On the face of it, a remote kill switch for your car sounds like a good idea. If someone jimmies the lock on your new FT-1, you can just shut off the engine, GPS locate the car and have your baby back in your garage before the cops can say "gimme another dozen jelly-filled." Right now you can order up a kill switch for yourself online. They're even included in services like OnStar. The difference here is that very soon, the residents of the EU won't be the only ones able to kill their car's engine at the drop of a hat.
The European authorities have been developing a "secret" project which aims to install kill switches in all new cars that operate within their borders. On the face of it, the plan is designed to eliminate high-speed chases that endanger the lives of pedestrians and police officers alike, but there's more to it than that.
The kill switches would be activated by an officer at a central police headquarters, with whom officers on the road could be in constant contact. Without proper limitation, this means that officers could begin shutting off the engines of any person pulled over whatsoever, regardless of actual guilt.
In Europe, where Big Brother is usually watching anyway, this could lead to officers watching for minor roadway infractions from behind a desk, killing your engine, and then sending your location and fine to a cop who will get to you eventually, drop off your ticket and hopefully tell the officer at the office that your engine can be switched back on.
Obviously this is a worst-case scenario, but it bears mentioning. It's likely this sort of questionable use that has kept the project under wraps in the EU. Authorities aren't yet sure themselves if the project would overstep their authority or if it would be helpful to the populace at large.
With autonomous cars headed to the roads, and the U.S. itself considering implementingsensors in cars that could take over your vehicle when an accident looks imminent, chances are that we'll all have to give up a bit of the freedom we now associate with the open road in the future.
On the one hand, there's no doubt that the vast majority of roadway fatalities are due to driver error or intoxication. On the other, the thought of a system that can instantly take away your mobility without cause is a terrifying one. The EU's plan is slated to take from six to ten years to be implemented. Here's hoping we can find a happy medium between oppression and murderous car chases before then.
Via The Telegraph
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