If you are of a certain age, you’ll remember that old TV show with one of the Van Dyke brothers (Jerry), “My Mother the Car“. Now, I have an updated version of that title: Volvo the Nag.
TMEW and I have a 2005 Saab 9-5 Aero turbo. Love the car – it’s my third in a row Saab. Comfortable, got it for a good price, and I just love the way that the turbo, when passing someone, say on NH Rt 106 (not much room for passing on that road), starts to really spool up quickly and the acceleration just jams you back into the seat. No, it’s not the equivalent of today’s Second Coming of Muscle Cars fast but good enough for a 15 year old 4 door sedan. But like all good things, it’s coming to an end and time for a replacement. And of course, since Saab is defunct (thank you, General Motors – NOT!), there are no more for new purchase.
I always liked Volvos and thought it would be a great replacement but a couple of weeks ago, I did see on TV that Volvo is going to limit the upper speed limit of its cars to 112 MPH under the rubric that their “pitch” is all about safety. I was rather puzzled by that – I’ve only driven faster than 100 once in my driving career (yes, in the Saab) so its not exactly something that I’d start using language I ordinarily don’t use. My immediate thought was – why is it a car company’s mission to tell me that I can’t drive that fast. Now, all of you “safety over freedom” communitarians are going to have a cow over that (“You could kill someone, you monster!”) but hear me out. Responsible drivers voluntarily limit themselves to safe speeds and know the risks of otherwise going over them (you know, like jail time??). And Volvo has a gizmo that will allow YOU to set your own max speed – or for those to whom you lend out your car. See the difference? It is one of control.
So strike one – Volvo doesn’t really trust me. Thus, why should I buy their product. And then it got worse when I read this article and then read their own Press release on “touting their own horn” – and shutting down yours (reformatted, emphasis mine):
Volvo Cars to deploy in-car cameras and intervention against intoxication, distraction
Volvo Cars today reveals a new step in its ambitions to end fatalities in its cars by addressing the issues of intoxication and distraction. Apart from speeding, which the company aims to help combat with a top speed limit, intoxication and distraction are two other primary areas of concern for traffic safety. Together, these three areas constitute the main ‘gaps’ towards Volvo Cars’ vision of a future with zero traffic fatalities and require a focus on human behaviour in the company’s safety work as well. For example, figures by NHTSA show that in the United States, almost 30 per cent of all traffic fatalities in vehicles in 2017 involved intoxicated drivers.
Volvo Cars believes intoxication and distraction should be addressed by installing in-car cameras and other sensors that monitor the driver and allow the car to intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious injury or death. That intervention could involve limiting the car’s speed, alerting the Volvo on Call assistance service and, as a final course of action, actively slowing down and safely parking the car.
Yeah….no. There is no way, while I can, that I’ll buy a car that is going to rat me out. I have no intention of spending 10s of thousands of dollars to buy a four wheeled Big Brother that is going to watch me every second I’m in the car trying to go from point A to point B. It’s bad enough that Google, Facebook, Amazon, and almost all other sites put us under a surveillance – but at least they aren’t “charging” us real money (just our privacy and personal data).
Volvo the Nag, however, wants me (and you) to pay for that “privilege”. And not only that, just like what the FAANGS are doing, it seems like they are perfectly fine with social engineering us at THEIR behest – we won’t have a say in this:
The company wants to start a conversation about whether car makers have the right or maybe even the obligation to install technology in cars that changes their drivers’ behaviour. Both the speed limit and the installation of in-car cameras illustrate how car makers can take active responsibility for the aim of achieving zero traffic fatalities by supporting better driver behaviour.
The only proper response to this is “Up Yours!”. Volvo, you can put whatever you want into your cars subject to data privacy laws (I wonder how this would play in the EU’ new data privacy regime). Seriously – go ahead because you have already declared us guilty and not responsible – how is that going to play with your potential customer base: “Buy us because we think you’re morons and can’t control yourselves!“. Once again, the Hydra of “safety” and “security” rears its head against the Individual. After all, The Nag could very easily become The Snitch – if you’re speeding, contact the Government. In fact, the Jalopnick article had this, too:
…This is part of Volvo’s aim to eliminate all fatalities in its cars by 2020, along and other measures that the Swedish automaker is considering imposing, such as an automatic speed restriction in school zones.
Yep, back to the “you’re morons” again. It’s one thing for my GPS to tell me that I’ve passed the legal speed limit. It’s another for a car to be the cop on my back and are you going to trust that Volvo is ALWAYS going to have the most up to date maps and speed zones 100% of the time? I think not.
I’ve often posted “The Bigger the Government, the smaller the citizen”. Is this a case of “The Bigger the Ego a Car company has, the less sales they’ll get?”
The other thing that I immediately thought of – is Volvo running in the Democrat Presidential Primary? After all, aren’t they all new “initiatives” that will force us to drive our lives their way as well?
