In its continuing efforts to outlaw anything remotely fun, the European Union has announced plans to forcibly limit all cars to a maximum of 70 miles per hour.
Under the latest scheme proposed by EU bureaucrats, cameras that can read speed limit signs would be installed in all new cars, reports The Telegraph. The cars would then automatically slam on the brakes when drivers exceed the posted speed limit.
Owners of existing cars would not be immune. They would be required to have the speed limit mechanisms installed as well.
The Intelligent Speed Adaptation plan was proposed by the European Commission’s Mobility and Transport Department. Its purpose is to decrease the number of traffic deaths. Some 30,000 traffic fatalities occur on European roads each year.
The speed-reduction bid would utilize satellites, which would communicate with computers inside each automobile on the road.
This technology is already in place in some buses in EU countries.
Under a less drastic version of the plan, cars would warn drivers whenever they speed.
The reactions of various European governments is unclear. However, Patrick McLoughlin, Britain’s Transport Secretary, has come out against the ambitious plan.
“This has Big Brother written all over it and is exactly the sort of thing that gets people’s backs up about Brussels,” McLoughlin said, according to The Telegraph.
A spokesman for Britain’s Automobile Association (AA) noted that the plan is likely to create a host of new road hazards.
“If you were overtaking a tractor and suddenly needed to accelerate to avoid a head-on collision, you would not be able to,” an AA spokesman told The Independent Online.
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