The Satellite Says: “Pull over!”

British satellites spying on your driving?

On a stretch of highway I sometimes drive in Pennsylvania, there’s a sign that says “speed limit enforced by aircraft.” This amuses and slightly alarms me. Is there a helicopter overhead checking my speed with a radar gun? What’s going on here?

And, worse still, what will the aircraft actually do if I go over the limit? Strafe me with bullets?

Ok, I know I’m over-reacting. Still, I don’t know how I feel about the British work on creating speed traps operating from satellites. I mean, I know the U.K. has a whole lot of security cameras, but…really!

I imagine myself driving a rental car, sitting uncomfortably on the right-side driver’s seat, steadily moving along a quiet rural road in the English countryside. Then, the satellite overhead locks onto my vehicle, and takes a photo of my license plate.

A policy officer…no, wait…a “Bobby”…gets the photo and the reading which reveals that I was going 27 km/hr in a 25 km/hr zone. He pulls me over.

“Step away from the vehicle,” he says (or he uses the British equivalent). I plead, “Come off, it gov’ner. I wasn’t going that fast.”

But the satellite shows I’m wrong. He locks me up. And Bob’s your uncle..