An insatiable Appetite For Control

While I’m on a government intrusion rant: have you seen the latest proposal by our government officials to require vehicles to have installed erratic driving software that will move the car to the shoulder and shut down the vehicle should the computer decide that the operator is driving in an unsafe manner?  Well-intentioned as it may be to prevent drunk driving, how does this system take into account chronic drunks with passable motor skills who don’t drive erratically but have impaired reflexes sufficient to be unable to avoid collision?  And how is the computer to differentiate between erratic driving and a deft maneuver to avoid a squirrel?  I don’t know about you, but given the choice between being disabled indefinitely on the side of the road, where I’m sure my turncoat car will rat me out to the authorities, and likely my insurance company as well, versus flattening the poor squirrel, I’m sorry to say PETA, but that squirrel is toast. And who exactly is the arbiter that determines what is considered erratic driving anyway? And don’t tell me it’s AI.  As the internet reports: I think we should leave artificial intelligence alone until we’ve figured out how to manage natural stupidity. Does it consider swerving, dodging animals, or potholes? How about accelerating too fast in your Italian sportscar or slamming on the brakes to avoid the aforementioned critters or maybe to avoid another speed trap sprung on you by uniformed government employees using equipment purchased with your tax dollars to squeeze even more revenue out of the driving public?  Government is suddenly everywhere, feeling cocky after their Covid lockdown success. And now they’re intent on taking it one step further, by suggesting we install governors on our cars to prevent us from exceeding the posted speed limit. I think they’re going to rely on that foolproof GPS technology for this one. You know, the technology that often isn’t kept up to date on speed limits or road construction and tells you to take the next left onto a snowmobile trail so you can “navigate off-road.”  Sure, that will work. And sign me up to purchase that 500 HP sports car so I can accelerate as fast as humanly possible to reach the preposterously posted 35 mph on that four-lane divided highway stretch of Route 2 outside of Hartford. Might as well take the Prius. Or just shoot me. And they’re even proposing the “15-minute city”. Where everything you could possibly need; work, groceries, the gym, and leisure activities, is located no more than a 15-minute walk from your government-sanctioned cubicle. I assume these people have seen Blade Runner, haven’t they? But buried in this concept is your access to your own personal vehicle which will be programmed to limit your excursions to that 15-minute radius, thus keeping the climate change folks happy and simultaneously keeping John Kerry’s favorite beaches all over the world less crowded so he can kite-surf unimpeded by you and your snotty children. So when they say they’re coming for your filthy internal combustion vehicle to save the planet, don’t believe them. What they’re coming for is control.