I am always looking at motorcycle news. Sometimes it is good news, sometimes it is not so good news. Here I give you a quick synopsis of the news story that caught my eye and then my take on that story.
Down Shift – Vehicle Kill Switches
Under the Biden Infrastructure Bill “provision requires such technology to “passively monitor the performance of a driver” and “prevent or limit motor Vehicle operation if an impairment is detected.” That “this needs to be developed and rules given to manufactures by 2026”. We could see this as a “new feature”, for which we will be paying, by 2027.
My Take – Some are arguing that this is not a kill switch, but from the way I read the language it is a kill switch. Whether or not it will stop a moving vehicle is a different question. But, the way government bureaucracies work, if it does not cover stopping a moving vehicle at first, it soon will.
We do not need this level of government interference in our lives. While the provision states “impaired driver” now what prevents the standard from changing to something different in the future.
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Down Shift – Using Technology to limit vehicle speed.
To prevent deaths from speeding, the NTSB has recommended limiting the speed of cars via technology, if necessary. This proposed action is another part of the Biden Infrastructure Plan. This effort is modeled from the European Union legislation requiring all new vehicles to have “intelligent speed assistance” systems as standard equipment, which can be temporarily overridden by the driver. The limiting technology, known as Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), doesn’t force drivers to obey the speed limit.
My Take – I am sure that Vision Zero has their smelly little hands on both these rules that were slide into the Biden Infrastructure Plan. Yes, I do not like the Vision Zero folks. IMHO they are nothing but little totalitarians who what to eliminate motorcycles from the road. I am sure their unwritten manifesto is “The best way to save lives in the transportation system is to have no transportation”.
They state that the ISA will not force drivers/riders to obey the speed limit but, like the above proposal, if it does not at the start it will in a few years.
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Ride on, Ride Safe
