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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 04 2016, @07:11AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-could-possibly-go-wrong? dept.

International road safety experts are calling for all vehicles to be fitted with speed warning devices, and drivers who exceed the speed limit may find their accelerators disabled by devices that are being considered in Australia.

According to the experts "Driving too fast causes 1.25 million road traffic deaths a year globally, and is a major contributor to the 6.9 per cent increase in deaths on Australian roads to 1275 in the year ending August 31."

The road safety experts called for all European vehicles to be fitted with Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) devices. These use speed sign recognition and satellite information to warn drivers with sounds or message if they exceed the limit.

The council launched a campaign on YouTube to build support for ISA, saying it had a huge potential to save lives.

Some devices, which have already been integrated into some new models of Ford cars, have an override function that can stop speeding drivers from using the accelerator until they return to the speed limit.

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/function-to-stop-speedsters-from-using-accelerator-the-way-to-cut-road-deaths-20160929-grrqox.html

Anyone want this fitted to their car? I can see problems...


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  • (Score: 1) by Francis on Tuesday October 04 2016, @08:02PM

    by Francis (5544) on Tuesday October 04 2016, @08:02PM (#410271)

    No, I'm not joking. It's not widely advertised, but they generally do accept it because of people traveling and because it's so widely known.

    Just because you think they don't accept it, doesn't mean that they don't.

  • (Score: 1, Troll) by janrinok on Wednesday October 05 2016, @07:15AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday October 05 2016, @07:15AM (#410519) Journal

    Well, what do I know? I just dialled it and got unobtainable. Oh, I must be wrong.

    It might work in major cities in this country, but it sure as hell does nothing here where I live. That's probably why they don't advertise it then....

    • (Score: 1) by Francis on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:48PM

      by Francis (5544) on Wednesday October 05 2016, @09:48PM (#410847)

      You seriously dialed 911 in order to verify that it doesn't work in your part of the world?

      Are you fucking stupid? I mean seriously, what would have happened if it had been hooked up in your part of the country? Oh, gee, I'm sorry, I had to be right on the internet.

      • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday October 06 2016, @06:59AM

        by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 06 2016, @06:59AM (#410999) Journal

        A simple 'sorry, wrong number' is all it takes. Are you that frightened of the world outside your own home?

        Are you fucking stupid?

        No.

        what would have happened if it had been hooked up in your part of the country?

        Oh, I expect a SWAT team would have been despatched, the local militia mobilised, and we'd have gone to a high state of nuclear readiness... Oh, sorry, those sort of things don't happen here. I would have explained it was in incorrect dialling (after all, it is not a listed number here) and we would have wished each other a good day; and our lives would have gone on unchanged.

        I had to be right on the internet.

        No, I merely wished to demonstrate that you were wrong. The world does not revolve around the USA and how things work there. If Americans travelling the world expect every phone to accept 911, the dollar to be a usable currency in the shops, and our steaks to be the size of half a cow, they will be very saddened by the experience of new countries.

    • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday October 06 2016, @07:07AM

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 06 2016, @07:07AM (#411002) Journal

      Francis, it's probably best you don't mark replies to your comments as 'Trolls' simply because you don't like them. Don't forget, I work here :)

      A civilised conversation is more than adequate to make a point. Dialling 911 might work in many places outside the CONUS, but don't rely on it if you leave home. Learn the culture of the country that you are visiting and I can guarantee that your stay will be much more enjoyable. Most of Europe will respond to '12', and operators are usually quite happy to cope with different languages.

  • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Thursday October 06 2016, @08:46AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 06 2016, @08:46AM (#411018) Journal

    I have just had a conversation with our local telephone engineer advice line, who advise me thus:

    In Europe the standard emergency contact number is 112. However, 112, 911, 999 will usually connect you to an emergency operator but only on a mobile device. For land lines, and also recommended for all GSM devices in Europe, then 112 is the European standard emergency number. 911 and 999 are unlikely to work for landlines outside countries that have adopted these numbers as their emergency contact numbers. The local telecom company do not recommend the use of 911 or 999 as there are additional local advantages for the emergency services of using 112, and they point out that only 112 is guaranteed to work on all telephone services here.

    When the user tries to set up a call using an emergency number known by a GSM or 3G phone [wikipedia.org], the special emergency call setup takes place. The actual number is not even transmitted into the network, but the network redirects the emergency call to the local emergency desk. This also has the advantage of, in most cases, not requiring a simcard with credit and will attempt to connect even when no mobile tower is technically in range.

    The full list of emergency contact numbers worldwide is shown here [wikipedia.org]. The US State department actually push out emergency contact numbers for travellers, as shown in the PDF here [state.gov]. A lot of countries will not accept any other numbers, nor do many of them redirect the standard 112, 911, and 999 to the local emergency operator.

    You might be surprised by how many people do not use mobile devices, or rely on land line telephones even in this day and age.