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Comment by proee | Hacker News Reader

The industry is heading toward 100 EV for cars. Would it not be possible to create an industry standard that allows for geofenced speed regulators?

We have the technology to enforce speed limits on a per-street basis if everyone is diving an EV (even non EV for that matter).

This would make it impossible for people to drive 50MPH through a residential neighborhood.

Seems like a good idea no?

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We can also prevent people from driving 50MPH through residential neighborhoods with good street design. Current safety standards with open roads encourage people to ignore the speed limit. Safety features like raised crosswalks, curb bulb-outs at intersections, and roundabouts at small intersections like those used in Seattle all make it uncomfortable to drive fast. This would go far in reducing egregious speeding without the claims of authoritarianism that would certainly come with technological speed controls.

I live on a street that is an arterial in Oklahoma. Generally in tulsa people drive 45-50mph on our grid (major streets every mile). I had to have a 125cc scooter to keep up with traffic. Even on an e-bike going 25mph I had people trying to run me off the road if I used the full lane.

I am seriously wondering if we just need to setup camera speed traps and red light cameras to solve this and fund better human scaled infrastructure. Imagine trying to cross one of these streets where there isn’t a crosswalk for a half mile

You're right and the thought of this always makes me chuckle and think of a neighborhood nearby that has enacted these traffic calming measures along a heavily trafficked corridor. The curbs of the pinch points and chicanes are black from tire rubs. You probably don't have to wait more than 10 minutes to see a car come along and smack into a curb.

I think about the all the time, as I'm in one of tens of thousands of cars blowing by "55 mph" signs at 75-80 mph regularly, right past cops who are supposedly looking for "speeders", etc. obviously if civil society wanted to actually eliminate "speeding" this solution is one of many that can do it immediately.

however I suspect there are various large political roadblocks, not the least of which it would eliminate the jobs of cops who sit on roadsides and make money giving out tickets but I'm sure also including car manufacturers, consumers, maybe DMVs for some reason I can't think of, etc.

you know it's one of those things that would be commonplace in an imaginary "imagine we traveled 50 years into the future" things, but how it actually happens is not at all clear.

We already have that technology for any non-manual car. But nobody would want to buy it - I'm not sure geofencing is reliable enough to do what you're asking for, GPS drifts.

In the US, I think it is more likely that we will regulate automobile speed than guns. I thought there might be a joke here, but sadly, this is just true.

When all cars are connected we will 100% have geofencing that controls cars. I suspect that this will become a political wedge issue. The right will see it as unnecessary government control, and/or the left will be pissed that rich people coordinated with officials to prevent most people from driving through their neighborhood.

> rich people coordinated with officials to prevent most people from driving through their neighborhood

Gated neighborhoods are already a thing. You don't need geofencing technology to do that.

You obviously don't live in LA. Google maps does everything it can to route you around rich neighborhoods. And there are countless extremely rich neighborhoods with no gates.

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