Your Car, Their Rules: Intelligent Speed Assistance
Virginia is one of America’s original 13 colonies, the tenth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution in 1788. Long before that, Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607. It seems strangely fitting, then, that Virginia would once again become a pioneer. Only this time, instead of charting a path toward liberty, it’s blazing a trail toward government-controlled gas pedals.
Virginia’s state motto is Sic Semper Tyrannis: “Thus always to tyrants.” Apparently, electronic control of the gas pedal does not count.
On July 1, Virginia became the first state in America to authorize court-ordered Intelligent Speed Assistance devices for so-called “extreme speeders.” The electronic governor uses real-time GPS mapping to determine a vehicle’s location, compare it against the posted speed limit, and physically prevent the driver from accelerating beyond that threshold. George Orwell probably never imagined 1984 would include satellite navigation.
Supporters call the program a sensible alternative to licence suspensions or vehicle impoundment. They argue that limiting the car is better than banning the driver. Perhaps. But for gearheads and civil libertarians alike, it represents something far more significant: another line crossed. Not because anyone supports street racing or 100 MPH blasts down public highways, but because the government has moved beyond punishing illegal behaviour and into electronically controlling lawful private property in real time.
The proposed version of this idea in New York State targeted repeat offenders after sixteen speeding violations. Virginia has already lowered the bar dramatically. One qualifying conviction for driving over 100 MPH now requires the court to order the driver to enroll in the speed-governor program, unless it suspends the driver’s licence instead. Judges may also require the device following convictions for reckless driving or street racing.
Almost nobody will defend driving 100 MPH on a public road. That’s not the point. The point is precedent. Once the state accepts that it can reach into your ride, grab you by the GPS antenna and accelerator pedal, and tell you how to drive, the debate changes forever.
Today’s target is the driver doing 100.
Tomorrow it might be the one doing 85.
Then every newly licensed teenager. Then every fleet vehicle. Then every new car sold in the state. Government powers rarely remain frozen at the point of their creation. They tend to grow, one “reasonable” step at a time.
Virginia insists this is about safety. Maybe it is. But history has a funny way of remembering the first government to claim a new power. Virginia is now the first state to give judges the authority to electronically govern the accelerator pedal of a privately owned automobile. Today’s speed governor is aimed at the driver almost nobody wants to defend.
Tomorrow’s may be aimed at someone else. Because governments rarely surrender powers once they’ve acquired them. They simply redefine who those powers apply to. Virginia hasn’t just installed a speed governor in a few cars. It has installed a new precedent. Big Brother now has one foot on the brake, and one hand around your neck.