In-car Speed Limiting Trial Story

I've gone for a bit more dramatism along the lines of "just because
something can be done doesn't mean that it should be done; in fact,
doing it could be a really fucking stupid idea".

More later today...

Suggested title: I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't let you drive that
fast.

Subtitle: The stupidest idea in road safety is now a technological reality

In February, 1950, when nuclear weapons were still emerging, physicist
Leo Szilard proposed a new type of atom bomb. The change in design was
trivial; change the material for the bomb's tamper - the outer shell
surrounding the plutonium core - from uranium to cobalt. The change in
effect was not. The dominant fallout from such a bomb would be
lethally-radioactive, but long-lived cobalt-60. Set one off and it would
make the surrounding area unapproachable for 20 years. Fight a whole
nuclear war with them, and all of the Earth would be uninhabitable for
just as long; too long to wait out in a fallout shelter. Szilard's
cobalt bomb was much worse than even regular nuclear weapons. It was a
doomsday weapon, a guaranteed way to make the human race, and most other
life on Earth, extinct. That made it a really bad idea, and that's why,
even though it wouldn't have been particularly difficult, it was never
built.

Sometime in the early 1990's, when satellite navigation and mobile
telecommunications were still emerging, an unknown engineer or safety
scientist proposed a new application combining the two. By measuring a
car's position using satellites, and comparing it to an electronic map
of local speed limits transmitted from radio towers connected to a
database on a powerful central computer, a display on the car's
dashboard could tell the driver what the local speed limit is... just
like a painted sign stuck on a metal pole by the side of the road.

(rest of article here)

By the time he proposed the cobalt bomb, Leo Szilard had long become a
vocal, public opponent of nuclear weapons, and he was dismayed that
people in government and influential scientists were as enthralled by
them as they were. He came up with an idea for an easy-to-build bomb
which could wipe out all life on Earth to try to snap them out of it.
Chances are some of the people who heard him out realised what was at
stake and started to curb their enthusiasm for nuclear weapons, and
chances are others reacted with, "That sounds awesome! Let's build
some!" Because no cobalt bombs were built, we know that the cooler heads
prevailed. Enough people realised that laying waste to whole cities in
an instant was quite enough; even though the means to do it were within
easy reach, there was no good reason to develop the ability to kill
every living thing on the planet.

The originator of Intelligent Speed Adaptation is unknown - who files
for the patent and who first comes up with the idea are usually two
different people. So, it can't be known whether the proposal was earnest
or whether, like Leo Szilard's, it was an attempt to make a point about
how absurd it is to apply an emerging technology to the nth degree.
Either way, we now know who won that debate, too; those who said, "That
sounds awesome. Let's build some, and, gradually, convince the
government to make them compulsory for all vehicles one day. We'll make
squillions. Captive demand, baby."

Cobalt bombs are preferrable to that; they would've sat out of the way
in their silos instead of being in every vehicle on the road, minded
their own business instead of intruding into everyone else's, and an
overwhelming majority of people would've hated them and been scared of
them rather than accepting them with a shrug.

 

I bet someone is already thinking about tracking speeders from satellites
and then dropping cobalt bombs on them!

 

250's do as well GS

Daron

 

Not in my experience of 250's.

Theo

 

Comfy tourers do.

SteveB

 

I'd love a leadwing...

 

I saw a bunch of monkeys worshipping one on telly the other day...

Pat