The Federal Government Wants To Limit Your Car’s Speed

Big daddy government could soon be limiting your vehicle’s speed to keep you and everyone else safe. That’s if the National Transportation Safety Bureau gets its way after it concluded speed-limiting technology using GPS coordinates should be equipped on every car in America. Remember, if it saves just one life, instituting sweeping restrictions on personal freedom is always just a small price to pay.

Meanwhile in Chicago noise pollution cameras are a new thing.

To be clear, we’re not fans of this plan and this isn’t the first time someone has proposed something like this. What triggered this recommendation from NTSB was its investigation into the horrific 2022 North Las Vegas crash. While that was certainly a tragedy, amazingly millions of Americans somehow don’t do such things without the federal government limiting what speed they can travel.

Don’t worry, though, because the NTSB doesn’t want to force you to always drive the speed limit, at least not yet. Instead, the federal agency’s official press release explains even though it’s calling for speed limiting tech in all new cars, such a measure would only be used for drivers who have a history of speeding or other risky behaviors.

What we know is these kinds of restrictions are subject to government mission creep. Remember that income tax was simply an extreme measure to pay for the military during the Civil War. Or that the federal government is moving forward on installing driver impairment monitoring technology in all cars starting in 2026, with a so-called “kill switch” that law enforcement could access without a warrant.

So you can trust that this technology wouldn’t be abused and punishments applied to people other than the worst offenders in society. Also, if you use a navigation system which displays speed limits, you know the correct limit is always displayed, so there’s no way for such a technology to glitch or be wrong ever.

But wait, there’s more. NTSB wants NHTSA to require all cars to nag you if you ever, for any reason, exceed the speed limit the system definitely is reading correctly using GPS. Because newer vehicles don’t squawk at people nearly enough these days, so much that automakers have started using haptic seats and steering wheels to get drivers’ attention.

This is in effect just one step closer to self-driving cars monitored closely if not controlled by the federal government. We can’t wait for our future passenger pod.

We love having the federal government act like a stern, controlling mother who will never ever let us ever do anything naughty ever. Freedom is, after all, overrated – just ask Founding Father Samuel Adams.