UK AI rules compared to 1860s Red Flag Act that kneecapped Britain's car industry
alexvoica · x · 2026-09-14
Citing his own long post, alexvoica draws an analogy between current UK AI regulation and the "red flag" laws of 160 years ago: UK road vehicles were limited to 2mph in towns and 4mph in the countryside, each requiring three operators including someone walking ahead with a flag. Sold as safety, the rules made cars expensive and commercially useless, letting French and German engineers pull ahead; incumbents like railways and horse carriages were hardly neutral. The lesson: over-regulation risks repeating history for the UK's AI industry.
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