Your Car's Kill Switch is Acknowledged Under Clause 24220!
Soon the government might shut down your car. President Joe Biden's new infrastructure gives bureaucrats that power. You probably didn't hear about that because when media covered it, few mentioned the requirement that by 2026, every American car must "monitor" the driver, determine if he is impaired and, if so, "limit vehicle operation." Rep. Thomas Massie objected, complaining that the law makes government "judge, jury and executioner on such a fundamental right!" Congress approved the law anyway. A USA Today "fact check" told readers, don't worry, "There's no kill switch in Biden's bill."
"They didn't read it, because it's there!" says automotive engineer and former vintage race car driver Lauren Fix in my new video. The clause is buried under Section 24220 of the law. USA Today's "fact" check didn't lie, exactly. It acknowledged that the law requires "new cars to have technology that identifies if a driver is impaired and prevents operation." Apparently, they just didn't like the term "kill switch."
But it is a kill switch. Mothers Against Drunk Driving wants that. I say to Fix, "It would save lives." "Are you willing to give up every bit of control of your life?" she asks. "Once you give that up, you have no more freedom. This computer decides you can't drive your vehicle. Great. Unless someone's having a heart attack and trying to get to the hospital."
The kill switch is just one of several ways the government proposes to control how we drive.
California lawmakers want new cars to have a speed governor that prevents you from going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit.
That would reduce speeding. But not being able to speed is dangerous, too, says Fix. If "something's coming at you, you have to make an adjustment."
New cars will have a special button on the dash. If you suddenly need to speed and manage to find the button when trying to drive out of some bad situation, and it lets you speed for 15 seconds.
For all these new safety devices to work, cars need to spy on drivers. Before I researched this, I didn't realize that they already do.
The Mozilla Foundation reports that car makers "Collect things like your age, gender, ethnicity, driver's license number, your purchase history and tendencies." Nissan and Kia "collect information about your sex life."
How? Cars aim video cameras at passengers. Other devices listen to conversations and intercept text messages.
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