Legal/Law/Criminal Justice and Reform

Virginia Making ‘Super Speeders’ Install GPS-Powered Speed-Limiters. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Screenshot/YouTube/Edmunds Cars

Virginia has punished reckless drivers by mandating that they install a speed-limiter through a program that took effect in July, raising due-process concerns about how governments might abuse the information collected by this technology.

Virginia’s Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA) program requires drivers convicted of speeding over 100 MPH to install a GPS-monitored speed-limiter, The Wall Street Journal reported. The technology collects precise GPS locations of drivers to determine the speed limit on any given road and physically prevents drivers from speeding, raising concerns that the tech could be used as part of a surveillance state similar to objections raised against Flock Safety license plate readers.

The ISA devices collect information managed by the Virginia state government, according to the advocacy group Families For Safer Streets. The information includes GPS location, direction of travel and the speed of the vehicle. There are no explicit restrictions on the use of ISA data in the new Virginia law; however, the Virginia state Legislature proposed a bill in October to provide guardrails on the use of the collected data.

The proposed regulations do not mandate the deletion of GPS data, only requiring that the collected data remains confidential.

Maryland passed a similar “Super Speeder” law set to be fully implemented by 2027. Democratic state Sen. Jeff Waldstreicher of Maryland acknowledged the privacy concerns.

“This isn’t being installed in all vehicles […] it’s being installed only in the vehicles of super speeders,” Waldstreicher told NBC News4.

About 100 speed limiters have been installed for Virginia drivers since ISA began in July, WSJ reported. ISA requires convicted drivers to pay for the technology and its installation out of pocket. ISA installation costs $100 and requires a monthly fee of $180. Enrollment mandates have ranged from 60 days to six months.

While most of the 100 drivers punished with speed limiters were speeding over 100 MPH, drivers convicted of racing or racking up too many demerit points on their license can also be enrolled in ISA to avoid license suspension, the WSJ reported.

Major problems have been associated with the devices, in addition to the due-process concerns. One driver’s car was limited to 35 MPH while he was driving on the highway, forcing him to pull over, the WSJ reported. Others have reported similar issues due to what state officials call “GPS drift,” where the ISA GPS mistakenly believes the driver is on a nearby road with a different speed limit.

“If we can slow cars down a little bit on those dangerous drivers, we can save lives,” Michael Travars, president of LifeSafer, told the WSJ.

LifeSafer is one of the two device makers of ISA technology in Virginia. Over 10,000 people die a year in reckless driving-related accidents, the WSJ reported.

So far, Virginia, Washington, D.C., New York and Washington State have enacted ISA-like programs, and other states are following suit. In New York, 14% of vehicles accumulate over 46% of the speeding tickets, according to a report by the Manhattan Institute. Over 75% of drivers with suspended licenses continue to drive regardless, according to the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA).

Similar privacy concerns have been raised about Flock Safety, a surveillance company employing thousands of cameras and license plate readers for law enforcement access across the country. Flock’s CEO recently claimed without evidence that protests against Flock result from online discourse driven by Russian bots.