Automobile technology that will really save lives and energy

Hybrid-shmybrid.

A couple weeks ago a driver in Ontario got caught doing 250 km/hr in a 100 km/hr zone. (For you yanks that's about 155 mph in a 65 mph zone).

Wow. $10,000 fine.

Question is, if Canada's top speed limit is I believe 120 km/hr, why are street legal vehicles able to exceed that by over 100%?

Here in Quebec, cruising at 120 km/hr in a 100 zone is very unlikely to result in a ticket. Let's say that 120 is a reasonable top speed.

So, first thing that automobiles should be required to have when delivered at the dealer is a throttle cutoff at, say, 140 km/hr. Period.

Pushing this a little further, highways could have transmitters that broadcast the top legal speed of the road. In a 100 km/hr zone, the car would not be able to exceed, say, 120.

And as a benefit to highway maintenance and construction crews, orange zones would transmit appropriately lower limits with only a small overspeed allowance. (if the zone is 80, then the top speed cars would go would be 85).

Tamper with the device and the car is seized and destroyed at the owners expense.

Now that we've got the idea going, let's take it a step further: tax the fuel hog - reward the miser. Here's how it works.

1) Every car has a province issued transponder (a digital two-way radio). Whenever you pull up to a gas pump the transponder and the gas pump have a conversation. The car reports the car model, mileage since the last fill up and the number of litres at that fill up.

2) The gas pump assigns a tax according to the efficiency of the vehicle. The less efficient, the heftier the per-litre tax. The more efficient, the less tax. For the really efficient a tax rebate is given.

3) Every year or so, the mileage requirement to get a rebate increases. The tax for the fuel hogs increases. The rebate for the efficient goes up more and more (since the returns will be slimmer and slimmer, you have to reward more for those who push the limits).

4) Now the above is a bit harsh on some vehicle operators such as car pools, schools, businesses and so on. So a method to soften the blow needs to be built in.

Summary: the above is the way to go if you really want to reduce fossil fuel consumption at the pump.