Future of Cars - Intelligent Cars
With the age of technology truly upon us the government has released plans to compile a national roads speed limit database. This will be done with the aid of all the UK's local authorities to try and create a database that will tell the user exactly what the speed limit is on any road in the UK.
How long it will take to compile the database will all depend on how well the local authority's records have been kept. Early suggestions are that some records are out of date resulting in a delay on completion of the database. The question is why does the government feel the need to be creating this data base in the first place? The answer may not be greeted with open arms by the public.
The creation of this data base is the first step in creating what can only be described as an intelligent car. These intelligent cars will be fitted with a system to be known as intelligent speed adaptation (ISA). This new ISA system will be designed to be built into cars and through an on board computer link to a satellite positioning system, using the digital map of national speed limits tell the car the limit on that stretch of road. Where the car becomes intelligent is if the driver attempts to break the speed limit of that road the computer will attempt to stop this action. The car will use one or all of the following actions as a method to do this, sound an alarm, vibrate the accelerator, block acceleration and/or apply the brakes. This could see an out right stop to speeding on UK roads.
The government will argue that this new method of curbing speeding will make the UK roads a safer place. With the eradication of speeding all fines and penalty points leading to increased car insurance premiums will be cut out resulting in cheaper motor insurance for every one. With the reduction of speed on the roads there will be a decrease in accidents accompanied again with the reduction of claims and therefore car insurance.
Opposition will be fierce to the new plans with many people within the car industry already outraged by the plans. Sports car manufacturers for one will see a sharp decrease in the amount of machines sold as performance of a car will be significantly effected by the new proposals.
The issue of cost will be a major one with the government presumably picking up the cost rather than the public, if not they will be met with out rage. Who is going to pay the predicted £1000 to fit the system to their car so they can basically have their speed restricted where ever they go.
Fitting what can only be described as a GPS system to the car will raise privacy issues, by having this system on your car your every move could be recorded.
It seems that this system could be years in testing so maybe it is a little premature to be kicking up a fuss so early. Maybe this could be the way to reduce dangerous driving on today's roads which could see the eradication of fines, penalty points and result in a fall in car insurance premiums. Is the prospect of cheaper car insurance really worth jeopardising our rights? You decide.
