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From: Hibou <vpaereru-unmonitored@yahoo.com.invalid>
Newsgroups: sci.lang,alt.usage.english
Subject: Re: OT: Converting miles/km
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 2024 05:30:10 +0100
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Le 21/09/2024 à 16:10, Aidan Kehoe a écrit :
>>> Hibou hat am 21.09.2024 um 09:20 geschrieben:
>>>>
>>>> Our recent hire cars have displayed the speed limit, as read from limit
>>>> signs via their cameras. It is often wrong, displaying a recent speed
>>>> limit, not the current one - unsurprisingly, since in France there are a
>>>> variety of signs that set the speed (a crossed-out place name, for
>>>> instance), the camera lens may be dirty, a lorry may mask a sign, and so
>>>> on.
>>>>
>>>> Apparently, the crazy EU has made this flawed system the basis for
>>>> mandatory speed limiters (and the crazy UK has followed suit). If you
>>>> run into someone stuck at 30 kph on a 130 kph autoroute, that's probably
>>>> the reason.
> 
> A mandatory warning is part of the law, but actual restriction is not,

Do you have a source for that, a link?

> so
> should you be in those occasional situations where breaking the speed limit is
> safer than following it, you can (usually, depending on your manufacturer) just
> keep the foot on the accelerator despite the alarm.

I think such situations are routine, not occasional.

>>>> "However, our experience of such systems suggests they can get it wrong.
>>>> In one instance, a car's traffic sign recognition system picked up a
>>>> 30mph sign on a turning off a dual carriage and dramatically slowed
>>>> down, despite the fact the car was actually travelling along the outside
>>>> lane" -
>>>> <https://www.parkers.co.uk/car-advice/speed-limiters-what-they-mean-for-you/>
>>>>
>>>> God preserve us from government!
> 
> Apart from things like seatbelt laws, high taxes on tobacco, enforced rules on
> food safety, regulation of medication? Or are you completely fine with easily
> avoidable death and major disability, shorter and worse-quality lives, mass
> poisonings, more mass poisonings? The middle option saves on taxes given if you
> die at 63 from lung cancer you won’t draw much in the way of state pension, so
> there is a financial but not humanitarian argument for it. There’s no argument
> for the rest.

I think you've missed my point, which was that the system for 
determining the speed limit is thoroughly unreliable, and not a suitable 
basis for restrictors, or even alarms sounding in drivers' ears.


Let's explore a bit. To what extent should the state - or in the EU's 
case the superstate - constrain people in order to make them safe?

A thought experiment. A parallel to inappropriate speed might be 
inappropriate eating (I expect you know more about this than I).

"In the long-term, eating junk food can lead to: type 2 diabetes / 
heart-related problems (such as cardiovascular disease, high blood 
pressure and cholesterol) / overweight and obesity / osteoporosis / 
certain cancers / depression /eating disorders / These complications are 
all associated with a diet high in sugar, salt, trans- and saturated 
fats and with a lack of essential nutrients like fibre, vitamins and 
minerals" -
<https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/junk-food-and-your-health#complications>

Now, suppose it were possible to make an electronic implant that 
monitored blood constituents, could detect when someone was digesting 
junk food, and give that person a stomach ache.

Should the state force people to have that implant to save a proportion 
of them from illness and premature death?

What if the implants' sensors were unreliable, and they often gave 
people stomach aches even when they were eating healthily? Should the 
state still make them mandatory?