Engine Governors, Breathalyzers, and Anti-Texting for Cars?

When I started this blog a little while back, I knew it was going to be a sort of therapeutic, off the cuff, 'shoot from the hip' kind of writing platform.  While I have opinions (hopefully logical) about many a topic out there, I realize that not everything I write about is going to be agreed upon by everyone.  That's the beauty of life; everyone has varied tastes, outlooks, mindsets, and overall opinions on a plethora of subjects.

With that being said, I started to think about life and how fragile and uncertain it can all be.  The never being promised tomorrow; the possibility of coming down with a health ailment that could eventually take your life; the poor decision to drive home from the bar one night only to wrap your car around a mature oak tree.  There is so much to live for and also so many things that can easily take your life away.  Much like my last post on preserving children's lives by tracking them via gps, I feel it necessary to write about life preservation as it pertains to vehicles and being drivers or passengers in those said vehicles.

Thousands Die Each Year in High Speed Collisions, Alcohol Related Crashes, and Texting While Driving:

Technology is a beautiful thing when used properly....wouldn't you wholeheartedly agree?  It's brought us smartphones, gps, the internet, medical breakthroughs, satellites, and the future undoubtedly holds devices like augmented reality like--google glass (something I wrote about in my thriller book Framer), and the eventual advent of robots.  However, we've had the technology to place governors on cars to limit their speed for years, yet, manufacturers and the government have never implemented their use or made them a mandatory law.  There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the utilization of speed limiting governors within the vehicles we drive would most certainly have curbed thousands, if not millions of deaths over the past 50 years on our worlds highways.  Did you notice I said our worlds?  It's because no other countries that I know of have ever implemented governors either (please let me know if I'm wrong). 

Breathalyzers that are tied in with the ignition switch is another way of curbing drunk driving fatalities; especially when the driver is the only one driving the car and there isn't that 'sober person' blowing for the drunk guy.  But you wonder why a sober person would do such a thing anyway; yet it would probably happen time and time again.  Nonetheless, we all know that the technology is already there, but the red tape and bureaucracy overall seemingly can't be cut through with the sharpest of political swords; or so it seems. 

That brings me to the old texting and driving thing.  Recently GM released information indicating it would take the reigns on curbing this fairly new, yet, deadly driving combination.  In an article released early Sept. 2014, they said they are creating technology to detect distracted drivers with electronic head and eye tracking.  Now this is a step in the right direction, wouldn't you say?  So how come they can't keep the guy all 'hopped up' on meth or crack from driving down the road at 90 mph and colliding with the four person family who is merely coming home from the daughters soccer game?  Moreover, the breathalyzer prior to turning on your vehicles engine wouldn't stop all drunkards, but it would halt a nice majority of them from killing the old man who's simply crossing the street after walking down to the local convenience store. 

It's kind of funny....our media and governments are ready and willing to let everybody know not to drink and drive; not to text and drive, and not to speed, yet there are logical ways to fix nearly all of them and we go year after year with no progress in these areas (except for now GM).  There's no doubt that all of these measures will eventually be in place and our lives will be more restricted than they are now.  However, a ton of lives would have been spared had we took it more seriously; it's just a shame that it's not a forefront issue right now, despite all of the gnarly statistics.

Lastly, it wouldn't surprise me in the next 5-10 years that we see electronic surges in certain speed zones whereby it shoots that particular surge of energy into your vehicles hood and it automatically slows you down to only be able to max your respective speed out to the posted speed limit. If the government would combine that technology with the breathalyzers, and the texting (in car) technologies, the U.S. could boast that they are the safest place on earth to drive a vehicle!

As always, let me know your thoughts; I always like talking future.