George Soros and his Open Society Foundation. BLM coffers were flooded with over $100 million from uber rich white elites.
Again, this is a FACT that even the dishonest spin doctors at Snopes are not able to deny. Instead, they attempt to use strawman arguments and sophistry to distract from the implication of extreme-left mobs receiving seed money from elitist billionaires.
But let’s follow this path even further: Who gets the support of the mainstream media behemoths? Conservatives or leftists? The answer is obvious.
What about Big Tech platforms? Do they enforce leftist ideological standards? Do they censor conservative viewpoints predominantly or leftist viewpoints predominantly? The reality is that conservatives are deplatformed from Twitter, YouTube and Facebook far more than leftists, this is verifiable fact.
When alternative platforms like Parler are built, are they allowed to simply exist? Of course not! The leftists rampage in an effort to destroy them, but the leftists would have no power without the backing of corporate monopolies like Apple, Google and Amazon. Not only does Big Tech aid the leftists in their Jihad against conservatives, but the government does as well.
They don’t just go after alternative platforms, they try to go after web service providers. And when alternative platforms move to more freedom oriented service providers like Epik, the leftists get government support in order to intimidate them also.
Leftists revel in the argument that “freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences”; they seem to think it is rather clever. I would say, actually, yes, that’s EXACTLY what freedom of speech means. Freedom of speech means that no single group of people is allowed to use fear, intimidation and punishment to compel silence in other groups or individuals that disagree with them. With corporate monopoly and government on their side, it is clear that leftists have appointed themselves the sole arbiters of “consequence”, and this violates the constitution in every conceivable way.
The collusion between government, corporations and extremist ideological movements is the classical definition of fascism.
And, just as the Third Reich enjoyed immense funding, investment and industrial support from globalists and corporations in the decade leading up to WWII,
the political left is enjoying immense support from the global corporate oligarchy today. You cannot be “anti-fascist” while you are colluding with fascists.
quote from byrne……….(when you get your new nwo/ccp/un/.0001% government) “In 10 years, there’ll be prison camps with organs being harvested just as there are in western China,”
The Chinese regime has been killing Falun Gong practitioners for their organs for more than 20 years, according to a panel of experts who attended a virtual conference hosted by the advocacy group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) on Nov. 19, and independent investigations.
the track record of communist governments is a horror story:
They have littered the 20th century with 160 million corpses, not foreign people killed in a time of war, but their own people, killed by their own governments in times of peace.
Over 66 million slaughtered under communism in the Soviet Union,
over 69 million murdered in Red China.
Over two Million killed under Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in Cambodia.
The millions more killed under Mengistu in Ethiopia, under Samora Machel in Mozambique, and Agestino Neto in Angola and under Fidel Castro in Cuba.”
when communists take over: The third stage instigates a crisis that leads to a civil war, revolution, or foreign invasion. This stage only took 2-6 months.
This is the stage when the leftist idealists, or “useful idiots,” are no longer needed, because they would be disillusioned, become obstacles, push back, turn against the new government. They are going to be eliminated, exiled, or imprisoned. note: this is the interesting part, when the communists takeover, leftist idealists, or “useful idiots,” who helped the communists are exterminated. for one they know too much.
Oh, I can think of one stretch of Interstate highway where such geofencing would be funny as hell. The NE extension of the PA turnpike. Right at the beginning of it (heading south, up in the Poconos), you enter the highway by going through the toll booth. That is marked Speed Limit 5. Yes, 5. Makes sense in a toll booth. The next speed sign is about 1/2 mile after the toll booth, Speed Limit 70. OK, what’s the gimped car going to do, putz along at 5 MPH for a half mile before picking it up to 70? Oh, boy. Just for reference, when I drove a semi through that area, equipped with all kinds of saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety electronics, it thought I was going more than 50 miles over the speed limit until it saw the second sign. I used to make a game of it – see how fast I could accelerate and how much over the speed limit I could make the electronics think I was going. Unfortunately, my truck was governed at 65 and I could never accelerate fast enough to top out there.
Just build, manufacture, a travel pod, a sphere with a hatch for a passenger, maybe two passengers, let the spherical mobile traveling device, digitally enhanced and controlled, deliver you to your destination.
Your phone will alert you when your social credit score allows travel privileges.
Social credit score is merely a reward system. Highly unethical, immoral, in fact.
Long been recognized by psychologists for years now. Amounts to coercion to receive remuneration.
Psychological abuse is what it is. Where it all is right now.
Beam ne up.
And one more little software update, and your “pushing through” the “speed limit” gets transmitted in real-time to your Fahrtfuererpolizei over the mandatory “connected car” link. You are arrested, your car impounded, and the Dienst von Lieben gets what is left for “re-education”.
It took longer than Orwell thought, but his dystopia approaches like the Grim Reaper.
Achtung, Kameraden!
Fahrvergnügen streng verboten!
Kannst du neimals auf der Autobahn schnell Fahren!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iukUMRlaBBE
“We have written many posts about how hard it is to control people…. errr speeding.”
“This way you don’t have maniacs riding 37 MPH down the bike lane at your local park.” Excuse me bub, but in my youth I have reached speeds in excess of 50 mph, though admittedly downhill, while PEDALLING a bicycle. Clocked by a friends car speedometer.
I had a dream once that I was driving Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin around in my car. Probably after seeing Dodge’s somewhat recent ads with ‘George Washington’ driving one of their cars around… I was amazing them with the new abilities we had. The DANGEROUS freedom we had to drive, and how the oncoming cars were mere feet away from hitting us, yet (todays) 16 year olds and the laaaaadies were allowed to do it.
Just a few days ago I got to thinking about how close we are to hitting each other head-on at 40-70mph on some roads, separated by only yellow paint. I thought it wouldn’t surprise me if these soy-boy butt wipes want to come up with some type of wall to install on road centers everywhere.
And here you go showing me this article…
‘it wouldn’t surprise me if these soy-boy butt wipes want to come up with some type of wall to install on road centers everywhere.’ — Andrew W
They have: the Jersey barrier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_barrier
Naturally Alter’s socialist Canada, with its polite totalitarianism, has developed an even s-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-fer version called the Ontario Tall Wall … which sounds like the name of a concentration camp for the unvaxxed.
Here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVKcRHKH4Js
Actually, Caltrans places a high priority on physical barriers to separate opposing lanes of traffic. For surface streets, this is mostly curbed medians, whether landscaped or hardscaped. The fact is, such barriers save lives.
About thirty years ago, I was driving along, minding my own business, when an AGW “hero” on his county issue motorcycle crossed the (stripes only) turn bay and hit me head on. Both my Ford Ranger and the bike were totaled. So was he. I sustained no serious physical injury, but I can tell you that post traumatic stress syndrome is very real, very ugly, and not something you want to experience.
My GF at the time was a Vietnam vet, whose MOS was photographer. Debbi had two helicopters shot out from under her in Vietnam. She was the sole survivor of the second crash. Her best friend, Dave, who was my co-worker, was 82nd Airborne, Bronze Star, Purple Heart, out in the boonies for an extended time. Although functioning members of society, neither of them were entirely “normal” people.
After the wreck, Debbi said to me, “Well, you’re one of us now.” At the time, I had no idea what she meant. I found out. Fortunately, I had only a small taste of what they experienced, but it still took me many years to “get over it.” In my experience, recovery happens in stages, and there is no way to hurry it. In the meantime, you have a sort of “sixth sense” which detects others who have been through something similar. Don’t ask me how; you just know.
A long time female friend of mine lost one of her daughters to a wrong way driver, as well. Marilyn Smallidge was decapitated on Camelback Road in Phoenix, 2 September 1978, two days short of her 21st birthday. Her younger sister Lenore spent a year in a full body cast due to broken neck vertebrae. She has a large burn scar on her right elbow to remind her of the accident every single day of her life, and has experienced significant psychological difficulties, as you may imagine. You can read further details in the Arizona Republic of 3 Sept 1978. Google her name if you care to do so.
Unfortunately, many people are ignorant of basic physics, and do not realize that a) velocity is a vector quantity, and b) total energy is always conserved. Kinetic energy that is scrubbed off becomes energy of (inelastic) deformation. Free dumb. Smart expensive. How much tuition are you prepared to pay?
If you are driving 70mph, cross the centerline, and hit a vehicle traveling 70mph in the opposite direction, the relative velocity at the time of collision is 140mph. I expect most people who read EP Autos know that, but the average yoyo most likely does not.
“Car People” are well aware of this nanny technology. Large amount of discussions concerning disabling, modifying, changing, across the ‘net’. Not just older people either, I’ve run into 20’s something “Car People” who get it. I quote “My car, I paid for it.”
One needs to listen carefully to the younger crowd as their generation is more subtle than my “in your face” generation. After talking to a bunch of them in a grocery parking lot one night I have hope they’ll beat anything Uncle Safety comes up with.
As a software engineer with years of embedded and device control programming, I was intrigued to learn about car software systems. Mostly because I was wondering why people don’t just disassemble or reverse engineer the code and basically “own” the computer system on a car after it goes out of warranty, etc.
Well, come to find out that auto manufacturers have figured out a way to store their code encrypted in a way that makes it nearly impossible to crack. I mean, unless you’re the NSA or Google.
This is unique technology for automobiles. Your laptop does not have that feature. It could and it might in the future but todays consumer, industrial and even military computers do not have that.
At first, I thought it was just trying to protect their code from being stolen by competitors. Now I know better. Things like this… that will prevent even the best hackers from cracking it. And, given the way things are going in the world generally speaking, I am expecting this to arrive on consumer-grade computers sooner than later. The excuse will be “security”… to “protect” you from the boogey men that want to hold pictures of your cat hostage for bitcoin that you absolutely can’t live without.
Just wait for Cyber Polygon to happen soon. ‘Someone’ is going to hack into our infrastructure, Russians will be blamed, and we will be ‘protected’ by further government mandates. The internet will not work unless you install this ‘safety chip’.
Ooh, are we taking bets? I’ll throw some money into this pool! I will go farther and bet you will also have to register all internet-enabled devices.
Ugly, dismal future. Worse than predicted by many fiction writers.
There will always be a situation that cannot be foreseen by the programmers (perhaps they don’t care and/or not their goal)
Sometimes it might be safer to exceed the number on the sign.
I would like to think that there will always be ways around this tyranny. But it does appear that the noose is tightening. Technologies and advances which should make our lives better being used to make our lives worse.
“Sometimes it might be safer to exceed the number on the sign.” Like when a car is racing up behind you on a two lane road, looking at their lap while texting their BFF. In their car that has no such speed control, or such control has malfunctioned. Speaking of which, If it’s man made, it WILL malfunction. And if you have been trained to rely on it, you’re likely to get killed, or kill others, over that malfunction.
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/full-global-martial-law-is-being-prepared-you-will-lose-unless-you-do-things-the-right-way_BiBRSuTLZjAnUw6.html
it will get worse……
>“We have written many posts about how hard it is to control speeding when the roads are designed so that people can drive twice as fast and the cars are designed to go four times as fast,”
“We” have written many posts about how hard it is to control “speeding” when the arbitrary “speed limit” is one half of the safe design speed of the highway, and one quarter of the safe design speed of the vehicle. Because most drivers are smarter than “we” (the “virtuous ones”) want them to be.
FIFY, Lloyd, baby.
Q: What does an artichoke know about a) highway engineering, or b) automotive engineering?
A: Absolutely nothing.
STFU and MYOB, vegetable.
The world is not your “safe space.” If this world is too dangerous for you, don’t go there.
(I am not excusing reckless driving, nor vehicular homicide.)
That’s kind of what I was thinking as I was reading that! Your have laid it out better than the noise rattling in my head about it. Good job! That’s spot on!