Speed governors for all vehicles!

Folks, stand up and applaud this. Read in Biz-standard this morning that Central government is thinking about making speed governors mandatory in all vehicles. I have always wondered, why make cars that do 150 kmph when such speeds are not legal anywhere in the country. And why is it that the push for speed governors was so far being made only for commercial vehicles?

I think just the way mobile phone technology was a leapfrog solution to help increase teledensity, technology can help us with solutions for traffic management. Think of this for example.

• Imagine 'dynamic' speed governors (DSG - pardon me for a new acronym) made mandatory in all vehicles
• Lets say the speed limit in the DSG can be reset or activated wirelessly. The speed controllers can be installed along with the traffic lights or toll gates, these are usually the spots where speed limits change.
• So now, what do have here? Sample these:
  • Traffic lights can have these controllers that set the limit to 40 as you go under it
  • Tollgate to NICE Peripheral road can have a controller that sets it to 80
  • Hebbal flyover can have one that sets it to 70 as you go north, and to 45 as you come south.
• Of course, there would be hackers and violators. But you would no longer need to prove the guy was driving over the limit. Anytime you stop a car, and find that the DSG's limit was more than what would be right for a stretch, you just slap a fine regardless of the speed at which the offender was spotted and caught.

How does it sound? Technically speaking, to the best of my knowledge, such a solution is possible. Making it mandatory in all new vehicles will bring the prices down to reasonable levels. A patent search for term "dynamic speed governor" returned this entry. but its not exactly what I have in mind. The wireless control aspect is missing. But I wont be surprised if similar solutions exist in the market. If not, then no kidding, I am willing to build one!

As the news article says, this would add some cost to the vehicles:

Passenger car prices could increase by Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 if Parliament approves a transport ministry proposal to amend the Motor Vehicles Act to extend the use of speed governors, currently restricted to commercial vehicles, to all vehicles.

Well worth it. As it is, we don't pay the full cost associated with maintaining and operating our vehicles. The article ends with a mention of one such cost:

The implementation of speed governors has become a contentious issue as road accidents account for over 30 per cent of the total deaths in the country. In 2006, the death toll had crossed over 100,000, one of the highest in the world. According to economists the social cost of such a high casualty rate is over Rs 1,50,000 crore.

Rs 1,50,000 crore, well, hope they have solid backing for that number!!