SOON it may well not be a blue light and a siren that will alert us over bad driving but a traffic light system on the dashboard.
Motoring systems experts Trimble claim that one day all cars will be fitted with such a monitoring device which scrutinises hundreds of driver actions and then responds using red, amber and green lights to say how well or how badly the vehicle is being handled.
If a driver is travelling faster than is safe on a specific road, braking too harshly or even cornering too severely the system will know and use the lights to warn the person at the wheel.
A green light means the vehicle is being driven within acceptable guidelines, an amber light is a warning and a red light signals dangerous or unacceptable driving practices. There is also an audible bleep to support the visual signs.
Although the idea is simple, and some warning light systems are already available, the GPS-based technology behind Trimble's flashing lights system is the most sophisticated to date.
The technology is called Driver Safety and has been developed to improve the safety of fleet drivers, but it has implications for every car on the road.
Trimble's business majors on the fleet market and I am sure such a system could eventually be tailored to tell company bosses their drivers' habits.
Trimble maintains that it is designed to ensure vehicles are driven more safely and cost effectively and if the thousands of fleet drivers on our roads are driving more carefully thanks to this technology then there has to be a benefit.
But what of the future? Will similar systems to this on fleet and private cars provide a tell-tale trace to the police that a car has been driven badly at a particular point in time. There is a lot of good in this in this but I can't help a sneaking feeling that big brother is closing in fast.