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Elderly Drivers In Japan Could Be Limited To Vehicles With Automatic Braking (japantimes.co.jp)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the pulling-out-all-the-stops dept.

AmiMoJo writes: Japan's National Police Agency has proposed several new rules to regulate elderly drivers, including limiting them to vehicles with automatic braking systems to increase public safety. "The panel was tasked with finding ways to mitigate the risks associated with dementia, poor vision and deteriorating physical strength associated with seniors," reports the Japan Times. "Deadly traffic accidents caused by people 75 or older are on the rise, though fatal accidents overall are on the decline." Automatic braking systems apply the car's brakes if a collision is imminent. Separately Japanese authorities are offering elderly drivers who give up their licenses a discount on their funerals.

2 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Wrong Direction by AlanObject · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why not mandate this for all vehicles?

    Are we trying to preserve the right for a privileged demographic to crash into things?

  2. Re:if they are such a public danger by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "...revoke a necessary freedom for it's citizens..."

    This statement reveals a deep misunderstanding of the writer, and his countrymen, who no doubt is a US citizen. ...Cause its in the constitution that everyone has the inalienable right to happiness..., which in the US means to buy and drive however, and whatever, without any meaningful schooling and training.
    I would be willing to bet a lot of money that 99.99999999999% of US drivers would never pass a typical drivers license test, in English, in any EU country.
    The US simply has no fucking clue about what a good drivers education would entail. It would cost money, of course, like a pilots license, but it would save massive amounts of lives, reduce collisions, accidents, lower insurance costs, extend the average life of cars, reduce time in traffic.
    The upside to this ignorance is of course the massive amount of capital flowing into the pockets of insurance companies, auto makers, repair-shops, funeral homes, hospitals, doctors, lawyers, police forces and so on, because this misery is an industry, and people don't fucking know it.
    Put that in a pipe and fucking smoke it.