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Is it time for all motor vehicles to be fitted with a black box?

I'll be the first to admit that car ownership is getting out of control. I was wondering if you could have a system whereby the number of drivers is kept to a fixed limit & then, you could only get a licence when another driver either revokes theirs or passes away.
Like gondoliers?
 
May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the nether regions of all who actually WANT to impose obedience, authority, conformance, surveillance etc on others! (Apart from when I agree with it natch:D).

If it were up to me I would ban all speed cameras and rip them all out, along with ANPR cameras.





















Then I'd ban golf:D
A man for whom the height of a weekend is several hours in Wetherspoons does not have an opinion worth noting.
 
NO to black boxes.
YES to ongoing driver retraining. Which the drivers pay for, say 5-7yr retest ( and to a higher standard than the first one).

I'm up for that. I love driving, I've done a lot of it. I enjoy it for recreational purposes. I try not to be tw&t - and the context in which we all drive changes over time. Fix the actual problem: it's not the car.


ps having been reasonable about the problem- now, please let's just first kill people who buy cars so large they are visibly scared to drive them / have no conception of where in the world the corners are, that seem to have a2mforcefield around the perimeter etc; this decree applies to those with he entitlement issue that means not understanding where to start / what they can do about any or all of the above since it clearly is your problem on their road ...
 
I do think things have gone too far and we need to reprioritise.

It is quite astonishing how much money people spend on cars (and then how keen they are to spend as little time in them as possible by driving as fast as possible). Some of the cost of the vehicles and the infrastructure could surely be better spent.
I was down in Dorset week or two back and was struck by how much more courteous the driving was there. There were a lot fewer Chelsea tractors and most cars were older than here in Leeds. The boy racers there were actually boy racers, not mid life crisis men in £1m cars with silly exhaust noises like round here.
It made for a much more pleasant driving experience.

Maybe we need a horsepower tax instead of black boxes?
Have you no self awareness?
How much have you spent on your “stereo”?
 
Ban SUV's etc first of all then ban second cars then make public transport free. In fact lock em up! SUV owners that is! And bring back capital punishment for Range Rover Vogue owners! Crucifixions too good for 'em!:D
There are millions of people who have no bus services.
I don’t.
Whose going to pay for it?
I know.
Tax beer.
 
One of our cars has a black box. In many ways it is quite relaxing to drive - there is no option but to obey speed limits. The roads actually seem less congested when you don't drive on the bumper of the car in front! Journey times are unaffected.
The only stress comes from the odd tosser who flashes his lights at you because you are travelling at the speed limit.
Strangely, I manage to drive like that without a black box. Who knew it was possible? :rolleyes:
 
Strangely, I manage to drive like that without a black box. Who knew it was possible? :rolleyes:

Me too. Much more relaxing driving that way. I remember seeing a car mount the verge to pass a car waiting to turn right. He was hard up the back cars, 30 miles further on he was still only 3 cars in front.
 
Just another way to keep tabs on plebs, it’s becoming virtually impossible to live off grid nowadays, big brother is watching, listening, and reading my Mail.
The if you’ve got nothing to hide why worry attitude is fine till the they knock on your door!
But they’ve conned people into being constantly monitored via insurance apps, be fit, drive safe,save money, big brother.

Well said. Apparently you can't even walk up the street these days without being filmed by numerous door-bell cameras!
I don't recall giving my email address to the gov or my phone number but I've had emails and phone calls addressing me by my name in reference to covid jabs! I refuse my permission for the gov to know anything at all about me... including where I am, where I'm going and where I've just been (ANPR and general surveillance CCTV) for a start!

I'm disappointed that this has not so far prompted a thread https://www.theguardian.com/news/20...isclosures-prompt-political-rows-across-world
... and even more disappointed.. and surprised I must say, that seemingly a majority have no problem with being monitored, watched. measured, collocated, rated, tracked etc etc by a conglomeration of big brother and big business.

I predicted over 20 years ago that with the march of technology it would become easier each year for big brother to keep an eye on us all, and that they would not be able to resist the lure of linking up various sources of data (unofficially of course:rolleyes:) and develop a virtually full spectrum surveillance of the entire population.

The internet of things (IOT) has made it all so much worse and I have no doubt that as it is now possible for GCHQ/NSA/IDF etc (google? amazon? :rolleyes:) to hack into and link up things like peoples door bell cameras, shop CCTV etc along with use of credit cards, bus pass swipe cards etc, that in places like that London especially, it could happen that if they want to they could watch you from leaving your house, getting on a 45 bus, where you sat in the bus and where you paid to get off at, going into the tube network, which train you were on, and then follow you around Tesco's and know from the visa card record and till record exactly what you bought!! There have been all sorts of recent crime dramas and thrillers showing nearly that extent of surveillance tech in use, and seemingly based on actuality in many cases.
As they CAN, then if they think they have a reason to I have no doubt they probably do! In the cases of people who are whistle-blowers, or dissidents, or in political opposition or investigative journalists raking muck on "the powers that be".... be careful! Be very careful... cos probably big brother IS watching you!

There has even been suggestion that such tech and techniques, and particularly the Pegasus tech linked to above, has actually been used in the state sanctioned murders of eg that Iranian general and a few others by drone etc when it seemed their security was watertight and non of their staff had leaked in any way. If we know Pegasus exists and was developed by a private company then what else don't we yet know about that may have been developed with far higher funding and secrecy by the likes of the NSA!?

Some of the plots in "Black Mirror" were so scary because they were sometimes set only say 10 - 40 years in the future and they were careful to show that the tech was only a little more advanced than what we now have... Too close to reality and getting more so as time passes!

... and while am at it... how long, with the march of tech, and self driving cars already being tested, before this black box etc locks all your doors, takes over the controls and drives you to the nearest police station as soon as the speedo hits 74 mph!?:rolleyes:
 
Let’s not make this personal please.

For me until there is an alternative transport mechanism a car is a necessity for me who deals with customers all over the UK. A black box would make travel tedious and speed should be monitored by experienced traffic police who don’t just send a fine at 76 in a 70 like scamera vans do. Reliance on remote technology to regulate driving is only going to result in poorer driving standards. I mean WTF is lane assist about, if you can’t keep a car in the designated lane for where you are driving, you shouldn’t be! Hill assist, distance keeping sat nav, brake assist all eroding the requirement for the driver of the vehicle to be in control and alert.
 
I'm happy to have a black box fitted in my 1.5 ton Discovery so long as all cyclists wear an exploding neck collar with a 'cycle like a ****er' detonator
 
There are a multitude of reasons why low speed limits within towns and cities are a good thing, but I really resent the idea of being under constant surveillance and the assumption that I am a criminal-in-waiting.

A step too far.
 
Any such device would log every metre of every journey. Even if it only pings data back to base in the event of a transgression, how long would the logs be kept, and for what purpose? When would the authorities be able to gain access? To see if you were travelling in the vicinity of a road incident, at the time? To see if you were in the vicinity of a crime? To see who you visit, in case any of them are of interest to law enforcement? And who controls what is deemed a transgression? Speeding? Any threshold to cover momentary in attention or distraction to another task, or absolute offence for 1mph for 1 second? Inadvertently putting a wheel or two into a bus lane, or over a stop line? Stopping in a box junction? Not getting into the left lane on a quiet motorway?

As Bruce Schneier said: “It is poor civic hygiene to install technology which could be used as a means of state oppression” (or words to that effect). Even if you think the present government is benign (!) why let it install tools that could be valuable if an authoritarian takes charge?

In a word: no. Two words: absolutely not.
 
Lousy idea IMHO, don't see what it would achieve. If speed limits were monitored by GPS type systems then for many it would become a target speed. Speed limit is 50mph engage cruise control at 50mph and play chicken with the brake pedal!
 
For:
The roads are getting ever more congested and contested.
Modern cars are just too fast for their purpose. And they are getting bigger.
There seems to be a lot of dangerous "leisure" driving going on.
Pollution is a big problem.
"The car is King" needs to be changed

Against:
Civil liberty

I think it's time.
Good idea, but why not go all the way and place an RPG launcher on every corner to deal with all those small misdemeanours…. like driving!:rolleyes:
 
Entirely predictable replies chaps. Reasonable replies from the reasonable people etc!

To answer a couple of questions:
Yes I have been overtaken... I would much rather have a dangerous driver in front of me than behind (the dickhead Audi driver incident I witnessed a couple of years ago convinced me that this works).
Yes, I can and do drive our other car within the speed limits. As a ex-high mileage driver I wish I had discovered earlier how much less stressful this is!
 


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