Fines are completely useless if they are small enough to be considered "the price of doing business".

The goal should be to make them appropriately cautious. Not careless but also not paralyzed by fear. Escalating fines have the property that they are self-tuning. They basically say "go ahead and try it! But if there are issues you have to fix them promptly"

Because 100 million dollars isn't a reasonable fee for a traffic violation.