Ford's new car will force you to obey the speed limit

[OldLady]

Wow, I can see where this will be IMMENSELY popular.

I for one can hardly wait to plunk down even more cash than new cars cost now, for the privilege of having my car overrule me when I decide to speed up.

If the car companies really wanted to make cars safer by some high-tech tomfoolery, they would used the automatic-braking sensor and speed measurement, to measure how close you are to the car in front of you, and reduce your speed to keep your following distance safe. That would avoid a GREAT many more collisions than a speed-limit restrictor... since more accidents are caused by tailgating than by speeding.

I can see this speed-limit restrictor as being as popular as Obamacare... which had to be forced through Congress at midnight on Christmas eve and imposed on the American people without their consent. (People who then kicked most of the Democrats who did it, out of Congress.) The same will be necessary for this speed-limit restrictor.

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Ford s new car will force you to obey the speed limit

Ford's new car will force you to obey the speed limit

by Daniel Cooper | @danielwcooper | 6 hrs ago

Much as we'd like to emulate our NASCAR heroes, breaking the speed limit often comes at a price. Ford is hoping to prevent accidents and speeding tickets by introducing cars that can see what the speed limit is and preventing heavy-footed motorists from driving any faster. Ford's Intelligent Speed Limiter tech will first appear on the new Ford S-Max that's launching in Europe that could just change the way that we drive.

A camera mounted on the windshield scans the road signs on the sides of the highway and, when the vehicle enters a 20mph zone, the system reduces the top speed to match. Rather than controlling the speed with automatic braking, the car limits its own velocity by adjusting the amount of fuel being pushed to the engine.

You try driving the speed limit on I-84 around Hartford Connecticut and you will cause accidents. Now, if EVERYONE's car refused to speed, okay. But down there, everyone goes at least 80 mph and someone poking along at 55 mph is likely to cause a huge accident. At least that's what it used to be like there. I left in 1989 and I have never been back.

 

[DigitalDrifter]

Get ready for government mandates., after all they know what's best for you.

 

[Ozone]

give it some time, there will be a bunch of videos on youtube that shows how to disable the governor. whether it's unplugging a breaker in the fuse box or clipping a wire under the shifter, or even if it's a matter of flash updating the computer, where there's a will to go fast there's a way to go fast.

 

[Jarlaxle]

I figure I'm good for another 20 years with the car I have now.

 

[whitehall]

Anybody trust a car computer to read road signs? What happens when the car computer reads a sale in a strip mall of 20% off and interprets it as 20 mph? I guess nobody saw the fine print that Ford offers a button conveniently located on the dashboard to deactivate the annoying accessory.

 

[my2¢]

Goodbye speed traps.

 

[doctordog]

Illinois and Virgina will be bankrupt without speeding tickets to write

 

[RoshawnMarkwees]

Edsel is back!

The Edsel was a good car. It just didn't sell. Mainly because its grill looked like a broken-in vagina...

 

[FA_Q2]

Anybody trust a car computer to read road signs? What happens when the car computer reads a sale in a strip mall of 20% off and interprets it as 20 mph? I guess nobody saw the fine print that Ford offers a button conveniently located on the dashboard to deactivate the annoying accessory.

No, no one bothers to read anything anymore.

With the disable button it is not a bad idea for those that simply want to avoid tickets but tend to not pay attention to their speed. I do trust a computer to read those road signs as well - computers have become very advanced and very accurate - most likely more accurate than you are at seeing the road signs. The only issue that occurs with something like this is that I can see government mandates in the future.

Fortunately, self driving cars are likely to make this utterly moot (and they have been accurately reading road signs for a decade now as well).