Secret EU project to turn off vehicle engines remotely
We like to report on as many technological advancements related to the carmaking industry as we can here and one of the subject matters that most interest us is the concept of autonomous vehicles.
We’ve been talking about various advancements from different companies in this field but now comes a weird and interesting report about a secret European Union project related to something akin to autonomous vehicles.
According to UK’s Telegraph newspaper, a committee of senior EU police officers has devised a secret project that would allow law enforcement officers to remotely turn off vehicle engines. The project strategy is called ‘Remote Stopping Vehicles’ and is meant to offer the police the ability of stopping any vehicle in the name of public safety. This would make high-speed chases and road spikes things of the past.
In a confidential document it is revealed that the project will work on a tech solution that can be part of the standard built-in features for all cars entering the European market.
The idea is for this technology to be fitted to all new vehicles by the end of this decade, thus allowing police officers at a central headquarters to stop the engine of a fugitive or suspect’s car, by cutting the fuel supply and kill the ignition.
This project is apparently, one of the ‘key objective’ for the European Network of Law Enforcement Technologies, which is a division working on improving police cooperation throughout the European Union.
The Telegraph further reports that the Remote Stopping Vehicles has been approved by the EU’s Standing Committee on Operational Cooperation on Internal Security – which is the body mandated to ease and strengthen internal security coordination across the European Union.
As one might expect this secret project has garnered a lot of criticism with opponents saying that it is ‘draconian’ as well as an ‘attack on civil liberties’.
We’ll have to wait and see what comes of it.
