Finland, Land of the $200K Speeding Ticket

For starters, a Netflix model on ownership

(NEWSER) - Google's big idea to put self-driving cars on the road someday could be a game-changer. Three quick opinions:

• Netflix for autos? "Cars that don't need drivers also may not need private owners—since they could be summoned remotely and returned once their journey is complete," writes Doron Levin at Fortune . "Why take on a lease if you can purchase a subscription to a car instead? ... Car owners who never want to spend a Saturday under the hood or in the waiting room of a mechanic's shop again might quickly adapt to a car subscription model."

Driver was going 180mph on Swiss road

(NEWSER) - A 37-year-old Swedish driver won't be forgetting his trip to Switzerland in a hurry. The man faces a record-breaking $1 million maximum fine after being caught driving his Mercedes SLS AMG at 180 miles per hour, over 100 miles per hour over the limit. The Swiss determine speeding fines by the wealth of the driver and the speed recorded, the BBC notes. The driver, whose car has been impounded, blames a faulty speedometer. More»

States across the nation look to motorists as a way to fix budget gaps

(NEWSER) - In the olden days, cops handed out traffic tickets to keep us safe; in our brave, new, cash-strapped world, states and municipalities are pushing police to hand out as many as possible—for the money they bring in. Just look at Virginia, where last weekend police wrote 6,996 tickets in a federally funded effort to line the state’s coffers called “Operation Air, Land, and Speed.” And the fines aren't paltry: Get caught going, say, 60 in a 45 mph zone in the Old Dominion State and you could pay a whopping $2,500. More»

Repeat offender handed history's priciest traffic ticket

(NEWSER) - A Swiss millionaire caught driving his Ferrari Testarossa through a residential area at 85 mph has been hit with the highest speeding ticket in history. The court handed the 53-year-old showoff a $290,000 fine based on his $23 million personal fortune, the fact that he was a repeat offender, and because he had falsely claimed to be a diplomat in a bid to dodge punishment, the BBC reports. More»

(NEWSER) - Every time a cop pulls someone over, he or she is liable to hear an excuse. And every so often, a driver manages to surprise even the most jaded ticket-writer, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Like the pair of Frenchmen one officer caught speeding on Highway 101. They’d studied US driving laws and were sure speed limits were posted on white signs with black numbers—like the one reading “101.” The cop let them off. More»