Not that you’ll be shocked to hear this, but here it is:
They – our Safety Overlords – now admit they intend to use Speed Limit Assistance “technology” to prevent us from driving faster than whatever the speed limit is, using in-car GPS, 5G and other such features that have been sold to the sheep as conveniences.
This “assistance” is being made acceptable one step at a time, something like getting to first base on a date; i.e., that’s the the way you get to second and then third. With, of course, one important difference – that of consent. This “assistance” stuff is coercive and it’s also hugely manipulative. Why can’t these freaks ever be honest about their intentions? Well, we all know why. If they did that, it’d be harder to get to third base.
Hence “assistance.”
It sounds so helpful, doesn’t it? Much better than control. Boy Scouts assist old ladies across the street. We assist those in need.
The “assistance” we’re talking about is nothing of the sort. In the first place because we don’t need it and in the second, because most of us not only didn’t ask for it – we actively do not want it. There is something outrageously insulting about “assisting” people who don’t need it. About pushing such “assistance” on everyone. Imagine someone pushing a walker or cane on you – even though you’ve got no problem walking un-assisted. An earthier and more-to-the-point (as regards the insulting part) would be someone pushing Depends on you when you’re not someone who has trouble controlling their “emissions.” Imagine going shopping and the store’s help steering you toward the Depends aisle. Better yet, the help putting a box of Depends in your cart at the checkout.
You’d probably feel the urge to bash them in the teeth.
This is the kind of “assistance” we’re talking about. It is abuse of language to call it that. It is of a piece with the abuse of language embodied in the related term, “seat belt reminder.” No, it isn’t. A reminder would chime once or twice – you know, to remind you to buckle up, in case you forgot to. The “reminder” that is installed in all new vehicles does not stop pestering you to “buckle up” until you do (or until you buckle the got-damned thing and sit on it). In other words, it is a low-grade harassment for not “buckling up.” It has as much to do with “reminding” as “assistance” has to do with assisting.
Well, first base is to get the cars “assisting” people with their speed by pestering them with chimes and scolding little icons that glow red in the gauge cluster whenever a driver exceeds whatever the speed limit is. As if the driver were unaware of his “speeding.” In Europe, the “assistance” is already at second base. Instead of just the pestering chime and scolding little icon, the throttle is electronically made to push back against the driver’s foot; for now, the driver can push through (more pressure on the pedal) and the car will continue to go at whatever speed the driver wants. That’s about to change. Not conjecture. Third base is on deck.
The scolding little icons, the chimes – and even the throttle push back that you have to push through – they were “always just an interim stage,” in the words of a source within the regulatory apparat of the European Union, where “assistance” of the first and second base kind is already required. “Let’s tell the driver, let’s warn him, let’s beep [when exceeding the speed limit]. But eventually we will just fix the speed of the car so you can’t go over the speed limit.”
If you’re thinking: Well, this is Europe. It won’t be like that here in America – think again. It will be like Daytime Running Lamps. There was a time when – in America – people didn’t drive around in daytime with their headlights on. Not unless they were driving in a funeral procession. Now most Americans do – because most cars sold in America come standard with DRLs. Why? Because DRLS were mandated by the Canadian government and lots of American-brand cars are made and sold in Canada. It was easier to just make all the cars sold in Canada and America DRL equipped cars. European-brand cars (VWs, Audis, BMWs, Mercedes-Benz, Fiat, etc.) will not be made “with” and “without” either. In fact, they already aren’t – and the same goes for most Japanese-brand cars, too. And American-brand cars as well. Most already have some iteration of speed limit “assistance.” Only the first base chime pestering and icon scolding, but the technology for second and third base has merely to be activated.
Not added.
A spokesman for the UK’s Department for Transport said – officially – “We currently have no plans to introduce control technology in the UK, but we will continue to work with partners across Europe and internationally to improve the safety standards of all vehicles.”
Italics added.
And the guy who got to first base on prom night currently has no plans to get to second, either.
There is of course a way to avoid all of this “assisting.” It is to not buy any of it. As a car journalist – as a guy who loves cars – it is very strange to find myself urging people not to buy them. New ones, that is. However, it is the only message we can send that the car companies will listen to. Tell them – tell the dealership you’ve been doing business with for all these years – that you are not interested in being “assisted” and will not accept being made to buy it and that until “assistance” becomes optional, you’ll be sticking with what you’ve got or buying something used and older that doesn’t try to “assist” you.
For the same reason that you don’t need a cane or a walker just yet – and don’t like either being pushed on you by people who can’t see you can walk just fine, thanks.
. . .
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Man, WHAT is so hard about driving only used cars–preferably very old?
Hi Esther,
I’m with you. But I also understand the fear many have of buying an old car. I know how to fix things; many people do not. They are afraid of buying a money pit that’s also not reliable. I sympathize because I am the same with electronica. I know next to nothing about computers and just want the thing to work. So I buy a new one every five years or so.
The parts to fix old vehicles are getting harder to find. Some say it is no coincidence that junk yards are suddenly catching fire and burni down. But also, if I buy a used vehicle, I have no idea what kind of history said vehicle has. It could have been in an accident, and one would never know for sure. With my old ’07 vehicle, I know the history, as I bought it brand new. I would be more apt to fix that one up than buy an already-running used one. But driving them is nothing. It the fixing up part that can be a bit tricky.
Our betters are fickle. When lots of people are driving old cars, to avoid their new mandates, they will find a way to force old cars off the road. Cash For Clunkers was an example of such a program using a carrot, and I’m sure they have plans for using the stick as well.
Once upon a time, when all cars required some amount of DIY maintenance (like changing fuel mix for summer/winter, or adjusting points or whetever), lots of people knew how to do basic car maintenance themselves. Cars were simpler too. Today, almost everyone I know is absolutely clueless, even with things like checking fluid levels or inflating tires. A car from 2000 is an old car today, and it’s much more complex than something purely mechanical from the 1970’s. Driving old cars is simply not feasible for most people.
Hi OL,
I agree with Esther. A new car that starts at $50k and has to be financed for 7 to 8 years isn’t feasible either.
The new cars are not made better. They are continuously being recalled, braking down, or having some type of electronic glitch. The cars of today are worse than anything from 2000.
People need to get with the program…they need to learn basic survival skills or they will die. Basic car and home maintenance, growing simple fruit and vegetables, knowing how to start a fire, shoot a gun, skin a deer or scale a fish, use a sewing needle, tinctures and herbs for illness, etc.
The weak will die and the strong will prevail. We are entering questionable times and need to be prepared.
The USSR fell and so will the US. Millions died. The Soviet Union provided America a playbook. I hope many Americans read it and learn from it.
Given that not an insignificant number of people can’t wait for Elon to deliver “full self-driving” in their golf carts, it is obvious those same people will not see anything problematic with such “safety features” as your car forcing you to drive at posted speed limits.
Just like they don’t see anything wrong with never using cash and instead paying for everything via an “app” on their phones. Let alone realizing – or caring – that government-issued, constantly depreciating, monopoly money offers very little freedom even in its cash form.
As far as the EU is concerned, remember that they have an official “goal” of achieving zero road fatalities by some unspecified future date.
The only way to actually accomplish this would be to stop people from driving altogether.
Which fits nicely with those very convenient and safe 15-minute cities. Where you will be able to own nothing, be happy and engage your creative urges, while Elon’s Optimus robots do all the work and you receive a generous Universal Basic Income.
As long as you behave, that is, and your “vaccinations” are kept up to date.
While the anti-destination league wants the control over speed I don’t think government does.
Why?
1) Revenue.
2) Beyond the stop arrests
3) crushing long commute times that will bring about revolution.
With low posted speed limits cops have a built in excuse for pulling over anyone any time. You’re either “speeding” or you’re impeding traffic. This is how cops can make all sorts of arrests and just generally pry into people’s lives. Flock cameras are not a substitute for this.
When the weather is just enough to make people drive the PSL in my area the result are commute times that easily triple. This will get the normies very upset. They are already beginning to fight back against the anti-automobile urbanists over stupid surface road designs.
A little off subject, but this certainly the best news since Lindsay Graham departed…
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/15/magazine/electric-cars-american-evs.html?unlocked_article_code=1.x1A.2DMK.hHTL4g3epiu7&smid=url-share
Another lying ignorant NYTimes writer.
China is a completely different market with completely different rules and government interventions. There are dirt cheap ICE vehicles there too as a result.
‘speed limiters’. My red line for sure. While I do drive late model cars for work, the day it limits my speed, it’s over. I will drive a go-cart if I have to.
And I am watching my insurance rates. If they say ‘you speed’, it’s over for them.
I think I’m going to start looking for un-connected, analog cars as a hedge.
My bro just bought a ’98 pickup with 454 and a MANUAL? Unicorn. He’s probably thinking the same crap we are. He did recently buy a new pickup and I’m guessing he’s sick of all the beeping.
I have been seeing some movement on social vids, ‘how to disconnect your car”.
Eric, you need to create a ‘how to buy a new car that is not or can be un-connected, buyers guide” I’ll would buy it.
ps: some cars (Chrysler, and even Subi) there is a cheat code/method to stop the seatbelt chimes permanently, so the OEM builds these in. Not all, I have not found a GM that could do it, and hence I don’t buy them.
I think even having an older “unconnected” car isn’t going to save us. Eventually if enough vehicles out there have this feature you be stuck in a conga line behind one on a narrow twisty road and never be able to get past them. Our future stinks on ice.
“You’ll be stuck” 😖
Hi Mike,
Respectfully, I disagree. I think older, undigitized, and unconnected will be our saving grace.
If enough of us don’t buy and don’t use it the companies manufacturing the products will feel it in their bottom line. The husband and I just bought a shop for our businesses. We threw out or destroyed thousands of dollars in “smart products” that came with the place. Google Nest thermostats, smoke detectors, door locks, destroyed cameras and WiFi connections in refrigerators, “smart” toilets, garage door openers, etc. Even my husband questioned my sanity at one point. We reinstalled the dumbest stuff that we could find.
I don’t expect the majority to do this, but 15-20% will make a difference. We need to stay away from subscription based services, grocery carts that do our scanning, QR codes that we have to scan with smart phones to find a price (ahem, Walmart) or read a menu, new cars, WiFi enabled appliances, etc.
Sometimes, it isn’t the most convenient, but how convenient will it be when they refuse to allow some of us not to shop at all because they didn’t like something we said or did.
Well-done, and best of luck to you. But the day is coming when a business (or a person) won’t be able to function at all without the ‘smart’ technology.’ Older, unconnected, undigitized won’t be outlawed directly, you just won’t be able to do anything, from getting a permit to buying, selling, repairing, licensing, insuring or any of the other hoops we are forced to jump through.
The iron fist will be clad in pixels, digital IDs, connectivity, and AI slop – forget the velvet glove.
Agreed. You need more than just an older car. You need a phone that still plugs into the kitchen and only reaches as far as the linen closet. You need to eschew computers and tablets — they ping everything, including Flock, and unless you are Linux, power down is not power down, and the telemetry is still active. It generally is not transmitting your location, but it is storing it, and will burst upload whenever convenient.
You need to make sure none of your passengers violate those rules, too. But between Flock and other ALPRs, not even that is enough. Two readers can passively register your speed. And even if you obscure the plates, you will shortly get pulled over for an obscured plate.
Incidentally, I suspect they will reverse course, and start adding a surcharge for “classic” vehicles to the registration. Your choice will to be to drop a grand to plate your older vehicle, or a couple hundred for a new compliant vehicle. Then two grand. Pretty soon, everyone buckles.
“Pretty soon, everyone buckles.”
Love the optimism, Steve! No, no, they don’t.
To quote Craig Lounsbrough, ““Too often our convictions are based on what is convenient. For if convictions are convenient, they are neither.”
The problem is we refuse to leave our keyboards. We think everyone lives like us. There are forgotten people all over this country and the Feds and local ordinances don’t touch them. Why? Because, one can’t get blood from a turnip.
The current system is successful because people want convenience. It is much easier to hightail it to Walmart and pick up everything. The USSA relies on mass consumerism. This country spends more than any other country in the world, even those with populations 3x-4x more than our own.
If people want to live in a dystopian nightmare that is their choice, but the lure of convenience isn’t worth it to everyone.
Glad you mentioned Linux. There is finally a user-friendly version called zorin. Please check it out.
With the federal government recently “allowing” the sale of E15 gasoline, I’m curious how one can tell the difference between E15 gas and the E10 gas that has been sold at gas stations for decades. I drive a late 1990s truck that I doubt would be able to handle the extra ethanol, given that I’ve seen videos online saying that automobiles older than 2001 CAN’T handle E15 gas. There has also been speculation that the extra ethanol in gasoline was designed to FORCE older vehicles to quit running altogether and thus OFF the roads permanently, which would quite likely please Climate change zealots, WEF sociopaths, and Nanny State freaks.
If I could, and if it were necessary, I’d likely start getting ethanol free premium gasoline for my truck, but where I live, ethanol free gas is over $6 a gallon.
Hi John,
You may have caught my article the other day about the return line (rubber connecting) piece rupturing and spraying gas all over the frame/underside of my Trans-Am. That piece of rubber – removed and replaced, of course – is as hard and brittle as china. Ethanol “gas” ill do that.
Hi Eric,
I saw videos saying to look out for buttons at the pump that say 88 if you drive an older automobile, as 88 pumps the E15 gas. However, the whole ethanol in gas thing appears to be a decades long scam from the Midwestern Corn Lobby. But of course, wasn’t ethanol gas also framed as “Environmentally Friendly” and “Clean” compared to regular gasoline?
Someone should look into what role, if any, effectively putting corn in gasoline has had in the price of groceries going up at grocery stores.
Hi John,
Of course it’s a giant scam, brought to you by big Ag aka Archer Daniels Midland. That’s why all the presidential candidates go trekking to bumfuck Iowa (no disrespect to any Iowans here) to kiss the corn farmers asses and promise to keep the deathanol mandate.
Iowa isnt a name, it’s an acronym for “Idiots Out Wandering Around”. And yes, I have kin there.
One can remove ethanol from gasoline relatively easily. Youtube has videos showing how.
If I didn’t have high octane, no ethanol gasoline available in my area, I’d have to do it for my classic cars and old lawn implements.
I think there’s a group of people who enjoyed the 55 MPH speed limit. Just about the right pace for their limited perception.
Fleet vehicles have had this in place for some time now. Most commercial trucks have a governor that limits the max speed to 72 or maybe a little higher, depending on the trucking company. That’s why it’s very common to see a truck trying to pass another on flat ground but it takes miles to complete. Used to be that sort of pass was only done on inclines, because of horspower. These days it is because the black boxes are calibrated ever so slightly differently, allowing the passer to eke out an extra 1 MPH.
This is our future. No more “passing” lanes, just everyone treating the gas pedal like a bumper car go button, and queuing up behind the slowest common denominator.
Here in South Carolina, they’ve been systematically eliminating passing zones for years. Whenever a road is re-lined it’s almost always continuous double yellow now — for miles and miles. I suspect that in most cases the DOT actually decrees this, and in other cases the painting crew is just too lazy to reconfigure the painting rig when encountering what always was and should still be a passing zone.
I had a friend that used to work for Swift trucking. He told me that the company name actually stood for “Sure Wish I had a Fast Truck”.
They are honest about their intentions. They are constantly laughing at. Seriously, they named a surveillance state “Flock” meaning the herding of animals (usually sheep). What did COVID stand for? Certificate of Vaccination Identification. See how cute they think they are.
What baffles me is the head of these companies… Tesla, Meta, Palantir, etc. identify as “Libertarians”. 🤮 I can’t think of any Libertarian who thinks it is fine to spy, track, and control others. Can one imagine a Ron Paul, Thomas Sowell, or Harry Browne promoting spyware and a police state?
laughing at us…
One of the unintended consequences of seeing behind the looking glass is that once you know how the game is played it is tempting to play yourself.
Back in 2021 I started a drone business. I retired from my “day job” in 2023 and went full time. Unfortunately the market wasn’t interested in my service (or at least enough to buy it), so I went back to work. But with the Ukraine war starting I saw the industry change drastically, rebranding itself into a military led technology instead of civilian use. It’s easy to adapt a lot of the civilian use drones for military, and you can charge a whole lot more. I could have pivoted as well, but I didn’t have the connections or the stomach, so I shut down operations and mothballed my drone fleet.
Was I tempted to spin my product/service into a military payload? Absolutely. I have the revised pitch deck and everything. I probably could have at least had a few meetings with government types too. But looking at the very limited market of 1 customer, I would have had to fleece the taxpayer to make the numbers work, and decided that wasn’t the business I wanted to be in.
But the allure of making a single massive sale for millions? That’s extremely tempting. Especially when everyone making the decision isn’t worried about their own money.
“And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.” – Milton Friedman
Drones are pure evil.
Technology is neither good nor evil. The printing press can print The Gutenberg Bible or The Communist Manifesto, it cares not which is created. Likewise a drone can be used to transport medicine to a far off village in Africa, drop IEDs in Syria, find lost dogs in suburbia or spy on Hollywood starlets.
It is unfortunately true that if given power over someone, most people will use it.
Like Amendment 69 for universal healthcare on the 2016 Colorado ballot?
I’m not kidding.
Considering that the newer vehicle I have has a “Check Back Seat” reminder, is it any wonder the plebs think most of the public is too damned dumb to drive all by themselves? And without SOMEONE helping them to keep safe? I need the gov’t to hold my hand and “help” me drive about as much as I need another hole in my head. Thanks, but no thanks.
Story in the local news this morning on “operation southern slowdown”. Ya know, catching “speeders” for “safety”. Gonna be a big payday I reckon.
This tech is in new cars right now, its just a software update away from being activated, I’m certain.
Was driving a 2026 Accord, and didn’t know the speed limit in an unfamiliar area, looked down at the dash, and there the limit was posted for me by the auto, and it wasn’t hooked to my phone or anything outside of the vehicle. And you can set the dash if you’re speeding to ping a warning at you for going over the limit by whatever you’d like, with as little as 1 MPH over.
Crazy control matrix….
YMMV….
Back in the 60’s if I remember correctly there was an option to do that sort of thing from GM but you had to set it for each road speed.
I think that option might be useful on a non connected vehicle but definitely not on one that tells GovCo and their minions that you’ve been speeding.
Buick. If I recall ‘50s and on. Momsies ‘58 Buick Special had this.
Yep. I had a 66 Supercar Wildcat with it, there was a knob to adjust it and the warning needle had a white ball on it. Mine was pushed all the way over to 120…
It was called Speed Alert
I put black electrical tape over the camera that sits in front of the rear view mirror. No more speed limit signs appearing on the dash-ha ha. But even without the tape, I notice the sign does not appear when out in BFE somewhere.
Been there a long time, Saxon. Just threw a scan tool on my daughter’s 2004 Monte, and the vehicle speed is right there on the screen. I checked, and, sure enough, I can shut the car off by just “testing” the ignition circuit. Probably no upload required, now that the wireless communicates with the OBD II. Just cycle the ignition, or set the fuel trims/lambdas too lean. Or just set the trims low enough that it throws P017x, let the check engine light turn on or start flashing, and the person is never aware of why he dropped several hundred at the repair shop for them to find nothing wrong.
Incidentally, OBD II has been mandated since the mid-90s. Some cars came with them back in the ’80s.
Here are a couple videos that show how to disable tracking devices on modern cars. Of course by pulling the fuse on the cars transceiver you might lose some features but might gain some privacy back.
Another option might be buying a used emergency vehicle as it’s less likely to have this nanny tech enabled. Just watch out for the dealer service department helpfully enabling it for your “safety” though.
I can’t say how everyone else passes another car on the highway but when I pass I put the pedal to the metal and pass, it’s going to get a lot harder to pass if your car can only go the exact speed limit and no more.
Vid on disabling the tracking devices on some modern cars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK-Y9BxBGus
Disconnecting your car:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2yoOKdfqDc
Thanks for posting these videos. There need to be many more videos uploaded on the topic.
‘The gizmos use orbiting satellites to pinpoint a car’s position, and intervene if it enters an area with a lower speed limit – such as a controversial 20mph zone – to slow it down.’ — Daily Mail
Which means that the vehicle’s position is being tracked, even if you leave your
phoneslave tether at home. UNACCEPTABLE.In the 20th century, auto journalists informed enthusiasts about exciting new models and features. But when every vehicle is connected, tracked and has its speed limited and its brakes applied [AEB] by algorithms, new autos are irrelevant: every single one is irremediably defective, from an owner’s point of view.
We’re all Cubans now, comrades, with our vintage unconnected vehicles. The new car market is dead to me. Motorcycles may hold out a bit longer as freedom machines. Then it’s down to e-bikes, I reckon.
Death to the auto industry.
Hi Jim,
That’s the reason behind the push to put Big Brother “data centers” everywhere, gotta have the computing capacity to spy on every single one of us. These control freak busybodies need to be dropped into the deepest part of the ocean.
You don’t have to be an authoritarian prick to be employed by GovCo but, it sure is a resume’ enhancement.
Hi Mark,
Yes, one does have to be an authoritarian prick, otherwise, one would never be able to establish, execute, and enforce the “laws” that these sick control freaks desire.
I’ll use two examples of what I mean.
My wife worked for Hillsborough County in Florida (Tamp). She oversaw the land records and made them available for people who were doing title work, etc. That was her background, setting up filing systems so things can easily be found. She enjoyed helping people with their searches. She left after 3 years when we moved back north and returned to the private sector never to work for GovCo again.
The other is our son-in-law who is in HVAC He got a job with the county school system because they’d pay for his further education and certifications. He left after achieving those goals after two years. He went back to the private sector.