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"The immediate problem with our meat brains is that they have no back-up. We can lose the most precious information we have from one bump on the head or stroke. You want a mind system with back-up that can access other databases."
- Bart Kosko

Automatic Speeding Fine  
  An automated device that not only computes the speed of a vehicle, but registers and then issues an electronic citation.  

Kerry Dale was in a hurry, so he told the gyrotaxi driver to step on it.

...out on the street Dale hailed a swift little gyrotaxi. "Gem Saloon!" he snapped. "And never mind the speed limits..."

"Here y'are, buddy." The gyrodriver came to a halt. "The Gem Saloon in four minutes flat. And I got me a fine, too. Doing a hundred an' twenty on a city street. See up there!"

Kerry looked obediently at the little oblong screen above the dashboard. On it, flashing neatly, was imprinted a summons for violation of the traffic laws. The photoelectric eyes at each crossing had clocked the gyro's speed. As it passed the legal limit, the automatic mechanism recorded the offender's license, sent out the impulses that printed the summons in the offender's cab.

Technovelgy from Old Fireball, by Nat Schachner.
Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941
Additional resources -

Being a basically fair guy (the broad-shouldered, straight-talking protagonist of this space yarn), Dale paid the fare and the fine.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from Old Fireball
  More Ideas and Technology by Nat Schachner
  Tech news articles related to Old Fireball
  Tech news articles related to works by Nat Schachner

Automatic Speeding Fine-related news articles:
  - Satellites To Limit Your Driving Speed

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