The National Transportation Safety Board has a simple request: Cars need to slow down to save lives, possibly via technology if the dumb humans behind the wheel refuse to do it. While it sounds like a potential nightmare scenario let’s take a look at the facts.
NTSB points out that over 108,000 Americans have lost their lives in crashes where speed was a factor over the last decade. Such deaths might be prevented by limiting the speed cars can travel in certain areas. Limiting speed is just the latest recommendation from the federal agency, and has been surprisingly and completely dishonestly reported in a video CNN entitled “Will Tech Force Cars To Slow Down.” The host kicks off the segment by asking “are we getting closer to having our cars monitored and controlled by the government?”
Will Tech Force Cars To Slow Down? | October 11, 2022
Listen, I get it: Who doesn’t like a snappy headline that clicks well? A premise that will get folks active in the comments and lead them to hitting those all-important like and subscribe buttons. But what NTSB actually did was recommend a timetable to put together incentives for automakers that put speed limiters in new cars. Not sure how you get from that to “Our cars are in danger of being monitored and controlled by the government!” Even CNN admits, this “limitation” could come in the form of an audible or visual warning—a feature already familiar to anyone with a newer vehicle.
A little about the NTSB; it’s a federal organization in charge of investigating transportation crashes, whether those crashes happen on highways, water, pipelines or railroads. Since the organization started its work in 1967 the NTSB has issued over 13,000 recommendations for policy changes that studies show would save more lives. These are recommendations, not requirements, though the NTSB closely follows any policy change in support of their recommendations. NTSB recommended, for instance, that all cars come with breathalyzer ignition interlock devices to prevent drunk driving—a …….
Source: https://jalopnik.com/feds-recommend-speed-limiting-technology-in-new-cars-e-1849646877