alt Hacker NewsThis has as much to do with chronic speeding as bans on encryption have to do with terrorism.
It is nothing more than a foot in the door for massive police surveillance of all motor vehicles.
Virginia famously cares more about police than the rights of its citizens so it isn't a surprise the weapons of the future police state are being born there.
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You could do it without any surveillance. Just have a feature in the car where the ECU will limit the speed when e.g. programmed via the CAN-bus.
Such speed limits are quite common. E.g. mopeds in Finland have been (mechanically) speed limited for decades. Electric bikes are also limited to not supply force above 25km/h (IIRC).
There is already massive police surveillance of all motor vehicles.
Every motor vehicle has a serial number. Every motor vehicle is registered and must display an identification label on its front and rear. Every non-antique motor vehicle must be inspected annually for safety. Every motor vehicle must be operated by a licensed individual. Those individuals are assigned identification numbers and their photographs are stored in a database. Information regarding both the motor vehicle and its driver is shared among states, with private entities, and with the federal government. All motor vehicles must have insurance. The status of insurance coverage is shared with the state and other states. A network of automated license plate readers exists in the state, with police vehicles and various municipalities across the state deploying both fixed and mobile automated license plate readers. Speed and red light cameras have been deployed to municipalities across the state. Radar detectors are banned.
Anyone who has driven through Virginia knows that they have one of the, if not the, strictest speeding enforcement programs in the entire country.
> The Old Dominion has the second-highest citation rate for speeding in the nation — 67 percent higher than the national average — where many drivers are caught in the state’s notorious speed traps on interstate highways near Richmond.
https://insurify.com/car-insurance/insights/states-most-heav...
The door was opened decades ago.
This is about speeding.
On a personal level, I do one day a week as a volunteer EMT. Most of the time it's great. Taking old folks with UTIs and abnormal labs to the ER, treating injuries at high school football games, taking vitals and transporting folks with dizziness, racing to a restaurant and epi'ing someone who had an allergic reaction. Very rewarding, supremely fulfilling.
Then the drunks and the speeders show up and you go home wishing you could feed the legs of people who drive recklessly into meat grinders, up to their thighs.
People who regularly endanger the lives of others SHOULD be tracked. Want to live freely? Then don't be an asshole.
> It is nothing more than a foot in the door for massive police surveillance of all motor vehicles.
Ignition interlocks have existed for many years and didn't do this.
You're using a highly regulated piece of equipment that kills over 40,000 people in America annually. What do you feel is the appropriate balance?
How is this different to driving around with a mobile phone on?