Fucking hell. Not content with ‘road pricing’, the government is looking seriously at putting a remote control in your car.

No, seriously.

The satellite-based system will monitor the speed limit and apply the brakes or cut out the accelerator if the driver tries to exceed it. A government-funded trial has concluded that the scheme promotes safer driving.

Right. So overtaking is now to be made impossible. Driving fast to get a seriously ill person to hospital because the ambulance is late? Impossible.

What are the odds that government cars, police cars, etc, would be exempt? Because those who rule and those who enforce the rules never lave to abide by the rules. Perhaps they could get special lanes in the middle of roads as well, just to ensure they don’t have to queue with the plebs. Hell, it worked for the russians.

Oh, and this bit got on my nerves as well:

The move follows a six-month trial in Leeds using 20 modified Skoda Fabias, which found that volunteer drivers paid more attention as well keeping to the speed limit. More than 1,000 lives a year could be saved if the system was fitted to all Britain?s cars, say academics at Leeds University, who ran the trial on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT).

Well, knock me over with a feather! You mean that people who volunteered to surrender their freedom actually reported favourable results? Holy shit. The choir you’re preaching to liked the sermon? Hot damn, that’s a revelation.

I think that this fella has the correct view:

Edmund King, of the RAC Foundation, said limiters might make motorists less alert: ?If you take too much control away the driver could switch on to autopilot.?

Indeed. Oh, and by taking away people’s freedom to act, you’re also taking away their responsibility when your system fucks up. So no more careless/inconsiderate convictions. No more money from speeders, who’ll claim it was the system’s error. No more excuse for Traffic Branch, in fact, because we’ll all just be nice, friendly sheep, in our nice, expensive, green, personal transportation pods. What a wonderful future.