When the government is playing the game, what starts as a gentle nudge almost always turns into compulsion. Remember the “suggestion” to wear a mask? New cars in America are still only “suggesting” that you obey speed limits, but in Europe they’re mandating it; the driver can’t do anything about it. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
Well, it’s no longer just “assistance.”
As in Intelligent Speed Limit Assist. Which is now something more. And every new car comes equipped with it.
Or soon will.
The “technology” – as these things are styled – was introduced, predictably, as a gentle reminder; you’re driving faster than whatever the posted limits says you may. Perhaps you weren’t paying attention. You are doing 60 in a 55 and so susceptible to being “pulled over” – that is, forced to stop by the threat of murderous violence if you do not – and then issued a “ticket,” the insipid-sounding euphemism given to the extortion-demand note handed to you by the armed government worker (AGW) who “pulled you over.”
A little speed limit icon in the car’s instrument cluster – made to look like a little speed limit road sign – flashes red . . . to “assist” you. To let you know you are “speeding” – the term used by AGWs to justify the “pulling over” and handing-over of the extortion-demand note.