Patent ID: 7598849

Claim:
A speed sensing display and control system for apprising an operator of the risk of operating a vehicle having an engine with an ignition system at various speeds and for automatically governing the speed of said vehicle in accordance with said risk, comprising: a risk indicator display with a plurality of illuminable elements illuminable in a plurality of patterns, each of said plurality of patterns having a predetermined correlation to vehicle speed; a speed sensor coupled to a driven element of the vehicle, said speed sensor sensing upon the motion of said driven element and generating a signal indicative of vehicle speed; a control unit that receives said signal indicative of vehicle speed, interprets said signal indicative of vehicle speed as an actual vehicle speed, selects an illumination pattern from said plurality of illumination patterns based upon the actual vehicle speed, outputs an illumination signal for illuminating said plurality of illuminable elements in one of said plurality of illuminable patterns to indicate risk of operation at the actual vehicle speed, compares the actual vehicle speed to a maximum speed limit and outputs a control signal indicative of whether the actual speed is greater than a maximum speed limit, said risk indicator display positionable proximate to the operator's line of sight while the operator is operating the vehicle and being visible to the operator when the operator is looking at a spatial position towards which the vehicle is traveling, said control unit being programmable with the reference speed limit; and a speed governor that receives the control signal and pulses the ignition system so as reduce the power output of the engine when the control signal indicates that the actual speed is greater than the reference speed limit, thereby reducing the actual speed of the vehicle to a speed less than or equal to the maximum speed limit.