Half a century ago kids were enthralled by comics that depicted Buck Roger's adventures in space and Dick Tracey with a phone in his shoe. Today, space travel is a reality - and most of us have a mobile phone.
Wollongong has been selected for trialing a gadget that could be a harbinger of what our motoring future looks like !
This trial will see a hundred or so cars equipped with a monitor that not only reads the speed of the vehicle, but uses global positioning to plot it's position relative to the speed limit prevailing in that section of road, whether or not school restrictions apply - or whether it is obeying stop signs and traffic lights.
A buzzer will alert the driver to a speed infringement - and in a smaller number of cars an advanced system will reduce fuel flow to automatically reduce the cars speed to comply with the posted limit.
The driver will be able - in an emergency situation - to over ride this restriction to avoid danger.
Wollongong was chosen because it is necessary for every speed sign change to be entered into the computer and every school, set of traffic lights, intersection with a stop or give way sign to be noted in the control memory. Sydney would have been a far more daunting task for this test.
The problem is the possibility for " big brother " control to be applied to motoring some time in the future.
Such a system would have obvious advantages. If all cars had no option other than to obey all and every speed requirement then accidents would be sharply reduced - if not eliminated.
It would also be possible for law enforcement to know if a driver used the speed option and broke the law - and issue an automatic fine.
Stolen cars would be easy to identify - as would those without proper registration - and a touch of a button at police headquarters would render them immobile.
It is quite possible that some time in the future we may seem the situation that cars have an in-built management system that prevents them from speeding or being in any way anti-social. At the same time, sensors will probably control braking and make rear end crashes impossible.
They may be a lot safer - but once the skill of driving is replaced cars will be just a boring transportation chore !
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